RCC Selected by East Texas Council of Governments to Conduct HSEEP-Compliant Tabletop and Full-Scale National Emergency Communications Plan Exercises

Online, November 23, 2010 (Newswire.com) - RCC Consultants, Inc. has been selected by the East Texas Council of Governments (ETCOG) to design, conduct, and evaluate tabletop and full-scale exercises to validate the National Emergency Communications Plan (NECP) Goal 2.

NECP Goal 2, developed by the Department of Homeland Security, requires that jurisdictions such as those in the ETCOG territory demonstrate response-level emergency communications within an hour of an incident involving multiple jurisdictions and agencies. Working closely with the ETCOG and its 14 participating counties, RCC will design and conduct exercises to simulate real-world emergency scenarios. These exercises will enable first responders to practice and enhance their capabilities related to national and state homeland security priorities including regional collaboration, onsite incident management, and interoperable communications.

RCC brings 27 years of public safety communications technology expertise, real-world operational experience, and a team of personnel trained and certified in the National Incident Management System (NIMS), the Incident Command System (ICS), the Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program (HSEEP), and Communications Unit Leaders (COML) to the exercises.

"Supporting the training and exercise needs of public safety and homeland security is clearly an important role that RCC plays in this community," said RCC's President and CEO Michael W. Hunter. "We offer clients such as ETCOG the ability to integrate, test, and refine the technology and operational solutions we develop through controlled, simulated events that very closely approach real-world conditions. Through the exercises RCC conducts, our clients are able to enhance emergency preparedness and response capabilities for natural or manmade large-scale disasters."

All counties across the United States are required to complete similar exercises to validate compliance with the NECP. Each county in the ETCOG will participate in the exercises, which will include approximately 100 state and local agencies from the disciplines of Law, Fire, EMS, Emergency Management and Healthcare. The ETCOG includes 14 counties: Anderson, Camp, Cherokee, Gregg, Harrison, Henderson, Marion, Panola, Rains, Rusk, Smith, Upshur, Van Zandt, and Wood.

A tabletop exercise is a discussion-based simulation of a hypothetical, but realistic, emergency scenario that is used to assess plans, policies and procedures or to assess the systems needed to guide the prevention of, response to, and recovery from a defined incident. Full-scale exercises are multi-jurisdictional, multi-disciplinary exercises conducted in real time, in a time-constrained environment, that involve the actual mobilization of resources and assets in response to a simulated incident. Full-scale exercises present complex and realistic problems that require critical thinking, rapid problem solving, and effective responses by trained personnel operating under the principles of the NIMS.
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