After you’ve developed a damage assessment plan, it will need to be exercised so you can verify that it works and so all who perform damage assessment will be familiar with the processes, methods, forms, and responsibilities in the plan. If the plan sits on the shelf and no one uses it until an actual hazard event, chances are high that no one will remember what the plan contains or understand how to work together effectively during the response.

In this lesson, you will learn about the types of training and exercises that you can use in your community and how they can help you in the development of your damage assessment program.

Upon completion of this lesson, you will be able to:

• Explain the value of training and exercises to a local damage assessment program.
• Define types of training and exercises.
• Identify resources for developing a training program for local damage assessment.
• List basic principles for effective training and exercises.
• Determine training needs for local damage assessment teams.
• Explain the value of after action reports as they relate to the damage assessment program.

Training and exercises allow your damage assessment response team to clarify the processes, procedures, roles, and responsibilities that will be required of them following a hazard and help them develop their individual performance while learning to work together as part of a multi-agency (and perhaps multi-jurisdictional) team.

The feedback and observations gleaned during the training and exercises will allow planners to see strengths of the program, as well as areas for improvement. This data can be used to find resource gaps and to improve the program. In addition to practicing processes, procedures, roles, and responsibilities, training provides occasion for team building which enhances inter- and intra-agency coordination.

The Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program (HSEEP) provides a national standard for all exercises. It is a capabilities- and performance-based exercise program that provides standardized policy, methodology, and terminology for exercise design, development, conduct, evaluation, and improvement planning. Your community can prepare teams to perform local damage assessment through discussion-based and operations-based training and exercises. You can learn more about HSEEP by visiting the link on the Resources page in the Toolkit.

Click on the training and exercise types to learn more about each one.

Seminars

Workshops

Tabletop Exercises

Drills

Functional Exercises

Full-Scale Exercises

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Seminars

Seminars are discussion-based exercises designed to orient participants to new or updated plans, policies, or procedures in a structured training environment.

Workshops

Workshops are discussion-based exercises used as a means of developing specific products, such as a draft plan or policy.

Tabletop Exercises (TTX)

A tabletop exercise is a facilitated analysis of an emergency situation in an informal, stress-free environment. There is minimal attempt at simulation in a tabletop exercise. Equipment is not used, resources are not deployed, and time pressures are not introduced. Tabletops are designed to elicit constructive discussion as participants examine and resolve problems based on existing operational plans and identify where those plans need to be refined. The success of the exercise is largely determined by group participation in the identification of problem areas.

Drills

A drill is a coordinated, supervised exercise activity, normally used to test a single specific operation or function. It can also be used to provide training with new equipment or to practice and maintain current skills. Its role in your exercise program is to practice and perfect one small part of your damage assessment program and help prepare for more extensive exercises, in which several functions will be coordinated and tested.

Functional Exercises (FE)

A functional exercise is a fully simulated interactive exercise that tests the capability of an organization to respond to a simulated event. It is similar to a full-scale exercise, but does not include equipment. It simulates an incident in the most realistic manner possible short of moving resources to an actual site. The exercise tests multiple functions of your damage assessment plan.

A functional exercise focuses on the coordination, integration, and interaction of an organization’s policies, procedures, roles, and responsibilities before, during, or after the simulated event. Functional exercises make it possible to examine and/or validate the coordination, command, and control between various multi-agency coordination centers without incurring the cost of a full-scale exercise. A functional exercise is a prerequisite to a full-scale exercise.

Full-scale Exercises (FSE)

A full-scale exercise simulates a real event as closely as possible. It is multi-agency, multi-jurisdictional, multi-discipline exercise designed to evaluate the operational capability of emergency management systems in a highly stressful environment that simulates actual response conditions. To accomplish this realism, it requires the mobilization and actual movement of emergency personnel, equipment, and resources. Ideally, the full-scale exercise should test and evaluate most functions of your damage assessment plan on a regular basis.

Full-scale exercises are the ultimate in the testing of functions¾the “trial by fire.” Because they are expensive and time consuming, it is important that they be reserved for the highest priority hazards and functions.

Although the most effective training experiences you can provide are those that consider your community’s specific hazards and vulnerabilities, you don’t necessarily have to develop all-new training. When you determine that new, community-specific training is necessary, you don’t have to create it alone.

There are several potential resources available for training:

• FEMA’s Emergency Management Institute (EMI) (https://training.fema.gov/emi.aspx)
• FEMA’s Lessons Learned Information Sharing (LLIS) site (https://www.hsdl.org/c/llis-in-the-hsdl/)
• FEMA’s National Exercise Division (NED)
• State and local emergency management agencies and training offices
• Universities
• Voluntary agencies
• Consulting firms

Click on the highlighted text to learn more about courses offered by EMI and about the LLIS site.

You can find more information about training resources, including EMI and LLIS, by visiting the links on the Resources page of the Toolkit.

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Exercises must be capability/objective-based, well-designed, and planned if they are to be effective. Be sure to design your training and exercises to test your existing plans, policies, and procedures. The following characteristics are key to successful training and exercises:

• They must be based on relevant, true-to-life scenarios.
• They test all aspects of the plan.
• The questions and problems must be objectives-based and move from simple to complex.
• Evaluation should be focused on actions, not on individuals.

In other words, the exercises should challenge participants with real-life situations in a no failure environment. It is important that the focus of after action analysis is on what went wrong, and not who is to blame, because many of the best lessons are learned from failed attempts.

Remember to include damage assessment in broader, multi-agency full-scale disaster exercises as well, so that all team members can work together efficiently. Another useful practice is to encourage like training across multiple jurisdictions and agencies. Having similar training programs can help teams work together more efficiently following a hazard event.

Anyone involved in damage assessment needs to participate in the training and exercise program. These individuals may include:

• Community leaders and officials
• Emergency management
• Property appraisers
• Building inspectors
• Code enforcement officials
• Public works directors
• Public safety and other first responders
• Private agencies
• Volunteers

You should also provide training to anyone who could be called in as a “backup” to help your community with damage assessment.

Your damage assessment teams should receive training on established policies and procedures as well as equipment. You should review your damage assessment plan and determine any other areas in which your teams may need training.

Personal Safety

Data Collection

Equipment

Zones

Public Information

Reporting Requirements

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Personal Safety

One of the most important areas in which your teams should be trained is personal safety. Keeping team members safe during damage assessment is critical. They should know what to do to keep themselves and their fellow team members safe from harm. If personal protective equipment (PPE) is required, they must be trained on its proper use and maintenance.

Data Collection

Another significant area for training is the collection of data. Teams must know where to find the appropriate damage assessment forms, how to complete forms correctly, and what to do with the forms once they have been completed. If electronic forms are to be submitted, teams must be trained on the use of the equipment, and paper backups must be available.

Equipment

Teams must be trained on the use of any equipment they are expected to use, such as computers for submitting electronic forms, radios for communicating with other teams, and digital cameras for documenting damages. It is important to ensure that all members of the team know how to use the equipment properly. During response and recovery, things are too hectic for team members not to know how something works.

Zones

As you’ve learned, teams need to be aware of their designated zones and assignments prior to a hazard. Zone familiarization is important so that teams are aware of what their assigned zones look like prior to a hazard in order to be able to effectively identify damages. They should also be aware of all vulnerabilities that exist within their assigned area, including location of power lines, the type of construction used for the buildings in those zones, and the presence of any hazardous material.

Public Information

Damage assessment response teams need to be trained for dealing with the public as well as the media. Each community will need to set its own policies and train the teams accordingly.

Reporting Requirements

Damage assessment response teams should be trained to report life safety issues immediately. For example, team members should be trained on the procedures for reporting rescue needs.

Public works team members also need to be trained on the procedures for reporting serious injury or deaths. This unfortunate consequence of hazard events has to receive attention during training because the reporting of casualties needs to be handled promptly so that rescue or recovery and identification of the victims can begin.

So that all damage assessment team members are prepared for a hazard event, training should occur at least annually and in accordance with State and other exercise plans. Refresher training should be conducted prior to any anticipated event.

When scheduling annual training, you should consider the hazard for which the team is preparing. For example, for tornado-prone areas, training may be held in February or early March, just prior to the beginning of tornado season, so the information is fresh on the minds of those who participated in the training. If you live in an ice/winter storm environment, refresher training should be scheduled annually prior to the start of winter storm season.

Training should also be scheduled any time there is a significant update to the plan. Just-in-time briefings for the leadership should be held prior to teams being sent out so that they have the most recent information available when they need it most.

Through conducting training and exercises and evaluating the results, you can improve your damage assessment program. Two documents generated by the exercise team that will help are the:

• After Action Report (AAR)
• Improvement Plan (IP)

The damage assessment planning team should not merely take these documents and file them away. Instead, after action review meetings should be held with the team to go over the results.

When conducting after action reviews, remember not to place blame or point fingers. The focus of these meetings should be to celebrate successes and identify needs for improvement to the plan. This critical evaluation step leads to better preparedness of your program.

Click on the highlighted text to learn more about how documents generated by the exercise team can help improve the damage assessment program.

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After Action Report (AAR)

The AAR addresses opportunities for improvement of plans and procedures. The AAR can also be used in the development of exercise scenarios.

For example, if an exercise or an actual event demonstrates that there aren’t enough Public Information Officers (PIOs) available, then your next exercise could include a scenario in which one of your community’s PIOs was injured and in the hospital, while another is out of town. In this way, you can test your community’s ability to respond to real-life challenges that may occur.

Improvement Plan (IP)

The IP takes the observations and recommendations from the draft AAR and resolves them through the development of concrete corrective actions. It is important that the focus of after action analysis is on what went wrong, and not who is to blame, because many of the best lessons are learned from failed attempts.

In this lesson, you learned about the importance of training and exercising your damage assessment plan. You learned about different types of exercises that can be used to practice the plan, facilitate effective inter- and intra-agency coordination, and clarify processes and procedures.

You learned who needs training, what training they need, and when they need it. You now have some resources for developing training and exercises. You also learned that after action review is critical to identifying areas for improvement and enhancing the readiness of your community.

Click this link to view a list of all items provided in the Toolkit for this lesson.

The following resources were referenced in this lesson and are provided in the Toolkit.

Resource Links:

• FEMA's Emergency Management Institute (EMI)
• FEMA's Lessons Learned Information Sharing (LLIS) site

Training Available from EMI:

• IS-120a, An Introduction to Exercises
• IS-139, Exercise Design
• L-146, HSEEP Training Course
• Master Exercise Practitioner Program (MEPP)
• Lessons Learned Information Sharing (LLIS) site