Large-Scale Emergency Exercise Planning: from Concept to
Sherin, Brian
(SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)
The success of an institution’s emergency preparedness and response program is dependent upon many things: policies, procedures, staffing resources, equipment, and training. But unless you actually put the entire program to the test in an exercise, you’ll never know how well it will work in a real situation. This presentation recommends the steps needed to plan for and execute an effective large-scale test of an institutional emergency response program, including coordination with external emergency response agencies. As a case study, an overview of the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory’s 2009 large-scale emergency exercise will be presented. In this case, a scenario was developed involving an active-shooter/hostage situation. The exercise ultimately involved 130 personnel from SLAC, the County Sheriff SWAT, County Communications, three additional local law enforcement agencies, the FBI, the Fire Department, and all three elements of SLAC’s Emergency Response Organization: Emergency Response Team, Emergency Operations Center, and Executive Recovery Management Team.