Hazard Management Cayman Islands 2015 Annual Hurricane Exercise

Hurricane Chance

The 2015 Annual Hurricane Exercise takes place on May 20th and 21st. 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 20th at 4 p.m. For the purposes of the exercise, at 8 am on May 20th, the Cayman Islands were placed under a hurricane ‘Alert’ in anticipation of a possible impact.

The hurricane exercise is a table top exercise, the use of various injects will test the various sub-committees and the overall response mechanism.

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