http://www.ready.gov/nle2011/index.html
All 50 states and all U.S. territories are vulnerable to earthquakes. Anywhere earthquakes have occurred in the past, they can happen again. Over the next several months FEMA and its federal partners, non-governmental organizations, and state and local officials will collaborate on a series of outreach efforts to promote earthquake preparedness across the nation.
These events are designed to educate Americans on what they can do to be better prepared for earthquakes, as well as other catastrophic events.
National Level Exercise: May 16-20, 2011
The week-long capstone event in the National Level Exercise in which all participating Federal, State, Tribal and Private Sector entities interact to test the eight overarching Exercise Objectives defined during the planning process for NLE 11 at all levels of government (Federal, State and Local).
We are continuously monitoring real world events and assessing their impact on the exercise. At this time, several adjustments have been made to the exercise, most notably in the level of play for those regions actively engaged in disaster operations.
http://www.fema.gov/media/fact_sheets/nle2011_fs.shtm
National Level Exercise 2011 (NLE 2011) is scheduled for May 2011. The purpose of the exercise is to prepare and coordinate a multiple-jurisdictional integrated response to a national catastrophic event.
NLE 2011 is designated as a Tier I National Level Exercise. Tier I exercises (formerly known as the Top Officials exercise series or TOPOFF) are conducted annually in accordance with the National Exercise Program (NEP), which serves as the nation's overarching exercise program for planning, organizing, conducting and evaluating national level exercises. The NEP was established to provide the U.S. government, at all levels, exercise opportunities to prepare for catastrophic crises ranging from terrorism to natural disasters.
NLE 2011 is a White House directed Congressionally-mandated exercise that includes the participation of all appropriate federal department and agency senior officials, their deputies and staff; and key operational elements. NLE 2011 will focus on regional catastrophic response and recovery activities between federal, regional, state, tribal, local and private sector participants.
Exercise Focus
NLE 2011 will simulate the catastrophic nature of a major earthquake in the central United States region of the New Madrid Seismic Zone (NMSZ). The year 2011 is the bicentennial anniversary of the 1811 New Madrid earthquake, for which the NMSZ is named. NLE 2011 will be the first NLE to simulate a natural hazard.
NLE 2011 activities will take place at command posts, emergency operation centers and other locations to include federal facilities in the Washington D.C. area and federal, regional, state, tribal, local and private sector facilities in the eight member states of the Central United States Earthquake Consortium (CUSEC). The eight member states of CUSEC encompass four different FEMA regions: Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Tennessee (FEMA Region IV); Illinois and Indiana (FEMA Region V); Arkansas (FEMA Region VI); and Missouri (FEMA Region VII).
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