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SVHCNewsEvents2023 Statewide Tornado Drill
Events Mary Kathryn Alley

2023 Statewide Tornado Drill

As a part of Virginia's Severe Weather Awareness Week, The Virginia Department of Emergency Management in partnership with the National Weather Service will be hosting a statewide tornado drill on Tuesday, March 7th at 9:45am. To learn more about Virginia's Severe Weather Awareness Week, click here. 

The Near Southwest Preparedness Alliance Regional Healthcare Coordination Center (NSPA RHCC) will be standing up the emergency operations center (EOC) for this event. Interested organizations across the NSPA region are eligible to participate. However, your amount or level of participation will depend on what you would like to accomplish during this event. Consider the following questions:

  • Do you want to test a plan or policy?
    • Have you made any changes or updates to your emergency operations plan?
    • Or is it that time of year that you should re-review your emergency plans?
  • Are tornado's listed as a hazard on your risk or vulnerability assessment?
    • Each year you should review your risk assessment to see if there are any new threats or hazards of concern
    • If tornado's are listed, consider participating.
  • What type of exercise do you want to do?
    • There are various exercise types: drills, tabletops, functional, full scale, etc. To learn more about the types of exercises, click here.
    • For an in-depth dive on the Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program, click here
  • What are the demands on your team or your staff on this day?
    • After you have chosen which type of exercise you want to complete, review who would need to be involved
    • A majority of exercise types involve an incident command team for participation
  • Will this help you meet your regulatory compliance?

Similar to exercises we have done in the past, we are giving you the autonomy to choose how you participate. Below we have listed some additional resources. Please review this information and if you have any specific questions please contact Mary Kathryn Alley, MVP Coordinator.

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How to Participate

Pre-Event

  1. Choose which type of exercise you are doing.
  2. Review any applicable plans/policies.
  3. Share information with your team & host any meetings necessary

Day Of:

  1. Notifications will be broadcast on NOAA Weather Radios, the Emergency Alert Systems, and VHASS
    1. For additional information on radio notifications, click here.
    2. How to set up VHASS notifications
  2. As notifications are received, organizations are asked to participate until you have adequately practiced your procedures.
  3. For healthcare organizations participating, the NSPA RHCC is asking you to document your participation in the VHASS Event Log
    1. How to post a comment on the VHASS Event Log
  4. The VHASS event will be open for 2 hours (9:45am-12pm)
  5. NSPA will also have an open WebEx to answer any questions you may have
    1. https://nspa1.webex.com/nspa1/j.php?MTID=m517d8f7fbf8cbb86229465ebf7436d68 
  6. Document all of your actions, processes, procedures

Post-Event

  1. Host an after-action review with your team that participated
    1. Review all of your documentation and print off any documents from this event (will be available day after exercise)
    2. Ask the following:
      1. What happened?
      2. What went well?
      3. Where could you improve?
    3. Complete a formalized after-action report
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