The 2017 Annual Hurricane Exercise takes place on May 2^nd and May 3^rd. The hurricane exercise has been designed to refresh the use of the National Hurricane Plan for those involved in the national response mechanism.

HMCI will simulate activation of the National Emergency Operations Centre (NEOC) to give participants an opportunity to reacquaint themselves with NEOC operations and the use of the crisis management software ‘WebEOC.’

The NEOC structure includes 16 different subcommittees with a range of responsibilities such as debris management, emergency shelters, volunteer agencies etc. An important component of the simulation exercise is to conduct a communications test of email, text messaging and radio communication with each subcommittee and other responders and key individuals.

The exercise will encourage the various subcommittees to look at how they would roll out aspects of their own emergency plans in response to the scenarios they are faced with.

The exercise commences with a meeting of the National Hazard Management Council in the ground floor conference room of the Cayman Islands Government Building on Elgin Avenue on May 2^nd at 4 p.m. The following day, on May 3^rd there is table top exercise which commences in the National Emergency Operations Centre at 9 a.m. This portion of the exercise will include the use of various injects to test the sub-committees and the overall response mechanism.