Emergency Response Drills for Camps

Fortunately, many of our camps will never experience a true emergency — serious accident or fatality, financial collapse, program crippling property damage, or mission threatening negative publicity. A clean record does not guarantee a smooth future. Recent events like multiple swimmers drowning, abuse allegations, vehicle accidents, and wildfires remind us of the importance of having an emergency response plan. The best way to test your plan and crisis team is to conduct an emergency response drill.

Types of Drills

Emergency response drills are categorized by complexity. Drill types include a plan walk-through, tabletop exercise, event simulation, or full deployment drill (Kamer 2003). As complexity increases the drill length, stress on participants, necessary resources, and duration increase. Pick a drill type based on organization knowledge, experience, and resources.

Plan Walk-Through
A plan walk-through introduces the crisis team to the emergency response plan. In a staff meeting, review key points of the plan, when it is implemented, and how it is executed. Refer participants to communication pathways, guidelines for speaking to the media, emergency contact phone lists, and emergency procedures. Conduct a plan walk-through when a new program is initiated, like a challenge course, or as a new full-time staff member is hired. It is a great chance to review roles and responsibilities by discussing what-if scenarios, like a fall at a climbing site or a whitewater kayaking drowning. A plan walk-through sparks discussion on preventing and responding to those horrible "what ifs."

Tabletop Exercise
During a tabletop exercise, crisis team members respond to incoming information about a hypothetical crisis as if it were real. A moderator and role players feed crisis team members details as the scenario unfolds. For example, a scripted role player calls the program office, "This is a drill. This is Sgt. Friday, reporting a camp van rollover on highway 15 with multiple injuries." During the drill, the crisis team leader assigns tasks and facilitates resolution of the crisis.

A tabletop is a communication exercise and can have varying degrees of intensity and duration depending on the organization's needs. Allow several hours for execution and debriefing improvements to the plan and assessing team function.

Event Simulations
Event simulations increase the level of realism and intensity. For example, Wilderness Medical Associates wilderness first responder students respond to simulated accident scenes, complete with fake blood and screaming patients with simulated injuries. Students know it is a drill, but the level of stress is palpable and helps prepare them for a real medical emergency. As the realism increases, it is critical to have observers to ensure safety, evaluate individual and team performance, and prepare feedback for participants. In likely outdoor program emergencies, the response and patient care phases are usually low duration. Consider extending the event simulation to include evacuation to safety, communication to external audiences, and program continuity considerations. An event simulation could last two to eight hours or longer. Like a real incident, encourage participants to rest and recover afterwards. Conduct your evaluation the next day after everyone is comfortable, relaxed, and fed.

Full Deployment Drill

A full deployment drill is as real as possible. They are typically used in law enforcement, aviation, or health-care settings to prepare for situations like bioterrorism, plane crashes, or hostage rescue where the incident could last for days. The duration simulates the fatigue, staff changes, and planning cycles that occur in a long incident (Kamer 2003).

A full deployment drill requires extensive planning and a major commitment of time and resources. It is unlikely a camp would independently respond to a full-scale disaster. More realistically, you would be one of many affected by a hurricane, wildfire, or bioterrorism incident. Contact your local Red Cross, emergency management officials, law enforcement agencies, or health-care providers to participate in a regional emergency prevention and response program. Maybe your facility could become a treatment area or evacuation site during a natural disaster, like the 2003 California wildfires.

Conducting an Emergency Response Drill

To start planning, ask yourself, "What is our worst-case scenario?" Script how that situation could unfold, identify parties involved, and set goals for the drill. Phases of conducting a drill include:

• An emergency response plan needs to be in place and supported by administration.
• The crisis team is aware of roles by doing a plan walk-through and is committed to drill goals.
• Prepare role players. Script the time of their interaction, lines, questions, and emotions. Realism increases learning.
• Brief the crisis team on necessary background information and how the drill will unfold. Emphasize imagination, effort, and participation.
• Conduct the drill. Follow a script for delivering information and assigning tasks to the crisis team. Observe the crisis team.
• Debrief the drill. Identify positive team and individual actions, flaws in the plan, and areas for improvement.
• Celebrate!

Emergency response drills are an excellent way to improve emergency planning and communication. If you do not have an emergency response plan, you need one. Test the plan every year. Conduct a plan walk-through when new administrative staff are hired or for major program changes. An annual tabletop exercise keeps your plan relevant and the team sharp. Unlike a real emergency, drills can be fun, but they are also stressful. Reward your team with a meal or social opportunity afterwards. Practice for the thing that keeps you awake at night and you may start to sleep better.

Greg Friese and Associates LLC helps clients prepare for, respond to, and recover from extraordinary circumstances, emergencies, and disasters. Realistic and context-appropriate simulations, from a tabletop exercise to a full deployment disaster exercise, prepare your organization to prevent and respond to an emergency. Contact the author via e-mail, gfriese@charter.net, or call 715-321-1800.

Originally published in the 2004 May/June issue of Camping Magazine.