Tabletop Exercises and Examples for Faculty

Forecasted Natural Disaster

This Tabletop Exercise, along with additional information and forms, can be found in PDF format here.

Exercise

Exercise Objectives

This exercise was designed to focus on the following objectives:

  • Determine key aspects of research for a lab,
  • Identify potential weaknesses in a group’s ability to cope with forewarned natural disasters, and
  • Develop communication and operational plans to mitigate forecast disaster effects.

Incident Notification

Your research is conducted in an area that that is regularly affected by Natural Disaster (Choose one per exercise, examples including Hurricanes, Flooding, Wildfires, Blizzards). Given this risk, you know that it is possible that you will be affected my them in the future.

Inject #1

You are made aware that conditions could become favorable for the Natural Disaster in the coming week. This advisory may have come via media, public sources, or private information.

Based on the information introduced in Inject #1, discuss potential issues and key concepts that arise from this Inject. Then, identify additional decisions, communication flows, questions, and/or resources that would need to be addressed. The questions below are provided to help guide the discussion around general key points. However, these questions are not intended to define a rigid list of concerns that need to be addressed, nor will all of them be applicable to your individual situation.

  1. What steps can you take now to prepare your research, lab, and equipment for the Natural Disaster impacts? Are there equipment, processes, and/or systems that can be suspended at this point? Is there a written plan describing what to suspend and how to suspend it? If suspension requires a judgment call, who will make that call?
  2. Will your research require on site personnel to ride out the disaster? For this type of disaster, is that safe to do? Does your institution have a policy regarding this that you need to follow?
  3. Who should you contact, if anyone, within your group, department, institution, etc. to bring the specifics of your situation to their attention? Is there any coordination that they would expect from you?

Inject #2

While it is possible that the conditions become favorable, or that the forecast can change, for the rest of this exercise we will assume the Natural Disaster comes to bear.

As the time moves forward, it becomes clear that the conditions for Natural Disaster are now favorable for your area. This watch will likely trigger additional actions on your part.

Based on the information introduced in Inject #2, discuss potential issues and key concepts that arise from this Inject. Then, identify additional decisions, communication flows, questions, and/or resources that would need to be addressed. The questions below are provided to help guide the discussion around general key points. However, these questions are not intended to define a rigid list of concerns that need to be addressed, nor will all of them be applicable to your individual situation.

  1. Does additional work need to be suspended that has not already been? Is there a plan for types of work should be suspended when?
  2. What documentation, if any, of the work that you have been conducting has been captured? What information exists offsite, should the Natural Disaster cause serious effects to physical or local digital copies?
  3. For equipment that would be considered a capital expense, is the current state of the equipment and insurance information captured? Is your institution, department, etc. responsible for managing this or are you? If you are, what plan is in place to ensure the surviability of this information?
  4. Are you required by institutional policy, grant restriction, or governmental agency to document the existence of any items in your lab? Are you required to report their existence to any institution official, funding agency, and/or governmental agency? Are their any items or documents in your lab that would need to be destroyed to conform with applicable laws?
  5. Are their any items in the lab that must be secured in a particular way for environmental or first responder safety? Is any notice required to be posted around your lab of such dangers?
  6. Will institutional or governmental policy dictate an evacuation order? If so, what impacts will that have on your research or keeping people on site if that was previously planned? If they are staying, what items will they need to keep themselves safe (food, water, etc.) as well as the research viable? Is there a checklist for ensuring the correct amount of these items?
  7. What resources are available to your students at your institution for coping with a Natural Disaster like this one?
  8. Who should you contact, if anyone, within your group, department, institution, etc. about the above? Is there any coordination that they would expect from you?

Inject #3

Now, within a few hours to a day of impact of the Natural Disaster conditions are not only favorable, but highly likely to impact your location. This warning serves as a final trigger.

Based on the information introduced in Inject #3, discuss potential issues and key concepts that arise from this Inject. Then, identify additional decisions, communication flows, questions, and/or resources that would need to be addressed. The questions below are provided to help guide the discussion around general key points. However, these questions are not intended to define a rigid list of concerns that need to be addressed, nor will all of them be applicable to your individual situation.

  1. If personnel are on site during the Natural Disaster what communication plan exists to ensure they stay safe? If they run out of supplies, what plan is documented to safely suspend remaining research? Are you required to inform governmental, institutional, or law enforcement that personnel are on site? Are the personnel required to check in at a particular interval?
  2. Who should you contact, if anyone, within your group, department, institution, etc. to update them on the state of your lab/research? Is there any coordination that they would expect from you?

Inject #4

The Natural Disaster passes through the area. Based on the type of Natural Disaster determine what would be considered a minimal, major, and total loss impact to your research and repeat your discussion for each.

Based on the information introduced in Inject #4, discuss potential issues and key concepts that arise from this Inject. Then, identify additional decisions, communication flows, questions, and/or resources that would need to be addressed. The questions below are provided to help guide the discussion around general key points. However, these questions are not intended to define a rigid list of concerns that need to be addressed, nor will all of them be applicable to your individual situation.

  1. Based on the severity of the destruction, what steps would you require to recover? What would you be required to document for your institution, if anything, about the state of your lab?
  2. Would you be able to immediately go back to research, or would the damage be so great that you could not? If damage is so great that you cannot bring back your research, is there a location or external group that could provide space, equipment, or materials to assist you in the interim?
  3. Is there a documented checklist to bring research back online? If so, where is it and would it have survived the event?
  4. If a colleague(s) were injured or killed due to the Natural Disaster , what resources exist to assist those who are grieving? If personal effects of a colleague are still in your lab, what policy must you follow to protect them on behalf of their loved ones?
  5. Who should you contact, if anyone, within your group, department, institution, etc. to update them on your situation? Is there any coordination that they would expect from you?
  6. Only discuss this once, during the last or total loss discussion: What would be the worst possible effects to your lab given a direct hit from a Natural Disaster of this kind? Does this change your opinion or timeline for suspending research operations? Knowing that someone could be injured or die during the disaster, related to riding out the disaster to maintain research operations, would that change your decisions for parts 1-3 at all?

Hot Wash

Questions to Consider

  • Based on your discussions, what should happen in a best case scenario?
  • Based on your discussions, what would happen if this event took place tomorrow?
  • Having both of these discussions in mind, what difference exists between your current preparedness level and the best case preparedness level?
  • Having completed the exercise, what went well that you would continue in the future? In what areas were you unprepared? What would you stop doing to improve your outcome? What can you start doing today to improve your outcome in a future exercise or real event?
  • If you did not have a plan for this situation, what are your action items and timeline to create one? If you did have a plan, what are your action items and timeline to update it?
  • When will we conduct this exercise again?