Emergency Response and Evacuation Exercise Reviews for 2012

Pocatello –

February 28, 2012- Bannock County EOC Function Exercise (ISU was a participant)

Exercise Purpose & Design:

This functional exercise (FE) was developed to assess the coordinated management capabilities of personnel and agencies from Bannock County and its communities necessary to address a significant emergency event that would require the county’s Emergency Operations Center (EOC) to be activated and staffed. The exercise also provided an opportunity to utilize members of the regional IMAST in their tactical management role interfacing with the EOC to support field operations.

Conclusion:

The Bannock County EOC FE was designed to provide a learning opportunity for county emergency management personnel and other trained staff in the activation, staffing and operation of the Bannock County EOC. Overall this exercise was successful and provided an opportunity for participants to fill positions within the Bannock County EOC based on a realistic scenario. It also raised the awareness level of essential EOC operations while providing a chance to evaluate systems and procedures necessary to support the field command/EOC interface as well as the personnel required to perform identified EOC operational duties.

Consideration should be given to conducting future exercises to involve participation of the State of Idaho EOC in order to provide an opportunity to evaluate that interface. Additionally, look at a communications only exercise or drill to evaluate local communication center(s) ability to incorporate current 700Mhz radio plans, equipment and personnel capabilities in support of communication requirements to the Bannock County EOC and appropriate off site locations to even include the State of Idaho EOC.

August 15, 2012- Facilities Services EOC Table Top Exercise

Exercise Purpose and Design:

The Facilities Services Emergency Operations Center (EOC) Tabletop Exercise was conducted for the purpose of acquainting the Facilities Services Senior Leadership Team and Housing (SLT) with the basic elements of an Incident Command System-based Emergency Operations Center during an actual emergency or event. The scenario was a fire in the dormitory of one of the residence halls. The primary objective of the exercise was to demonstrate to the SLT members that in an EOC they would essentially have the same duties, responsibilities and perform the same tasks that they would in their normal working day environments. The secondary objectives were to teach the team members how to develop an Incident Action Plan, introduce the concept of management by objectives, develop an understanding of how the four sections (Operations, Planning, Logistics, and Finance/Administration) interact with one another and with the Command Staff during the operational period. The focus objective was to develop a comfort level with the SLT members and a Target Capabilities List (TCL) was not needed.

Conclusion:

Facilities Services Emergency Operations Center (EOC) tabletop achieved its primary objectives of: 1) introducing the facilities senior leadership team and housing (SLT) members to incident management and basic EOC operations during an event or emergency; and 2) to understand that they would be performing the same tasks in the EOC as they would during the normal work days. However, they still need practical experience before they can be expected to operate and maintain an efficient incident command post or emergency operations center without outside input and assistance.

October 16, 2012 – ISU Alert Notifications System Test

Exercise Purpose and Design:

The ISU Alert Notification System Test was developed to assess the coordinated emergency notification efforts of ISU Public Safety staff and to ensure the system is working properly. The test was designed to establish a learning environment for ISU Public Safety Staff to exercise the protocols behind sending ISU Alerts Notification messages via each method involved (phone, text, and email) and ensure each method worked and messages were received.

The purpose of this report is to analyze exercise results, identify strengths to be maintained and built upon, identify potential areas for further improvement, and support development of corrective actions.

Conclusion:

The ISU Alert Notification System Test was held on October 16, 2012 and began at 11:00 a.m. The test was conducted in a timely manner and according to protocols written. A critical computer system was found to be off at the time of the drill and we were not able to track the number of calls received at dispatch after the test. We did not activate the 3936 emergency phone line during this test; however, a protocol is now in place to ensure it is activated during any exercise or drill. Operators will document how many calls they received and ask questions regarding what kinds of questions they were asked and what method the caller received the notification message in.

October 18, 2012 – Great Idaho Shakeout Drill

Exercise Purpose and Design:

On October 18^th, 2012 Idaho State University participated in the second annual ‘Great Shakeout’ earthquake awareness event. The University participated in an earthquake awareness campaign on the Main and Meridian Campuses. Earthquake awareness posters, provided by the Idaho State Bureau of Homeland Security, were posted at Oboler Library, the Rendezvous, and Pond Student Union Building on the Main Campus and in the main lobby of the Meridian Campus.

The I.S.U. University Place Campus in Idaho Falls conducted an Earthquake Awareness campaign and an Earthquake functional exercise on Friday, October 19^th.

The Early Learning Center at the Idaho State University Main Campus conducted an actual earthquake “Drop, Cover, and Hold On” drill. An announcement was made through their internal communications system and the students and teachers participated together. Posters, earthquake and fire safety handouts and pamphlets along with “Drop, Cover, Hold On” wrist bracelets were given to the children who participated.

October 26, 2012 – Mock Fire Drill at Turner Hall

Exercise Purpose and Design:

The Turner Mock Fire Drill was developed to assess the coordinated response efforts and incident management capabilities of agencies from the Pocatello Fire Department, ISU Public Safety and ISU Facilities Services personnel.

The exercise was designed to establish a learning environment for players to exercise emergency response plans, policies, and procedures as they pertain to a fire on an upper floor with injuries.

Conclusion:

Overall the exercise was successful and provided an opportunity for some of ISU’s ICS personnel to fill positions within the ISU ICS structure. It provided a chance to evaluate procedures and plans for ISU and PFD, as well as the personnel required to perform essential ISU ICS responsibilities.

Idaho Falls –

July 18, 2012- CAES Fire Drill

Exercise Purpose & Design:

The CAES Fire Drill was a basic fire drill intended to test the capabilities of the Building coordinators, Floor Managers, and current evacuation guidelines.

Conclusion:

The CAES Fire drill was successful in completing an orderly evacuation. The eagerness of the Floor Managers and Building Coordinators to improve and learn to properly evacuate will lead to a team who will effectively and efficiently evacuate or secure the building. There are certainly some areas for improvement that can be easily corrected with the proper training and the updating of plans. In October there is another evacuation scheduled in coordination with the Shakeout which would be a good timeline to have the corrective actions corrected by.

October 19, 2012 – University Place Shakeout Table Top Exercise

Exercise Purpose and Design:

The shakeout exercise was developed to test University Place’s emergency public information and warning notification, Emergency Operations Center (EOC) management, and Public Safety and security response capabilities.

Conclusion:

The drill followed by the tabletop exercise went well. While we did experience one problem with notifications, the issue was an exercise problem, not a response problem. The members of the ICS team came together to form an effective management team. There was overwhelming support for more training.

ISU Meridian Health Science Center –

May 31, 2012- Lockdown Drill

Exercise Purpose & Design:

This drill was conducted to give faculty, staff, and students training on what to do and/or how to react in the proper manner in the case of a campus wide lock down. The main objective was to find areas that needed improvement and areas that were effective with the campus’ ability to perform in an emergency situation causing a lock down procedure.

Conclusion:

Having a telephone emergency notification system put in the Public Safety and Facilities Services office would expand the ability to put the campus in lock down if needed and not have to rely only on the front office to do so. We will put lockdown/evacuation plan flip charts in all rooms of the building with a map of the evacuation route and instructions for most likely emergency situations.

July 23, 2013- ISU Meridian Health Science Ctr. Active Shooter/Hostage Full-Scale Exercise

Exercise Purpose & Design:

This particular shooter/hostage training drill was designed to allow not only internal training for Meridian Police and Fire Departments, but also to establish a unified front in coordinating with ISU Meridian-Incident Command Team and ISU Public Safety on Main Campus to test and implement new emergency policy and procedures in conjunction with the Cleary Act and Homeland Security. Also the design allowed ISU-Incident Command Team to test and devise better solutions if such an emergency event were to occur.

Conclusion:

Lessons learned were that ISU-Meridian ICS Team and ISU Public Safety Pocatello worked well with Meridian Police, Fire, and EMS Departments. ISU-Meridian is unique in that they share a building with Renaissance High School and Meridian School District Offices. ISU-Meridian has worked hard to forge an ongoing relationship with RHS and MSD, as well as community first responders.