CFATS Terrorist Exercise at ESS EXPO Shows Why Responders Need Crisis Technology

At ESS EXPO.08, we are doing something truly unique this year to point out the need for responders to be ready for terrorist attacks against chemical facilities. We are sponsoring a demonstration, focused on the Homeland Security’s (DHA) Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standard (CFATS) that shows why responder organizations need a crisis management system to manage any crisis.

During this exercise, named “Green Scorpion,” responders will handle a simulated terrorist attack on a chemical processing facility, which is taking place in the midst of a major pandemic. A second exercise called “Sand Dollar,” will feature responders mitigating damage at a scene where an Amtrak train has been blown up. Responders will run all three exercises with Essential Emergency™.

While the action takes place on the front lines, the exercise will be managed from a makeshift emergency operations center, which will really be an EXPO conference room, where a command team will manage real-time information to and from the site. Data will be imported into the system from an unmanned aerial vehicle, video, and injects from a simulation system, provided by our partner, SAIC, which will feed data from multiple sources to Essential Emergency in real time.

CFATS Director Brian Harrell will speak about the DHS standard and the role for a public/private partnership in its implementation. Our exercise has captured significant attention at DHS because it is perhaps the first public/private conference to address the topic and conduct a field demonstration. DHS is apparently thrilled with what we are doing, and we may very well be setting the national standard here for exercises.

An effective crisis management system is made up of three components – Teams, Techniques and Technology. Teams are the people in an organization, techniques are the processes they use to respond, and, of course, the technology is a Crisis Management solution like Essential Emergency.

Let’s say an organization has a crisis management system in place. In order to be effective during a crisis, after the three T’s are in place, responders need to practice response techniques under real-time conditions to ensure they will be ready if — or, as experts believe, when — an actual emergency incident occurs.

1 comment March 31st, 2008