Exercises

Exercises are a practical, efficient, and cost-effective way for a community to prepare for disasters. Research has shown that people generally respond to an emergency in the way they have been trained. Emergency Services and Public Safety personnel exercise their plans and procedures to better prepared for response and recovery from an emergency or disaster.

Local EMA Requirements

The State of Georgia requires each county emergency management agency to conduct a minimum of two exercises per fiscal year, host an annual Training and Exercise Planning Workshop and conduct at least one full-scale exercise every 4 years. The current exercise fiscal year reporting cycle runs from July 1 through June 30.

Actual occurrences may be used for full-scale credit; if they meet the following requirements:

• A minimum of 3 ESFs must be activated
• EOC activated or ICS established on scene with control of multiple agencies
• Must be an extraordinary event
• Must have third party documentation attached to exercise report (i.e. letter from NWS, news article, etc.)

If your local government agency would like to conduct an exercise with the support of GEMA/HS, please email [email protected] to request more information.