FEMA Pandemic Template and Exercise Series

The Federal Executive Boards in New York City and Northern New Jersey in partnership with FEMA Region II, The Department of Health and Human Services Region II, NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) and the Clearing House Association sponsored a two-year series of pandemic influenza continuity exercises to increase public and private sector readiness for a pandemic event.

Firms can reuse the materials and pandemic exercise kit on this page to run an exercise specific to their needs today as well as to support their long term planning goals.

Pandemic influenza is a global outbreak of disease that occurs when a new influenza virus appears or “emerges” in the human population causing serious illness, as it spreads from person to person worldwide.  History teaches us that the impact of a pandemic can be far-reaching.  The 1918 “Spanish Flu” influenza killed approximately 30,000 people in NYC, 500,000 in the United States and as many as 50 -100 million worldwide.  Furthermore, it leads to widespread social disruption and economic loss.

As part of your operations and business continuity planning, refer to FEMA’s National Continuity Program (NCP) planning guidance and template that have been developed to support your firm’s Continuity of Operations Program.
Download the Pandemic Influenza Template >

Pandemic influenza is unique in that, unlike many other catastrophic events, it will not directly affect physical infrastructure. While a pandemic will not damage power lines, banks, or computer networks, it will ultimately threaten all critical infrastructures by its impact on an organization’s human resources causing the loss of essential personnel from the workplace for weeks or months.

Economists, epidemiologists and other experts predict that the effects of a modern-day pandemic will be seen in every industry and government agency at local, regional, national and international levels. Typically, a pandemic influenza will come in “waves” each lasting 6-8 weeks with several months between each wave. The CDC estimates that between 35%-40% of the United States population could be affected by pandemic influenza and the economic impact could range between $71.3 and $166.5 billion (2006 estimates).

Contacts

• Russell Fox, Continuity Manager, FEMA Region II, Operations, 212-680-8504 Office, 917-318-4859 Cell, Russell.fox@fema.dhs.gov
• Fritzmarie Rivette, External Affairs, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), FEMA Region II – New York, NY, Desk (212) 680-8609, (Mobile) (732) 804-9813, Fritzmarie.rivette@fema.dhs.gov

The exercise objectives are to mitigate vulnerabilities during a pandemic influenza outbreak; to identify gaps or weaknesses in pandemic planning or in organization pandemic influenza continuity plans, policies, & procedures; and encourage public and private organizations to jointly plan for, and test, their pandemic influenza plans.

The 2014 Pandemic Accord Table Top Pandemic Influenza Exercise took place on November 13 (Wave 1), November 20 (Wave 2) and December 1-3 (Recovery / Reconstitution Tabletop). The Pandemic Accord Exercises were the second set of exercises in a two-year exercise series that sought to increase readiness for a pandemic event. The exercises were designed to explore continuity planning for an influenza pandemic, foster partnerships between the public and private sectors, and identify potential promising practices as well as issues or shortfalls in pandemic plans.

The 2013 Pandemic Accord Table Top Pandemic Influenza Exercise took place on November 19, 2013 and was repeated on November 20th and November 21st. The Pandemic Accord TTX is the first exercise in a two-year exercise series that seeks to increase readiness for a pandemic event. The Table Top Exercise was designed to explore continuity planning for an influenza pandemic, foster partnerships between the public and private sectors, and identify potential promising practices as well as issues or shortfalls in pandemic plans. The purpose of these events are to enhance continuity planning among federal departments and agencies; U.S. Courts; state, tribal, local jurisdictions; and the private sector community.

Since the Pandemic Accord Table Top Pandemic Influenza Exercise was designed as a scalable exercise that could be tailored to the needs and resources of the firm executing it we have assembled all the components that were used throughout the exercise series and posted them below so a firm could reuse the materials to run an exercise specific to their needs in the future if they wanted to expand the scope of the test, retest components or deepen the impact of a pandemic on a specific function that they perform. Each section below can be strung together to form a full and comprehensive exercise or executed individually depending on the needs of the firm.