CUSEC States, led by the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency (TEMA), conducted a communications exercise. This one-day exercise was designed to test TEMA’s ability to communicate with other CUSEC Member States and other agencies in the aftermath of a moderate to major earthquake in the New Madrid Seismic Zone (NMSZ). Communications is one of the major focal points for the CAPSTONE-14 multi-state exercise scheduled for June 2014. The February communications exercise tested HF Voice Communications and the Winlink 2000 Radio Email System.
“This was the most interoperable communications exercise any of us have witnessed to date,” said Steve Waterman, Winlink 2000 Network Administrator. “Amateur Radio, the three branches of the Military Auxiliary Radio System and other auxiliary communications volunteers worked side by side with agencies of all levels including non-governmental organizations such as: AT&T, FedEx, the Southern Baptist Disaster Relief, the Red Cross and the Bridgestone Emergency Response Team. For an eight-state exercise in four FEMA regions, it went perfectly,” he added.
TEMA’s Chief of Communications, David Wolfe echoed Waterman’s comments, and based on the success of this exercise, the agency plans to test their emergency communication capabilities more often. “We received many responses requesting that we conduct this exercise once a Quarter,” said Wolfe.
Congratulations to TEMA and the rest of the CUSEC Member States for conducting a successful exercise.
