Exercise Rising Storm II: Purple Haze

The Northern New Jersey and New York City, NY Federal Executive Boards (FEBs), The National Archives and Records Administration-Northeast Region (NARA), and FEMA Region II are pleased to invite you and members of your organization to Rising Storm II: Purple Haze.  Rising Storm is a multi-city Continuity of Operations based full scale exercise that utilizes a hurricane scenario and is designed to test your agency’s Continuity of Operation plans.  Objectives will focus on Alert Notification and Reconstitution. This is the second event of a three-year exercise training cycle.  Last year tested Alert Notification and the continuing of Essential Functions, this year will test Reconstitution plans; and year 3 will test Devolution plans. 

Guidance:

National Security Presidential Directive/NSPD-51 and the Homeland Security Presidential Directive/HSPD-20 have mandated continuity requirements for all federal government executive branch departments and agencies. The directives define the necessity for a comprehensive and integrated approach to continuity programs.

Although the directives are required for executive branch agencies and departments, the US Courts, State agencies, local governments, Tribal, non-profit organizations, and other non-federal entities are encouraged and invited to participate in our training and exercise program. When continuity principles and practices are endorsed by an organization, a more rapid, effective, and well-orchestrated response is far more likely.  This three-year exercise cycle provides a very unique opportunity to create new continuity plans, and examine and improve upon existing plans and policies.

Exercise Specifics:

This exercise will take place on June 8-9, 2010. FEMA will manage the Exercise Control Cell.  On the evening of June 8^th, a testing of Alert Notification capabilities and processes will take place and kick off the exercise. This requires no physical relocating. Players will be notified of the status of storm and given organizational-specific instructions. Play will begin on June 9^th at 8:00 a.m. and continue until 4:00 p.m. Participants will be challenged with various Major Events and injects addressing reconstitution plans and practices as part of a viable Continuity Plan. Following an official termination of play notification from the Lead Control Cell or from the Exercise Director, participating organizations will conduct an internal “Hot Wash” (post review) of the exercise events. Lead Controllers should capture pertinent and re-occurring themes of success and areas of improvement. Lead Controllers will then be asked to gather this information and participate in an Exercise Design Team/Lead Controller Hot Wash to discuss these findings and to discuss improvements to the exercise process for the following year.

Building interagency relationships is an important goal of this exercise.  Strong relationships are pivotal factors in any real-world emergency response.  Participants will be encouraged to coordinate with partner agencies while preparing for the exercise and to interact with them during play. The benefits extend beyond fostering a successful exercise into the backbone of pre-event posturing and familiarization for a safe and efficient response to any emergency.

Exercise Planning:

FEB representatives from both cities and the FEMA Region II Continuity Program Manger have officially kicked off the exercise process as of December 2009.

Participating agencies in the upcoming exercise are asked to identify a Lead Controller (Trusted Agent) by February 15, 2010. Lead Controllers are instrumental in defining the scope of the exercise, coordinating their agency’s participation, writing agency specific injects, and providing evaluation of the exercise and their agency’s participation. Other Lead Controller training and activities revolve around preparing for the exercise itself. 

FEMA will craft and manage the exercise scenario and provide generic master injects that each agency can choose to play.  We will also provide training to the lead controllers on how to write agency specific injects.  These injects will test the specifics of your agency’s plans.  We encourage all participating agencies to develop these injects and use in combination with our generic examples.  If this is not possible, our generic injects may serve your needs. 

We also plan to provide a number of training and planning workshops to prepare the Lead Controller with the tools necessary to conduct and evaluate an exercise.  

These meetings will be conducted separately in Newark and NYC:

 ·        MSEL Writing Workshop (17 February in Newark & 18 February in New York City):

1.      Train participants to develop their agency’s exercise injects. 

·        Mid Planning Conference and Exercise Design Team meeting (7 April in Newark & 8 April in New York City):

1.      Final agenda of play

2.      Distribute final Major Events and timeline for the major injects. 

3.      Distribute and discuss generic injects

4.      Finalize agency specific injects and expected actions.  

·        Final Planning Conference:  Final Player and Evaluator Training (2 June in Newark & 3 June  in New York City): 

1.      Receive guidance on hosting a pre-event briefing with their organization’s senior leaders to ensure maximum participation in the exercise

2.      Review overall scenario, mechanics and sequence of play and make last minute adjustments.

3.      Review Lead Controller roles and responsibilities

4.      Review communications and inject delivery protocols

5.      Provide facilitator and evaluator training

6.      Discuss players surveys and evaluator form submissions

7.      Distribute Continuity Directory

8.      Distribute Evaluator Handbooks

·        Exercise Design Team/Lead Controller Hot Wash:  FEMA will host a combined Northern New Jersey FEB and NYC FEB Hotwash in NYC at 26^th Federal Plaza from 10:00am-12:00 on June 10^th. 

Additional No Cost Continuity Training:

The FEMA Region II Continuity Program office will host the Continuity of Operations Program Manager’s Course (L 548) as well as the Continuity of Operations Planner’s Course (L 550) in the coming months. Provided below is a brief summary outlining the benefits of the courses. These training opportunities will ensure that your organization’s continuity principles and Continuity Plan are well-prepared and defined for testing during Rising Storm II: Purple Haze.

Continuity of Operations Program Manager’s Course (L 548) January 20-22, 2010 (we will add an additional class in early February)

This course is designed to provide continuity of operations training for Program Managers.  The course identifies the processes, resources, and tasks necessary to implement and manage a successful Continuity of Operations program.

Continuity of Operations Planner’s Course (L 550) March, 2010

The goal of this workshop is to provide you with the tools and hands-on experiences necessary to improve your organization’s Continuity of Operations plans.  This includes identifying areas requiring more detail in your current Continuity of Operations plan and developing a strategy or strategies for resolving them. 

RSVP and For More Information:

If you wish to represent your organization at Rising Storm II: Purple Haze as a Lead Controller, please return an email to Justin.Solobay@associates.dhs.gov and include your name, organization represented, address, contact email and phone.

Don’t miss this opportunity to be a part of the Rising Storm exercise series!