Evergreen Quake Functional Exercise (FE)

Exercise Design Lessons Learned

Partners in Emergency Preparedness Conference August 4, 2012

Exercise Co-Leads Stephen Simerly, FEMA Region X Brittany Ginn, WA EMD

Introduction

Not the Norm! – Historically Lessons Learned are gleamed from exercise conduct

not design.

Our Goal? – Identify successes and challenges on exercise design as a result

of this complex exercise.

– Provide insight to a perspective that often doesn’t get discussed.

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March 9, 2010 – Exercise “Kick-off” meeting June 15 – Concept and Objectives (C&O) Conference October – Core Group and Co-Leads Committee forms January 2011 – Signed Extent-of-Play Agreements (XPAs) received January – First Evergreen Quake Newsletter published March 3 – Initial Planning Conference (IPC) May – Warm-Start Situation Report Guidance disseminated June – Master Scenario Events List (MSEL) template/guidance disseminated July – Final Scenario Document published October 6 – Mid-Term Planning Conference (MPC) October – Regional Themes and Objectives published October – Response Seminars conducted January 2012 – Exercise Plan, Warm-Start, and Exercise Evaluation Guides Published March – Action Request Form & Mission Assignment Workshop April – MSEL Synchronization/Deconfliction Workshop April – Controller/Evaluator Handbook published May 3 – Final Planning Conference (FPC) May 17&24 – C/E/S Training June 5-6 – Exercise September 6 – After Action Conference * Internal weekly Conference Calls with Co-Leads & Contract Staff * Monthly Design Team Meeting *Monthly Status Update Meeting with Core Group *Impromptu Meetings

Functional Exercise Timeline

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Exercise Organization

Core Group

FE Design Team

Local Design Team

Training Subcommittee

EA Subcommittee

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State Design Team

Federal Design Team

FE Exercise Organization

Core Group – Policy versus Tactical Oversight

Exercise Design Team – Co-Leads had no authority but all the responsibility.

– State and Local Co-Leads transitioned to Federal and State Co-Leads.

– Small contract support team.

– Jurisdictions supported exercise design by assigning exercise support staff (XPA).

– Group was originally organized following the ICS principles but transitioned to Co-Leads, Trusted Agents, and Contract staff working design products.

– Began with a large group, reduced to trusted agents (1-County; 1-State; 1-Federal) for design purposes (awkward transition)

• Support Design Teams formed at local, state and federal level • Control of exercise design documents a challenge

– Design team with trusted agents had exercise experience (smaller learning curve).

– Exercise Document/Information Suspense Dates.

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FE Exercise Organization Training Subcommittee

– Response Seminars: • How the four (4) primary EOC functions; Public Information &

Warning, Situational Awareness & Common Operating Picture, Resource Management, and Multi-Agency Coordination; are implemented at the local, state, and federal level.

• How private sector and critical infrastructure partners integrate with all levels of government.

– ‘Training Guide’ • Organized by over-arching themes of the exercise series and

further by Regional Objectives.

• Includes one (1) Independent Study courses per objective.

External Affairs Subcommittee – Developed Media Plan

– Private Sector Engagement

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Exercise Scope

6 Counties, 23 Cities, 6 Tribes, 21 Private Sector Entities, State EOC, FEMA Region 10

– Alaska and EMBC Participation

– EMAC/PNEMA

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Pierce County

Thurston County

King County Kitsap County

WA State EOC Region 10 RRCC

Snohomish County

Exercise commences (StartEx) 24-hours after the earthquake strikes (D+24 hours).

– First time design (Warm Start Document)

– Locally driven exercise design

Providing for 48-hours of simulated play over 2 days (16 hours) – Not having local jurisdictions play 2 full days produced heavy burden

on simulation cells, took realism away from the exercise, and didn’t allow for the Players to complete processes that were initiated on day 1.

– Was 2 days enough? Took 2 years to design 16 hours of play (Influenced by budgetary issues).

Exercise Scope

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Exercise Scenario

Began with 6.7 Seattle Fault with 2 medium-impact aftershocks, then morphed into 5 major Puget Sound region faults

– Not the original agreement – 5 months (January–May) USGS

developed new ShakeMaps and R10 Mitigation conducted new HAZUS runs with current census data

– Scientifically unrealistic – Perception it became 6 separate

county level exercises (with FEMA and EMD playing Regionally) as opposed to one regionally impacting event across the board

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Exercise Design Elements

5 Overarching Themes, 11 Objectives, and 71 Critical Tasks

– ‘Above the Line’ versus ‘Below the Line’

Extent of Play (XPA) Agreements – Great tool but no authority to

enforce

– Signature Authority / Commitment to Play

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Exercise Design Elements

Warm-Start Situation Report – Provided guidance document and template – Long Lead Time! Took over half the design

process to develop – Resource Requests were unrealistic and

level of detail was inconsistent and too vague

– Beneficial to the exercise – Distributed to all Players proved both a

reward and a challenge – Recycled for use in future exercises – Must be related to objectives and not just

a wish list

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Exercise Design Elements

Exercise Plan (ExPlan) – Bookshelf template that was reduced

further to eliminate redundancy Executive Overview Briefing

— Consistency of Sharing Information Participating Agencies and Organizations

– Additional exercises at local level – Private Sector participation

• Who can play? Interaction at what level of government?

• Level of Participation (Receive information versus full participation)

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Exercise Design Elements

Controller / Evaluator Handbook – Challenge gathering C/E names &

contact information

– Handbook publish without C/E/S names

– Addendum created and only provided lead position telephone numbers

– Gathering site-specific information from Counties

– Media Plan allowed for External Affairs to be the POC for VIPs and Observers freeing the task from a controller

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Exercise Design Elements

Communications Directory – SIMCELLs were not established until

right before the exercise

– Needed to be developed sooner, allowing the ability to conduct communication test

Exercise Evaluation Guides – Provided in PDF; not available in word

format

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Exercise Design Elements

Master Scenario Events List (MSEL) – Monster document. Spiral bound book (w/hole punches) needed – Format began with multiple needless columns and ended with a

simple easy to use format – Included ‘Above the Line’ regional injects and did not include all of the

‘Below the Line’ injects – Too much local ‘busy work’ initially versus major impacting injects that

effect multiple levels of government – Provided Regionally Impacting additional injects to local jurisdictions

for inclusion in jurisdiction MSEL – Not everyone adhered to the Guidance Document

MSEL Workshop

– Provided an opportunity for all Trusted Agents to review ‘regionally impacting’ injects

– Not all injects were vetted during the workshop which required Co-Leads to schedule additional meetings

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Exercise Design Elements MCC/VCC

-Policy- Exercise Directors

-Conduct- Senior Controllers

-Regional Control- Regional Control Group Trusted Agents

King Co VCC

Kitsap Co VCC

Pierce Co VCC

Snohomish VCC

Skagit Co VCC

Thurston VCC

State VCC

FEMA RX VCC

VCC Supervisor

SIMCELL Leader Lead Evaluator Controllers

Simulators Evaluators

Media SIMCELL

MSEL Tracking

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Exercise Design Elements Master Control Cell (MCC)

– Use of Trusted Agents pulled Design Team SMEs away from jurisdictions

– Establishment of the MCC & VCC chain of command proved valuable in exercise control, evaluation and simulation

– Establishment of the MSEL Tracking system proved to be valuable, consistent and allowed for MCC to readily track state of play

• Administrative call only

• Hourly Report Outs – Report inject delivery

confirmation by event number

– Report injects not delivered by event number

• Initiated by MCC MSEL Tracker to SimCell Leader

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Exercise Design Elements

Venue Control Cells (VCC)

– Players • Level of play varied amongst counties and local jurisdictions. Full

activation versus response cells.

• Additional layer of complexity in control of exercise with the establishment of Local Control Cells (LCCs).

• ‘Play as you Fight’ - Integration of FEMA Region 10 IMAT at WA State EOC; WA State EOC and State Guard Liaisons to local jurisdictions.

– Venue SIMCELLs • Decentralized control for SIMCELLs. SIMCELLs should have operated

out of one (1) location

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Exercise Design Elements

Venue Control Cells (VCC) - continued

– Media SIMCELL • Having 1 Media SIMCELL allowed for centralized media injects and

controlled play

• Single point where Media Releases could be reviewed

• Allowed for consistent simulated media responses. Members were assigned television, print, and radio assignments (e.g. CNN, FOX news, etc.)

– C/E

• Limited availability of C/E pushed local jurisdictions to fill dual C/E/Participant Roles.

• Leveraging SMEs from outside participating jurisdictions (Eastern WA, Alaska, EMBC, FEMA Region XII).

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Exercise Design Elements

Exercise Transition From Day 1 to Day 2 – Concept relied heavily on Player

Action!

– Allowing process to work itself out

vs. pushing forward for sake of day 2 play

End of Exercise Day 1: FEMA and State develop Resource

Status Document

Exercise Day 2: Shift Change Brief includes status of

resource requests.

Exercise – Day 2 0800-1600

Exercise Day 1 0800-1600

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Exercise Design Elements

Development of pre-scripted EOC documents – Foundation for FE STARTEX; pre-loading all EOC systems

– Not all jurisdictions pre-scripted exercise documents nor pre-loaded exercise systems.

Initial Player Briefings – Not all jurisdictions conducted a Player Briefing prior to the exercise

commencing. Some conducted it at STARTEX which forced some jurisdictions to start slowly.

Warm-Start Training – Training was provided for jurisdiction only.

– Inconsistent in delivery

• Series of workshops/training events

• Distribution of hard copy

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Training – Joint Controller, Evaluator, and Simulator (C/E/S) Training

• Provided in person, via webinar, and through recording

• Gave participants the ‘big picture’

– Provided Inject development training • Some had never done this before, steep learning curve

Exercise Design Elements

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Exercise Support

Website – EMD added an EQES tab to their website

– Public Overview presentation was beneficial but needs to be develop earlier and updated w/ changes

– Challenge to keep site and documents updated

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Regional AAR – Aggressive timeline for completion.

– Capturing major ‘regional’ lessons learned and best practices.

– Public document – sensitivity of airing dirty laundry.

– Option for jurisdictions to develop internal AARs.

– Did not include an Improvement Plan. Jurisdictions were encouraged to develop and submit Improvement Plans based on the ‘Regional AAR’.

– Post-Exercise “Observations” Template • Assisted with the creation of the AAR

• Provided a standard for feedback, left less open for interpretation

Exercise Design Elements

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Questions?

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