Formidable Footprint - After Action Report / Summary - Earthquake

After Action Report

The After Action Report for the February 19 2011 Formidable Footprint Tabletop Exercise involving an earthquake scenario can be found below.

Earthquake Scenario

Overview
Number of Exercise Participants	482
Number of States with Exercise Participants	26
Location of Participants	Map

The earthquake scenario was set in the fictitious community of "Rolling Hills" which is a neighborhood set within and urban area. Rolling Hills consists of 807 homes with 2,431 residents.

Neighborhood residents are in their mid 20s through early 40s and are upper middle class.

Throughout the exercise participants were challenged to consider how they would respond to a variety of injects with the resources and assets that they have available in their own community and with their own community team.

Injects included:

Identify and list the various disaster preparedness activities your organization undertakes to assist with community / neighborhood preparedness, or if your organization is not involved in assisting residents, identify the name and point of contact information for agencies or organizations that would be able to assist.
Would your organization ever self-mobilize?
Now that your organization has mobilized identify the individual responsible for the various ICS positions. Then briefly describe the responsibilities for each position.
Prepare an Incident Action Plan outlining activities and a timeline to accomplish them.
Describe how communications within your team, and between your team and other agencies will be established and maintained.
Describe the type of assistance your organization might provide to senior citizens and individuals with disabilities or transportation challenges, or identify the name and point of contact information for agencies or organizations which might be able to help.
Identify how your organization deals with various animal issues following a tornado.
Identify other agencies and organizations that your organization will need to work closely with.
Describe how your organization might assist with or set up a Point of Distribution that has been set up to hand out bottled water, ice, tarps, etc..

Listed below are the Strengths and Areas Needing Improvement submitted by participants in the exercise.

Strengths

Nice flow to the exercise.
The exercise was very comprehensive.
I like the different situations presented, videos and the questions ask. I am a Depiction user, so I was able to visually understand the emergency as presented.
Now that I have participated in this exercise, I can explain to others why we should participate in future exercises.
Gave our team lots to think about.
Listing of resources that were available to our team.
Knowing what areas we will be able to assist with.
Knowing what supplies we have available.
Made us think about how we can put our training to use during an earthquake.
The exercise made us think about what equipment we have available and how it would be utilized.
We were able to gain a better understanding of what our team could and just as important could not do during an earthquake.
The exercise maps were very useful.
The exercise material was very straight forward and clear. Our team knew exactly what was happening and what we needed to do.
The exercise injects were diverse and meaningful.
The exercise covered pertinent key areas of a response and was well organized.
The exercise served as a great evaluation to of our team’s response readiness.
Well organized exercise.
Structure of exercise gave good pause to thinking about what we can really do.
The interactive maps were very useful.
Team interaction!
There is more we can do for our community other than just talking on our radios.
We need to learn who our other emergency partners are to understand what their needs are so we can use our communication equipment to help them.
More of our members should be cross trained is CERT, first aid, CART and other training to help out when not communicating.
Identified future training opportunities such as donation management, volunteer management and shelter management.
Triggered identification for future training needs such as donation, volunteer and shelter management.
Training opportunities were identified.
Good scenario, aligned well with the chapter’s Disaster Response Plan although earthquake is not an identified disaster based on probability of occurrence, impact and consequences.
Good injects that probed difficult areas.
Most documentation and plans were readily available (resource directory was an important exception).
Easy access to exercise.
Made us more aware of preparedness activities to be done.
Our team worked together well.
CERT training was helpful.
I felt like this was very well organized and technically worked with no difficulty.
Good organization of the exercise for setting priorities.
Being able to move backwards in the exercise was useful as additional thoughts were stimulated by later parts of the exercise.
Questions made it clear what we need to do to prepare here.
Good information flow and assessment of damage, gave us an idea of how many people were affected, the DART team could extrapolate how many people / pets might need sheltering.
This response fit our DART capabilities and we did not feel out of our comfort zone. We felt we were up to meeting the situation.
We knew what other organizations / agencies would be involved and who to go to for assistance or information.
The exercise was easy to navigate, easy to follow along and easy to incorporate into activate participation by our CERT members.
Thought provoking, allowed us to see some areas that we needed to work on.
Initial response.
The pre-arranged set of frequencies will allow quick establishment of a radio network.
The various CERT and American Red Cross training which have been provided to our members would be truly valuable in this scenario.
The mutual aid process is vital, as our group is small and we will quickly exhaust our local resources.
We were well prepared with a wide range of training including ICS, NIMS, CERT, EmCOMM, First Aid and CPR. We understand the limitations of our local EMA and other public service organizations and are prepared to step in during the initial response phases. Many of us have served during major national disasters and could fall back on that experience.
We work well together as a team.
Each of us knows who is best suited for what and collectively we can get the job done.
No single person dominates the decision making process. Even though some of us have "titles" we try to operate as if we are all equal when it comes to reviewing the facts and making the most efficient use of our resources.
Realizing that being prepared for the "real thing" is vital to the success of our team.
Identifying areas of need not previously evaluated.
Contacting local businesses to evaluate their needs or possible involvement in a crisis.
Gaining knowledge that a community needs to be educated and can be turned to in time of critical need. Areas identified were local churches, schools, parks and clinics.
Our organization is fairly well prepared for an emergency.
Good communication between participants.
People in our neighborhood are friendly and want to help their neighbors.
Format was easy to follow, videos helped in "realization" of likely event / response.
Very helpful exercise.
Methodical / sequential with enough time to work each section.
Ability to correct answers - nice!
Maps were great.
Questions pointed us to areas we hadn't thought about for example disaster recovery.
Discovered areas that needed attention.
Need organizational practice.
Lots of collective discussion and we worked as a team.
We organized well.
Communicated well.
Quick informed decisions.
Being able to discuss with our group what we could or could not do.
Have a better understanding of what might happen and what might cause confusion.
Good cooperation among team members in answering and discussing questions.
Questions posed were realistic and made us think about how to respond.
Generated discussion on our team’s abilities and responsibilities and helped us also focus on what we are not trained to do.
The progress of the exercise was explained well and easy to follow as well as understand.
The scenarios were easy to follow. They were 'true to life' examples.
Using the maps and videos added a more 'real life' aspect to the exercise. It wasn't just text questions and answers.
Validated PC-Net training that we have had.
Encouraged us to think of possibilities we had not considered in previous sessions.
Being able to communicate with team members.
More understanding of what might happen.
Provided food for thought, took notes and will aid us for future preparation.
Communicate with team members.
Understanding what might occur.
Knowing what supplies might be needed.
We worked well as a team.
Better communication with team members.
Better understanding of what we might go through.
Knowing what supplies might be needed and where to find them.
The maps were effective at providing the information we needed.
Scenarios lead to good discussion. Choice of scenarios applicable to this region.
Maps and injects raised questions at level of detail not yet evaluated.
Excellent conversation stimulating concepts were presented.
We identified areas for additional training and planning.
Mapping examples illustrated possible value of this capability.
Capitalizing on our collective emergency responses and education training.
Understanding the value of this online training - because it asked questions systematically.
Encouraged teamwork!
Capitalizing on each member’s skills, knowledge and training.
Identifying strengths and weaknesses of team and plan.
We worked as a group.
Great conversation and contributions.
Good opportunity to assess our preparation.
It was a good opportunity to assess our preparation and resources.
This exercise has identified several areas in which our CERT program could improve. It also identified areas where we would likely not be able to serve (special needs, elderly, pets, lack of school, etc…) and which perhaps no amount of training would help. It is simply a lack of resources and especially volunteers. We are going to have to learn how to say no.
Videos were very helpful.
Good interaction between team members.
Sequencing of phases of the scenario.
Nature of the questions relevant to the phase of the scenario.
Relevance of the map details to the questions.
We have prepared our neighborhood as best we can by providing instruction to them on how to prepare themselves by bolting things down and stocking food, water, fire extinguishers, first aid supplies, extra medications, plastic sheeting, etc… and storing much of this outside of their buildings.
We are prepared to assist by stockpiling emergency rescue equipment, ham communication equipment, blankets and first aid supplies.
We have a written plan and checklist-type procedures for every CERT job to be done, from Command Post Officer to Incident Leader to Incident Response Team member.
All participants contributed answers, discussion points.
We found a few gaps in our ‘readiness' resources but no major shortcomings.
Scenarios were believable and testing our thinking about how we would respond.
The team interaction and decision-making.
Questions did a good job of stimulating conversation and problem-solving.
This exercise has assisted us in identifying weaknesses in our system. We have a good list of items we need to address. Thank you!
Team interaction.
Interactive maps.
The interactive maps very useful.
Cooperation.
Information.
Participation.
We work good as a team.
The exercise was very well presented.
This exercise helped the members realize potential problems for the CERT.
I actually learned several points that will help out in a practical way.
I was able to get ideas to add to my team kit.
Good team interaction with the group in the exercise.
Maps were an excellent tool to work the exercise with.
I thought the entire exercise went well.
Our team worked well together.
The sharing of information between participants made all of us more aware.
Great discussion on priorities, review of action answers for all to learn / remember the best action.
Allowed each person to contribute their expertise / knowledge and inform / teach others.
We had good participation.
We understood our CERT role in disaster's fairly well.
Input own neighborhood preparedness for food, supplies, medical etc.
Disaster Scenario: The earthquake disaster scenario was extremely useful as our location in DuPont Washington is just south of that potential major earthquake fault line in the Seattle area. This provided a very real sense of what effects our community may have to endure given this level of disaster.
This exercise provided a platform that allowed for the identification of processes, systems and resources that would be essential to the response and recovery phases of such a disaster with immediate and lasting impact.
Allowed for additional thought and planning for areas that we may not have initially believed were in the CERT capacities, but with additional resources provided by external agencies -- there were certainly supporting tasks that the CERT could assist with or actually run.
Group participation got better and more vocal as we got into the incident.
We found some issues that we needed to improve upon.
The timing on the sections forced us to make decisions quicker and not argue as much.
Planning.
Response and timing.
Communication.
This is my first year as CERT member and I am still learning the proper chain of command and order of emergency response, so most what was said was by the more experienced volunteers. But I was able to participate some.
Group interaction.
Communication among team members.
The questions asked were very well thought out.
The feedback from our group was excellent.
We realized our strengths and weaknesses.
The exercise stimulated lots of discussion.
We remained focused.
Good discussion points.
We practiced working together in the exercise.
We shared ideas about techniques and tools.
We set aside time to make disaster training a priority.
We worked well as a team.
Lots of previously not considered things were brought to the forefront.
Group participation.
The exercise showed the team how fast we can become overwhelmed.
Detailed organizational plans.
Well trained leadership.

Areas Needing Improvement

We need more interaction among team members.
We need more training.
Point of Distribution (POD) training.
Our phone tree and ham net setup.
Overall operational plan.
Contact utilities to learn what information they need if wires go down, gas lines brake, etc...
Take first aid courses.
Take the NIMS 100 and 200 basic courses to learn how to partner with the other agencies.
Additional training.
Communications management.
Need additional training.
Need broader participation of activity leads to provide specific details.
Resource directory needs to be updated and shared.
VOAD partner services were an important part of this exercise and are a weakness in our organization.
Discovered several areas difficult to address because they are not identified in the planning tools.
You asked a good question about curfew and would our CERT group be exempt, that's something we haven't thought about before.
The CERT and American Red Cross training has not been completed by all members and this scenario highlights the fact that we need to increase training.
The details of the mobilization process are a little fuzzy - depending on everyone getting on the radio and establishing a network sounds good, but we need to test this to see if it would work if the repeaters are out, for instance.
A more detailed plan of deployment of stations and equipment for the EOC and American Red Cross headquarters and shelters needs to be developed. For locations which do not have pre-deployed equipment, it is uncertain if the first members to deploy will be donating equipment to that location for the entire incident, or if each new relief operator will be bringing his own equipment. We need to settle these details.
Obtaining additional supplies realizing the need may be greater than the resources currently on hand.
Community awareness and education. Possible town hall meetings and / or church settings. CERT team members talking one on one with their neighbors.
More training with other emergency organizations to instill commonality and possibly learn additional skills.
Back up for leaders and Block Captains that are not available during an emergency.
Need more sites with emergency supplies.
Each family should have at least three days of emergency supplies.
Trained manpower.
Resources - identify and inventory.
Educate the local community to be self-sufficient.
Make plans for recovery operation.
Solidify / formalize legal authorities (curfew, parking etc...)
Interaction with other agencies.
Communications needs.
Organizational structure.
Availability of resources.
We need more people.
We need more supplies and resources.
More communication with the church.
Being able to coordinate better with team.
What other organizations or resources are out there.
More group participation by more members of our CERT.
This exercise promoted cross training among various response organizations.
We need to locate more resources in our area to use during a disaster.
We need to communicate with other response agencies / organizations in order to combine our resources.
Our team needs better coordination.
Knowing who to contact and where to go.
Better coordination with team.
Knowing where available resources are and who to coordinate with to obtain them.
Knowing where team should meet.
Better coordination with all team members before a disaster occurs.
Knowing what other resources are out there.
Manpower seems to be in short supply.
Our resources have to be better identified and cataloged.
More local community briefings for Disaster Preparedness.
Participate in other exercises that challenge us to come up with issues for additional training, planning and resource needs.
Expand membership and training to the community and other organizations (churches, service clubs, faith based organizations etc…).
Establish regular meetings times / locations to focus discussion on capacity and resource inventories - human and other and also services / providers.
Revisit areas of concern (i.e. areas where ideas were completely not in sync) and improve plan if necessary.
Find training where weaknesses were identified.
We will 'practice' communication skills with our equipment. We have adequate equipment, just need to be diligent with 'refresher' skills.
We hope to recruit more volunteers.
Drills that maintain realistic readiness and maintain our inventory of emergency supplies.
Need to get more members involved in such an exercise.
Need to think about changing current operations portion of organization.
Need to think about and become more familiar with more service and charitable agencies in the community.
We were able to identify organizations that we need to reach out to (introduce ourselves and our capabilities), to determine and co-ordinate how we can help each other in our next real disaster.
We were able to identify several items we need to acquire to have in readiness for our ongoing drills and a real disaster.
We were able to identify a number of shortfalls in our database of existing potential liabilities (accurate locations of major gas lines, high power lines), and the placement on our maps of resources internal to our community (CERT member residences).
POD training.
Phone tree.
Amateur radio set-up.
More pre-planning is always needed.
Identify and practice the concurrent initial start-up actions that must occur. These steps are not yet ingrained in our brains.
We recognized there are several strong leaders in the group - now we need to be aware of needed give / take / adaptation during the 'heat of the moment' decisions - real or in virtual exercise.
Mobilization procedures: This exercise emphasized the need for our community to finalize our CERT and those trained members that are willing and able to formulate a team. The CERT roster and mobilization procedures, recall locations and established cache location for team resources could then follow.
Communications equipment: There is a need to have a stock of hand held radios that are available in the event of disaster for use by the CERT as well as for use for training purposes. These radios should be compatible with those of the first responders and EOCs within the local and regional area.
Sheltering: Within the city there are numerous locations that could support sheltering operations for an extended period. The initial assessments of these locations (schools, community center, churches, hotels, large commercial businesses, etc…) and the subsequent discussions and memorandums of agreements need to occur and be established in the preparedness phase planning.
Preplanning.
Command structure.
Decision making.
Disaster preparedness
Local community disaster education.
We need to set up a communication system.
We need to have ongoing reviews of our plans and procedures.
We need more supplies / resources in our community.
We need to know more about our available resources.
We discovered that we need to help educate people in their homes on what steps to take to ensure that they are better prepared.
We will need to beef up our emergency supplies.
We need more information on services available in our community.
We need to establish contact with other agencies in the community.