How to Keep Your EAP in Shape with an Exercise Program
23 August, 2011Presented at Association of State Dam Safety Officials 2011 Dam Safety Conference
Imagine the lead story on national news –“High Hazard Dam Fails” but the bigger news was that local emergency responders did not find out about this until the first house was swept away. The owner had a ten year old Emergency Action Plan that had never been distributed to the emergency responders and the notification flow chart had not been updated.
An organized exercise program keeps everyone with emergency responsibilities up-to-date and fully informed. The full-scale exercises that we see featured on newscast are very dramatic but a simple orientation meeting followed by a table-top exercise can lay the foundation for increased communications, verifying responsibilities outlined in the plan, identifying resources, and keeping contact information current.
This presentation will outline various governmental requirements for exercise programs. Who should be invited to your exercise? What resources should be provided to participants? How much time to set aside for preparation? Who should facilitate the exercise? Answers to these and all your questions will be discussed. Examples of scenarios will demonstrate how to exercise communications, response time, employee’s knowledge of the EAP and more. The presentation will conclude with a discussion regarding the After Action Review and the process of updating an EAP.
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