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- Bid: $RACESBUL.289
-
-
- TO: ALL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCIES VIA AMATEUR RADIO
- INFO: ALL RACES OPERATORS IN CA (ALLCA: OFFICIAL)
- ALL AMATEURS U.S. (@ USA: INFORMATION)
- FROM: CA STATE OFFICE OF EMERGENCY SERVICES
- (KH6GBX @ WA6NWE.CA)
- 2800 Meadowview Rd., Sacramento, CA 95832
- (916)262-1600
- Landline BBS open to all: (916) 262-1657
- RACESBUL.289 DATE: August 30, 1993
-
- SUBJECT: OPS - No exercise is EVER a failure!
-
- Sometimes those who plan and execute an exercise worry about
- it going astray of its goal and possibly failing. Don't!
- Plan it, but don't be concerned about it "failing"! An
- exercise should never be pulled off flawlessly and be expected or
- reported as perfect. Possibly a fire drill, but not a disaster
- exercise. It is a training vehicle for the unusual, the
- unexpected, the extraordinary. Each one should result in improved
- plans, systems, procedures, knowledge, capabilities, and
- preparedness. If such be the case, then no exercise is EVER a
- failure.
- Disasters and crisis are not things that most people like to
- think about. The failure to do so, however, can be a flaw that
- can come back to haunt you when least expected. It is partially
- for that reason that disaster exercises are held --- to reinforce
- in people's minds that the impossible can happen; and when it
- does, how to respond with the least amount of stress and still do
- the job they want to achieve.
- In evaluating an exercise, consider the following:
- a. How effectively did the people communicate (not radio
- communicate, but as people to people) with interagency
- counterparts, exchange information, compromise, put aside
- rivalries and parochial interests?
- b. How well did they translate the thinking/planning and
- communicating into choices, decisions and actions?
- c. How well did each participant think about their problems (in
- the exercise or real life experience) realizing that they could
- no longer function in any semblance of normal conditions?
- (Condensed from an article by Stan Harter titled "Putting It
- All Together" written after a three day disaster seminar for
- city, county and other executives conducted by Pete Peterka, then
- Director of Emergency Management Services for Sonoma County. The
- seminar included a tabletop exercise based on a hypothetical 7.9
- Richter earthquake with a nearby epicenter that had "just
- happened".)
- EOM
-