NASA ARC Internal Memo: Great Worden Earthquake Exercise II – Let’s Try This Again!

Subject: Message from the Center Director – Great Worden Earthquake
Exercise II – Let’s Try This Again!
From: Centerwide Announcement
Date: Thursday, June 26, 2008

Message from the Center Director Great Worden Earthquake Exercise II – Let’s Try This Again!

A little over a year ago, Ames experienced the Great Worden Earthquake of 2007 (GWQ ’07). Though it was merely an exercise (thank goodness), it was the center’s first ever opportunity to hold a disaster exercise in which everyone participated. Typical disaster exercises only exercise the emergency responders and leave out the rest of the population. Ames broke the mold with a new approach to performing disaster exercises and, as a result, we learned a lot of lessons. From some of the feedback received from throughout the center, it seems we also opened some eyes and heightened peoples’ awareness regarding their personal levels of preparedness.

Lessons are not truly learned until the plans and procedures are changed, the people are trained and the changes are put to the test. So we will be experiencing another large-scale earthquake (exercise) on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2008. Again, your participation will be required for a few hours in the morning. My friends in the emergency preparedness organization have started referring to this as the Great Worden Quake II (GWQ II). The full GWQ II exercise will actually last for three days (September 10-12); however, the general population will only be asked to participate for a few hours on the first day. But you will likely notice other activities taking place over the second and third days as other training for emergency response personnel takes place. Simulated events some of you might notice will include an aircraft emergency, a hazardous materials incident, a collapsed structure incident, some law enforcement activities and a fire department training burn. As in last year, over the intervening months, training will be provided directly to supervisors and managers regarding the latest plans and procedures. They will pass the information on to you. You will notice some changes in procedures relative to last year based on some of the lessons learned.

To pull off an exercise of this magnitude, a number of volunteers are required so the emergency preparedness folks are seeking 75 individuals to help out during the first day of the exercise. About half are needed to act as victims for the event while the other half are needed to support the Emergency Operations Center (EOC). If you are willing to volunteer your assistance (it should be fun and interesting), please contact Lynn Bala at ext. 4-3010 or mailto:lynn.m.bala@nasa.gov by July 31. Please indicate your preference, if you have one, for serving as a victim or helping the EOC.

The detailed planning for the exercise is taking place now so the specific timeframe for your participation will be worked out soon and communicated to you via the training provided by your supervisors/managers.

As occurred last year, the Ames Exchange will be hosting a lunch on September 10 for the entire NASA campus. More information on this will be provided closer to the event.

I look forward to participating in this event with you on September 10.

S. Pete Worden
Center Director