Hurricane Yvette Exercise
FEMA Region I was a key player in the Hurricane Yvette Exercise which was designed to test the federal government’s response capabilities for a large-scale New England disaster. The early results are positive and demonstrate improvements made by implementing the lessons learned after Hurricane Katrina.
The Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security, FEMA, the U.S. Coast Guard, and state and local officials and the private sector worked closely together responding to the scenario of a hypothetical Hurricane Yvette making landfall in Rhode Island and impacting several northeastern states. This was the largest such exercise ever conducted in New England.
“This exercise was an invaluable tool for practicing emergency assignments and challenging our staff,” said FEMA Region I Administrator Art Cleaves “The opportunity to work with the Department of Defense and our state counterparts has further enhanced our partnership with these key emergency management players. The results exceeded my already high expectations.”
The Hurricane Yvette exercise was the first event in a 10-day scenario called Ardent Sentry – Northern Edge that ends May 18. Other scenarios to be tested are detonation of a nuclear device in Indianapolis and terrorist threats to vital energy infrastructure in Alaska. Ardent Sentry is the first full scale exercise under the newly formed National Exercise Program that will track and evaluate all national level homeland security exercises.
It will test the newly created defense coordinating officer (DCO) positions in each of FEMA’s 10 regions. The DCO position was created by Congress following Hurricane Katrina in 2005 to act as a permanent liaison and enhance communication between FEMA and the Department of Defense.
Last Modified: Friday, 11-May-2007 10:45:45 EDT