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Today's Exercise: One of the most interesting and challenging Tabletop or Simulation Exercises is the Terrorist Attack disaster scenario. Immediate disaster response efforts have to deal with deaths and serious injuries with limited availability of normal public emergency services. Business recovery efforts have to be developed without key team members who had perished during the attack, a seriously degraded workforce, building destruction, limited alternate site resources, utility and communication outages, and restricted travel capabilities. Attack Scenario & Fatalities
Normally speaking one tries to avoid identifying fatalities by name during an exercise. We felt that having no fatalities would be too unrealistic and that the teams should practice business recovery without the capabilities of key individuals. Fatalities, the team members who did not evacuate immediately, were selected by lottery at the beginning of the exercise. The Disaster Environment
Environmental conditions throughout the recovery period need to be clearly defined. At periodic intervals available resources: staff, telecommunication, travel, alternate site availability, utility, etc. were defined. Gradually these resources would become available. Disaster Scenario Details
The Organization's Response
Initially business recovery efforts focused on assembling the teams and establishing lines of communications with employees first and then with customers. Work functions would have to be prioritized in great detail. Only very critical business activities could be addressed two days after the event. By day seven, critical business activities were operational but generally with some level of degradation. Even after 30 days, when a new permanent location could be established, shortages of experienced staff would not allow for fully normal business operations. Planning the Exercise The emergency management and response teams were unaware of the disaster scenario and, in fact, were completely unaware that an exercise was planned. Team members were to report to the CEO's office supposedly to review the Business Continuity Plan. Once everyone had assembled at the CEO's office they were directed across the street to a hotel where the exercise would be held. To add a note of desperation, no refreshments were served. This is a good exercise for an experienced group, as the destruction level of the event has almost no boundary. I would not recommend this exercise as a first-time exercise for a new management group. The company that conducted the exercise was United Educators located in Chevy Chase, MD. United Educators has a strong commitment to business continuity planning, maintaining a good Business Continuity Plan with good crisis management protocols. Quarterly review meetings are held and periodic exercises are conducted to assure the effectiveness of the plan in an actual emergency situation. Contact |