# Presentation: 855636

## Unit 4a:  Tabletop Exercise

## Unit 4a Objective

**At the end of this unit, students should be able to apply what they learned throughout this course to their Multiagency Coordination System.**

## Guidelines for Exercise (1 of 2)

**The scenario involves a power failure over a broad area of the United States.  You should assume that your States and jurisdictions are located within the affected area.**
**The incident scenario and injects are designed to focus on multiagency coordination to determine strengths and weaknesses in the system.**
**The Controller will introduce the scenario.  You should consider the information presented from the point of view of your role and responsibilities during an emergency. **
**During the exercise, the Controller will provide additional scenario injects to the class.  **

## Guidelines for Exercise (2 of 2)

**5.  The Controller may pause the exercise at any time to discuss the scenario and your responses, answer questions, or clarify information presented.  **
**	****The Controller may also ask additional questions of you or provide information that is tailored to your situation.  **

## Exercise Scenario (1 of 2)

**The summer had been hot, and the hot weather carried into early September throughout much of the country.  Anyone who had air conditioning used it.  Those who didn’t went to shopping centers, theaters, or anyplace they could to keep cool.  As a result, electrical consumption was at an all-time high, using virtually all electricity that could pass through the grid.**

## Exercise Scenario (2 of 2)

**At 1420 hours, parts of New Energy’s system began to fail – first at remote sites, then at the core servers.  Although New Energy lost three 345 kV within the first 20 minutes, the loss was not noticeable outside the service area.  At 1440, however, New Energy lost an additional sixteen 138 kV lines due to overload.  One of those lines shut down the major path for electrical imports to its service area, which started a rolling blackout that, within 1 hour, covered nearly 1/3 of the country.**
**Throughout the blacked-out area, elevators stopped, businesses shut down, and traffic quickly became gridlocked.  Almost immediately, all telephone circuits became jammed.**

## Discussion Questions

**What initial actions would your jurisdiction (local, State, or Federal) take?**

**What are your jurisdiction’s first priorities?**

## Inject 1  Discussion Questions

**Does this information change your priorities?  How?  What are your new priorities?  How will you address your priorities?**
**Does your jurisdiction have the resources it needs to respond to this emergency?  What will you do?**
**With what agencies or entities will you communicate/coordinate to ascertain the current situation status?**
**What will you do to respond to the rumors of a terrorist attack?  How will you disseminate the information?**

## Inject 2  Discussion Questions

**Has this new information shifted your jurisdiction’s priorities?  How?  What are your priorities at this time?  How will you address the priorities?**
**With what agencies or entities will you communicate/coordinate?  Who will be involved (vertically and horizontally) in the coordination efforts?**
**What steps are you taking to ascertain the current situation status?**
**How will your Public Information System support the DHS/FBI statement and allay public fears of terrorism?  What other information does the public need?  How will you disseminate the information?**
**What are the potential issues for your jurisdiction (local, State or Federal) if the outage continues for an extended period?  What are your contingency plans to address these issues if they occur? **

## Inject 3  Discussion Questions (1 of 2)

**Has this new information shifted your jurisdiction’s priorities?  How?  What are your priorities at this time?  How will you address the priorities? **
**What will your jurisdiction do in response to New Energy’s statement that explosions have taken the system down?  How will you handle the Municipal Authority’s request?  How will you disseminate the information?**
**How will you handle fire calls to areas that are without water?**

## Inject 3  Discussion Questions (2 of 2)

**Does your entity have backup power-generation capabilities for an extended blackout period?  If not, how will you address the issue?**
**How will you address the concern about potential looting?  With what agencies/entities will you coordinate?**
**What other contingency plans are required to address an extended blackout period?**
**What is the command structure for this incident?  Where is the IC located?  Describe role of Command vs. Coordination in this event.**** **

## Inject 4  Discussion Questions

**What are the multiagency coordination issues raised by this new information?  What are your new priorities?**
**What additional actions, if any, will you take now that the threat level has been raised to Orange?**
**How will you handle the looting?  What can you do to reduce the response time on other calls?**
**How does this information affect the message(s) you release to the public?  Who are the participants in the JIS?**
**What are your jurisdiction’s key coordination points at this time?**

## Inject 5  Discussion Questions

**At this point in the scenario, what elements of your Multiagency Coordination System have been activated?  At what levels?  Is your system adequate for the multiagency decision-making that must be conducted in this scenario?  If not, what additional activations or elements might you consider?**
**What agencies or entities are involved in the scenario?  Identify the MAC System element that would ensure their input was considered in decision-making.  Identify any agency or entity for whom your current plan does not provide a MAC System link. **