California Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program
The Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE) directly supports the operations of the California Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program (HSEEP).
HSEEP assists state and local governments with the development and implementation of an exercise and evaluation program to enhance and assess domestic preparedness. A multidisciplinary team of subject matter experts was created to provide exercise coordination services for state and local entities desiring to mitigate the threat of terrorist activities involving weapons of mass destruction (WMD). ORISE senior operations planners are based in California and are fully integrated members of this team. Additional security experts from our Washington, D.C., and Oak Ridge, Tenn., offices, are also called in when necessary to ensure the success of this program.
Recent exercises have included:
Golden Guardian 2006
During 2006, members of the ORISE team assisted the California Governor’s Office of Homeland Security Exercise Branch (CA OHSEB) in the planning, development, and conduct of Golden Guardian 2006 (GG 06), a continuation of the Golden Guardian Exercise Series initiated in 2004.
GG 06 focused on the four critical missions of Homeland Security:
- Prevent
- Protect
- Respond
- Recover
Using catastrophic terrorist and natural disasters as vehicles to assess the four critical missions, the planning team immersed federal, state, and local responders and emergency management officials in a three-day statewide full-scale exercise involving the three California geographic regions.
ORISE staff assisted in developing a Preventive Exercise using the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) attack model and universal adversary. These models were built upon a terrorist incident in the California Southern Region also developed by ORISE members and local regional planners.
In the Coastal Region, ORISE planners— in conjunction with a regional planning team—developed a scenario of a Magnitude 7.9 earthquake striking the San Francisco Bay region. This catastrophic natural disaster was modeled upon the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire imbedded against today’s infrastructure and demographics.
Concurrently, planning was conducted by ORISE and the regional planning team allowing the Inland Region to act as a receiving area for persons evacuated from the earthquake zone. A significant partner in this effort was the local chapter of the American Red Cross.
Completing the process, ORISE staff integrated emergency managers from 20 state and 5 federal agencies to manage the incidents from the State Emergency Operations Center. This effort involved the collaboration of the State Offices of Homeland Security and Emergency Services, Department of Health and Human Services Agency, the Emergency Medical Services Authority, and many other critical agencies of California state government.
Federal support was provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency Region IX, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Department of Defense. DHS provided a Principal Federal Official.
The Pacific Service Area of the American Red Cross also provided significant planning and exercise participation.
The exercise, conducted in mid-November 2006, provided California first responders and emergency managers the opportunity to validate federal, state, and local capabilities using the following state overarching exercise goals:
- Interoperable communication
- Information and intelligence sharing and dissemination
- Medical surge
- Law enforcement investigative operations
- Explosive device response operations
Lessons learned from this exercise will be used to enhance the state’s ability to meet the four critical missions of homeland security. Improvement plans developed to identify shortcomings and best practices will be shared throughout the community.
Currently ORISE staff members are working in conjunction with their CA OHSEB partners in designing the parameters of GG 07.
Golden Guardian 2007 and Beyond
Development of GG 07 is fully underway. Using the State Strategic Plan, lessons learned, best practices developed and After-Action Reviews of past exercises, ORISE staff and their CA OHSEB partners are conducting outreach programs to various state agencies, counties, and cites to develop viable, meaningful, and timely scenarios to exercise and assess first responder and emergency management training effectiveness and readiness.
Strategically ORISE staff members are assisting a large California metropolitan area in their long-term development of Golden Guardian 2008.
Golden Guardian 2005
Golden Guardian 2005 was the largest statewide WMD exercise conducted to date. The goals were to assess the ability of all levels of California government to
- Prevent
- Protect
- Respond
- Recover
the citizens of California from the effects of catastrophic natural hazards or terrorist events.
ORISE staff served as lead exercise designers, planners, coordinators, evaluators, and after-action report drafters. They assisted in all aspects of outreach, planning, training, preparation, and execution of the exercise.
The exercise was designed using the DHS Exercise and Evaluation Program exercise tool. ORISE staff facilitated multiple activities throughout the year long planning cycle including:
- Planning conferences
- Workshops
- Seminars
- Tabletop Exercises
- After-Action Report Conferences
National Incident Management System Support
The ORISE staff supports California's efforts to integrate the National Incident Management System (NIMS) throughout the exercise design and execution process. Important NIMS integration activities take place as training opportunities during exercise conferences, seminars, and workshops. These initiatives will aid California in gaining NIMS compliancy as required.
