Mock Emergency Under Way

"A major hurricane developing over the past week in the mid-Atlantic threatens the northeast United States and Canada, between New Jersey and Newfoundland," reads a mock bulletin issued today to emergency managers in Eastern Canada.

This is part of the opening scenario for Response '98, a major emergency management exercise to be conducted April 20-24 by thousands of emergency management personnel from Canada and the United States.

"Emergency plans and procedures are useless unless they are practised and tested by those who have to implement them," said Mike Lester, director of the Emergency Measures Organization (Nova Scotia). "Response 98 has additional value to us because it allows us to examine our emergency arrangements with other provinces and our neighbours in the United States."

The event is organized in Canada by the Emergency Measures Organizations of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland, and Emergency Preparedness Canada. In the United States, the exercise is being run by the Federal Emergency Management Agency with the participation of the states of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Jersey and New York.

Exercises such as Response '98 are critical components of any emergency management program. They allow participants to learn from simulated crises, rather than on-the-job training during actual disasters.

Exercises can reveal inconsistencies in response plans, highlight efficiencies as well as inefficiencies, underscore the need for training, assess emergency preparedness capabilities and identify recommendations and corrective actions to strengthen capabilities.

Members of the public will see little or no evidence of the exercise. The event is restricted to the co-ordination centres and communications systems used by emergency managers to effect a co-ordinated response to a major event such as a hurricane.

"It's an opportunity for our organization to look inward and examine our own facilities and procedures," explained Mr. Lester.

Exercise play in Canada will occur at the Provincial Emergency Operations Centres in Halifax, Charlottetown, Fredericton and St. John's, Nfld. Municipal emergency managers will participate through Emergency Operations Centres in Halifax, Moncton and Saint John, N.B.