While it may be hurricane season here in the United States, it is typhoon season for the Pacific. Training is instrumental in ensuring preparedness during this season.
In June, members of Applied Training Solutions assisted personnel with an Externally Evaluated Exercise at Camp Humphreys, Korea, to identify, respond, and recover from a typhoon. This exercise tested the team’s ability to coordinate with local agencies, provide mission assurance, and community resilience.
The ATS team was responsible for the full-scale exercise design and development, scenario planning, simulation modeling, simulated social media production, as well as training support and execution. The team spent 10 months prior planning and developing the exercise to ensure it provided realistic training.
The FSE began with weather messaging four days prior to set the scene for the installation. The typhoon then passed over the garrison and surrounding area to create the situation for containment, shorten the duration and recovery operations.
The exercise officially started 24 hours after the simulated typhoon made landfall. As part of the exercise, first responders were dispatched to a collapsed building which simulated a mass casualty event. Simultaneously, first responders and local personnel had to react to a generator fire, which caused a power outage and power disruption.
This led to an evacuation of personnel to the activated safe haven area. In addition, a flooded road and sink hole were also simulated with stranded personnel. The local Public Affairs Office conducted a press conference with the Garrison Commander as part of the exercise.
Complex exercises like this, which include multi-faceted event simulations and the integration of realistic social media and media training ensure that installation assets are maximally prepared in the event of real-world scenarios.
This exercise tested personnel, response capabilities, communication, and emergency operations between the installation and higher headquarters, as well as local support coordination.
Overall, the ATS team successfully supported this full-scale exercise with simulated pre-weather injects, the production of simulated social media to paint a realistic picture for first responders and led White Cell execution. The team used various products to create realistic simulations, enhancing the exercise design and enabling the installation to effectively test its plans, policies, and procedures.
As a leader in emergency preparedness training and readiness, ATS continues to actively work to deliver innovative, experience-based disaster-preparedness exercise solutions for local, state, and federal agencies to protect communities.
