Exercise "Surefire"

To be effective, disaster plans must be exercised from time to time. This article describes how one Canadian municipality conducted an exercise that covered a range of a dozen disaster plans, involving federal, provincial and municipal levels of government, private organizations and industry. Thirty-six organizations and upwards of 1200 participants co-operated in a combined operation that enabled the municipality to cope with a major simulated disaster. The co-ordination of this exercise was a joint effort on the part of the P.E.I. Emergency Measures Organization and the office of the P.E.I. Regional Director, Emergency Planning Canada.