Frightened, I thought something was wrong with the plane. The attendants, however, seemed calm and unconcerned. I spoke to a stewardess, who showed me a telex reporting the assassination of Paraguay's Vice President and fears of an attempted coup. Paraguay's borders and airports were closed. Coincidences like these have introduced a strange note of prescience into crisis management training that has raised the program's credibility both in the CMT Office and with emergency action committees around the world.
Unpredictability lies at the heart of the training.
It was impossible to know that the huge forest fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan, Indonesia, would cause the embassy in Kuala Lumpur to be evacuated for health reasons. The exercises require post officials to scrutinize and validate their emergency action plan before a crisis occurs. In this way, any weaknesses or changes can be addressed and any needed resupplying can be accomplished before a disaster or a terrorist attack devastates a community. Crisis management training helps the country team and the committee develop a plan that dictates initial responses appropriate to a range of crises. A crisis management training session in San Salvador.