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The Missouri/New Madrid exercise is a functional exercise sponsored by the Missouri State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA). The three-day exercise occurs at multiple venues around the state, including the state’s Emergency Operations Center. It gives participants the opportunity to evaluate the state’s catastrophic earthquake response plan.

The functional exercise expands the emergency support function concept of operations SEMA unveiled during a tabletop earthquake exercise facilitated by Tetra Tech in May 2007.

During the functional exercise, simulations cover six operational periods: three based on response operations and three based on recovery activities. The exercise focuses on the emergency management coordination, automatic response functions, communications, planning, operations, logistics, and the integration of federal response partners necessary to save lives, property, and the state’s welfare following a magnitude 7.7 earthquake.

The exercise was designed to require the 75 participating local jurisdictions (counties, cities, towns, and villages) to communicate information produced during local tabletop exercises to the 23 participating state agencies at the state Emergency Operations Center (EOC), state area commands, and state staging areas. Iowa’s Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management and local Kansas jurisdictions provided support services. At the federal level, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) mobilized and simulated its various emergency support function partners.

Tetra Tech completed the Homeland Security and Exercise Evaluation Program exercise in 120 days. To facilitate the exercise at multiple venues, Tetra Tech developed player packets for all participants. These packets included information based on the zone that they are playing as defined by the Modified Mercalli Scale, a projected damage scale. Each packet includes utilities’ infrastructure status (roads, bridges, etc.), health and medical status, and any other necessary status reports that provided situational awareness.