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U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Tulsa District News

Tulsa District conducts interstate tabletop exercise

Published Jan. 27, 2015
Bill Smiley, chief, Emergency Management Office, Tulsa District U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, briefs emergency managers and community members from Oklahoma and Kansas communities along the Caney River during a tabeltop exercise recently. Tabletop exercises are designed to get community members thinking about flood mitigation and response.

Bill Smiley, chief, Emergency Management Office, Tulsa District U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, briefs emergency managers and community members from Oklahoma and Kansas communities along the Caney River during a tabeltop exercise recently. Tabletop exercises are designed to get community members thinking about flood mitigation and response.

TULSA – The Tulsa District U.S. Army Corps of Engineers held a table top functional exercise in Copan, Oklahoma, in partnership with emergency managers and first responders from nearby Kansas and Oklahoma municipalities.

During the exercise, Tulsa District and National Weather Service representatives briefed attendees about efforts to mitigate and communicate high water events, and provided attendees with considerations for preparing and improving emergency response plans.

Tabletop exercises are developed around possible emergency scenarios designed to provoke greater consideration of mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery activities.

“During tabletop exercises, we bring community members together to discuss how the levee project operates,” said Bill Smiley, chief, Emergency Management, Tulsa District. “We get the community members to think about what a catastrophic flood would look like, what type of damage a flood would cause, who we would communicate that information, and what steps we can taken in a pre-flood event for planning andmitigation efforts to protect life, property, commerce and infrastructure.”

Caney is approximately ten miles upstream of Copan on the Caney River. The scenario focused on impacts and response measures during a flood or high water event in Caney.