North Central Texas Regional Full-Scale Exercise Molly McFadden & Alicia Toombs

May 16, 2017

Presenters

• Molly McFadden

– Director of Emergency Preparedness NCTCOG

• Alicia Toombs

– Previously with City of Dallas OEM

– Deputy Director of Big X

– Previous Chair of T & E Working Group

– Now with The Olson Group, Ltd.

Purpose

• Provide an overview of Big X 2016

• Recap the planning, conduct and after action processes

• Highlight exercise planning/ design successes

• Share planning/ design lessons learned

1. Exercise Overview

2. Planning Process

3. Exercise Conduct

4. After Action Process

Outline

EXERCISE OVERVIEW

Alicia Toombs

Big X Overview

• Exercise planning process began April 2016, utilizing HSEEP guidelines

• Exercise conduct took place November 11-13, 2016

• Multi-day, multi-discipline functional and full-scale exercises

• Opportunity for teams and disciplines throughout the region to exercise tactical skills, response capabilities, and coordinated operations

Jurisdiction Participation

• Cities (61) – Allen

– Arlington

– Bedford

– Benbrook

– Brazos

– Brendon

– Burleson

– Carrollton

– Cedar Hill

– City of Haltom City

– Colleyville

– Coppell

– Cresson

– Crowley

– Dallas

– Denton

– DeSoto

– Duncanville

– Euless

– Flower Mound

– Forest Hill

– Frisco

– Garland

– Glenn Heights

– Grand Prairie

– Grapevine

– Highland Park

– Hurst

– Irving

– Joshua

– Keller

– Kennedale

– Krum

– Lake Palo Pinto

– Lancaster

– Lewisville

– Mansfield

– McKinney

– Mesquite

– Midlothian

– Mineral Wells

– North Richland Hills

– Ovilla

– Pantego

– Plano

– Princeton

– Red Oak

– Richardson

– Richland Hills

– Roanoke

– Rowlett

– Sachse

– Saginaw

– Santo

– Seagoville

– Southlake

– Watauga

– Westlake

– Wylie

• Counties (9) – Dallas County

– Denton County

– Ellis County

– Hood County

– Johnson County

– Kaufman County

– Palo Pinto County

– Parker County

– Rockwall County

• Special Districts (4) – Baylor Dallas

– Parkland Hospital

– TX Health Presbyterian Hospital Rockwall

– DFW Airport

Discipline Participation

• 18 SWAT Teams

• 10 EOD Teams

• 10 HazMat Teams

• 15 Fire Departments (Wildland Fire)

• 14 USAR Teams

• 20 CERT Teams

• 11 Emergency Operations Centers

Discipline Participation

• EOC Support Team w/GIS Response Team

• 3 Hospitals

• Unmanned Aerial Systems Response Team

– USAR, SWAT, and Wildland fire

• Public Health/ESF-8 (November 11)

• Interoperable Communications (November 11-13)

Number of Venues & Scenarios

• 36 Venues

o Not including 11 EOC’s

• 41 Total Scenarios

• 4 Integrated Scenarios

o Multiple tactical teams working on joint scenario

Number of Venues & Scenarios

Exercise Play

• TCC Fire Service Training Center – Urban Search and

Rescue

– Community Emergency Response Team

– EOC Support Team

• Wildland Fire

– Palo Pinto County

• Tactical Disciplines – EOD, HAZMAT, & SWAT

– Various locations throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington Metroplex

Tactical Disciplines Concept of Operations

Integrated Scenarios

North

West East

Tactical Disciplines Concept of Operations

Scenario 4

Scenario 5

Scenario 6

Scenario 7

Scenario 8

Scenario 8

Site 1 HazMat/SWAT/EOD

Integrated Sites

Site 2

SWAT/EOD

Site 3

HazMat/EOD

PLANNING PROCESS

Molly McFadden

Planning Timeline

Activity Date

Issued RFP November 2015

Proposals Due December 2015

Selected Vendor February 2016

Kickoff March 7-8, 2016

IPM April 11-14, 2016

MPM July 11-14, 2016

FPM Oct 3-7, 2016

Touch-base conference calls Weekly

Other (to address specific challenges) Ad Hoc

Big X Funding

• Primarily funded with FY 15 SHSP grant funds

• In kind match from participating jurisdictions

• Domestic Nuclear Detection Office

• Partnered with DSHS for the mass fatality trailer scenario

• Partnered with the NCTTRAC for moulage

• Vendors supported by loaning equipment

Contractor

• Lead planning meetings

• Lead all site visits

• Solicited & tracked donations

• Solicited & tracked vendor participation

• Provided lead controllers & evaluators

• Developed all HSEEP documentation

• Coordinated all logistics

• Served as Deputy PIO

Contractor

• Served as Exercise Incident Commander

• Developed site-specific scenarios

• Developed site-specific operations plans

• Provided victim moulage & explosive devises

• Developed branding and marketing materials

• Developed and maintained website, twitter, and Facebook

• Produced exercise videos

Working Group Meetings

• Exercise details were addressed here rather than the large, formal planning meetings – USAR – Emergency Management – Citizen Corps/ CERT – Interoperable Communications – SWAT – HazMat – EOD – Wildland Fire – Training & Exercise (became planning committee)

Sponsors • PARATECH

• BFX Fire Apparatus

• TX Whiskey

• EVALS

• SIMUNITION

• Kappler Inc.

• FLIR Systems, Inc

• NETGEAR

• Motorola Solutions

• LION

• Groggy Dog

• ALERRT

• MedStar Mobile Healthcare

• Coca-Cola

• Incident Response Technologies, Inc

• FarrWest

• HiVis Supply

• Parkland Health and Hospital System

• Med-Eng

• FlyHighUSA

• DJI

• Kodiak

• BAE Systems

• CavCom Inc

• Black Box Fusion, LLC

• RMI International, Inc

• Duck Cancer Inc

• AT&T

• DetectaChem, LLC

• Greater Dallas Restaurant Association

• Pizza Hut

• O’Reilly

• McDonalds

• The Original Pancake House

• Texadelphia

• Celebrity Bakery

• Grub Burger Bar

• Central Market

• Nomad Global Communications Inc.

• DoubleTree Hilton Hotel Arlington

Government & VOAD Partners

• NCTRAC/ Health Departments

– Moulage

– Health checks at sites with integrated scenarios

• DNDO

– Radiological sources

– Controllers/ Evaluators

• ITDRC- Technology & logistics support

• Salvation Army- Food for CERT site

• 6th Civil Support Team

– Staffing, supplies, controllers/evaluators

Vendor Partners (examples)

• Alerrt- PPE for SWAT scenarios

• AT&T/ Kodiak- Push-to-Talk phones for exercise control

• Black Box Fusion- Phone system for exercise control

• IRT/ Rhodium- Incident Management software

• Nusura- Simulation Deck (media/social media)

• Kappler- HazMat training suits

Sponsor/Vendor Appreciation

• Social Media

• Website

• Banners at each site

• Exercise videos

• Kickoff Banquet

Exercise Branding & Recognition

• T-Shirts

• Coins

• Branded Insulated Mugs

• Vendor reception/ kickoff banquet

• Video

• Custom gifts

Site Planning

• Site walk(s)- contractor and site hosts

• Site plan templates- provided by contractor

– Equipment/ staffing recommendations

– Scenario

– Recommended layout (parking, check-in, etc.)

• Site hosts-

– Often SWAT teams not participating

– Coordinated staffing, equipment/supply needs

Planning Successes

• Non-planning team members were tasked with exercise support activities (planning meals, the banquet, t-shirts, etc.)

• EMPG Guide

• Consideration for vendor/ partners needs

• Medical Checks

• Use of ICS in planning (partial success)

• Managing the “idea fairy” (partial success)

Planning Lessons Learned

• Staffing levels should be tracked early on

• More time should be allowed for managing supplies (receiving, verifying, unpacking, organizing)

• Build a contingency for teams that have to drop out or get deployed

• Structure planning documents so that small changes don’t have large, cascading effects

• Introduce new technology way ahead of time

• Site controllers/ site hosts attended briefings but did not pick up equipment and supplies for their sites; didn’t receive instructions at pickup sites. (note cards, PTT phones)

• Unclear expectations about support needed from local jurisdictions/ site hosts

Planning Lessons Learned

EXERCISE CONDUCT

Alicia Toombs

Timeline

Time Activity

Friday 11/11 4 Hour EOC Functional Portion

Friday Mass Fatality Scenario

Friday USAR 1st Shift

Saturday All SWAT and Integrated Scenarios

Saturday USAR 2nd Shift

Saturday Hospital Scenarios

Sunday Wildland Fire Scenario

Sunday USAR 3rd Shift

Exercise Command

Area Command

Integrated Scenarios

North

West East

Exercise Control Cell

• Housed at Dallas County EOC

• Acted as Incident/Unified Command

• SimCell & Control Cell were activated Friday

• Operated 24x7 from STARTEX to ENDEX

• Staffed by Contracted staff, COG staff, planning team members, and technical support staff

Exercise Control Activities

• Managed the flow and control of exercise play

• Managed overall safety

• Managed emerging issues

• Tracked field teams

• Coordinated schedule/ site changes between teams, the sites, and support staff

• Provided Operations, Logistics, Planning, and Finance functions

EOC Play

• Overarching scenario, with customization of details and MSEL for each EOC

• SimDeck provided real-time injects that imitated media and social media

• Simulated coordination with field response

Field Response

• SWAT teams rotated through standalone scenarios (morning)

• SWAT teams joined HazMat & EOD teams to work on integrated scenarios (midday)

• SWAT team completed remaining standalone

Safety

• A simunitions safety officer was assigned to each site

• No weapons were allowed in the secured area (including chiefs or observers)

• Teams were issued weapons and sims on site

• Teams traveled from site to site with their guns in a locker in their transport vehicle

• Teams brought PPE

Integrated Scenarios

• Multiple SWAT Team Scenario

o Combined Teams

• SWAT, EOD and HazMat

o Ammonia Leak in Active Threat Environment

• SWAT and EOD

o Dirty Bomb

• EOD and HazMat

o HME Lab

*Medical checks were provided by MRC volunteers*

Integrated Scenarios

• First time this type of interaction has taken place in an exercise this large and complex.

– No examples to borrow from

– Difficult to plan scenario timelines

• Great feedback

– From participants

– From observers

Hospital Play

• Hospitals approached the planning team about participating

• Some planning was facilitated by Big X planning team members, some by hospitals

• Big X sent moulaged and un-moulaged volunteers

• Evaluated admitting patients with radiological contamination

• Practiced mass decon

Mass Fatality Scenario

• Affected county did much of their own planning, but some was facilitated by Big X

• Big X prompted their activation through injects

• Contractor sent a controller/evaluator to help collect data

Technology

• Collaboration between locals, state, federal, private sector, and non-profit partners

– Push-to-talk phones

– Switchboard box

– Drones

– ITDRC Command Vehicle

– Radiological Detection Divices

Exercise Conduct Successes

• Teams arrived at scenario locations within scheduled window

• All sites were ready for participants when they arrived

• Scenarios were realistic and challenging

• Tested the region’s ability to support multiple incidents across multiple jurisdictions.

• No injuries

Exercise Conduct Lessons Learned

• Should include SMEs for technical/ complex exercise elements (simunitions, radiological, HazMat, EOD)

• If exercise is paused for significant amount of time, restart with next time slot. (schedule)

• Have a policy about providing meals that sites must follow.

• Schedule integrated scenarios before or after standalone SWAT scenarios, not between.

AFTER ACTION PROCESS

Participant Feedback

• EVALS

• Site feedback/issue cards

• Overall participant, staff, and planning committee feedback forms (online eliminated days of work!)

• Multiple HOTWASH/Debrief sessions

• Contractor developed draft AAR/IP and Lessons Learned Report

• Formal AAR/IP Meeting

After Action Lessons Learned

• Electronic EEGs were not ideal for all areas of the exercise- better for tactical than EOC

• Notecards were not used much- feedback about sites and specific scenarios was limited

CONCLUSION

Big X Wins

Wins include:

•Players found the exercise to be highly beneficial

•Integrated scenarios allowed multiple disciplines to train together resulting in better response and collaboration

•Tested our previous regional planning efforts to respond to these incidents

•Identified areas to focus future funding, training, and planning

Lessons Learned

Planning Team Areas of Improvement

•Extend planning process timeline:

– An exercise of this size, scope, and complexity needs a minimum of 12 months to plan

•Date selection importance:

– Do not schedule on a holiday weekend

– Deconflict planned events with partners/stakeholders and get on their calendars early

•Site Host Agreements:

– Should begin sooner in the process

– Get long term agreement with city/county training sites

Lessons Learned

Planning Team Areas of Improvement •Keep the planning team to a manageable size:

– Have no more than two subject matter experts from each discipline that are empowered to make decisions for the group

•Staffing Issues: – Exercise size, scope and complexity required a large number of volunteers, role

players, and evaluators. Identify whether or not you have personnel to fill roles early on in the planning process

•Donations/Vendors: – Need to engage earlier in planning

•Use of Technology: – Technology can be incredibly helpful, but must be received in a timely manner and

training for users must be accomplished with time to gain familiarity to be successful

Moving Forward

Use AAR-IP finding to fix identified gaps and deficiencies

•FY 17 State Homeland Security Program Grants: – Equipment needs:

• Personal Radiation Detectors

• Ballistic Blankets

• Night Vision Googles

– Training needs: • Six training projects for multiple disciplines – directly related to AAR-IP

•Multi-Year Training and Exercise Plan: – The Big X AAR-IP has given us the foundation to build the region’s new multi-year

training and exercise plan

– Identified the need for midterm drills and functional exercises (going back to the crawl, walk, run for our integrated ops)

– Identified the needed training areas for each of the disciplines

– Filling the gaps while building towards Big X 2019

QUESTIONS?