Emergency preparedness tests, drills, and exercises, including those with an EEW component, are key to whole-community preparedness. They help organizations to shape plans, assess and validate capabilities, and address areas for improvement. Designed for organizations that have implemented ShakeAlert EEW or are considering its integration, this ShakeAlert Tests, Drills, and Exercises Toolkit provides resources for planning, conducting, and evaluating tests, drills, and exercises with an EEW element. More broadly, organizations whose stakeholders (i.e., members, employees, visitors, patrons, etc.) receive ShakeAlert-powered notifications on their cell phones can also find this Toolkit to be helpful.
This ShakeAlert Tests, Drills, and Exercises Toolkit is meant to be “modular,” so that an organization can use some or all of its contents to suit its size, resources, and desired frequency of tests, drills, and exercises. It can be used by both private and public entities, as well as community groups. This document will be regularly updated as the ShakeAlert EEW system evolves.
Importantly, this document and its associated tools adhere to the widely recognized and applied drill and exercise construct established by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program(HSEEP).
HSEEP provides a set of guiding principles for exercise and evaluation programs, as well as a common approach to exercise program management, conduct, evaluation, and improvement planning.
