August Meeting – Emergency Preparedness & Our Earth Ex 2021 Exercise

September is National Preparedness Month, so to be prepared, we’re getting an early start with speakers from Alabama EMA and the Alabama Association of Emergency Managers, then a round table / planning meeting for our on line Black Sky exercise in October. We will also hear from Jesse Causey on the threat of readily available explosive precursors.

First, we heard from Jesse Causey, Global Process Automation Cybersecurity Leader at Corteva Agriscience. Jesse is our Chemical Sector Chief and will talk for a few moments about the recent FBI led training on Precursor Chemical and Explosive Training.

Then we welcomed Greg Robinson, Director Of External Affairs at Alabama Emergency Management Agency, Keith Barnett, Elmore County EMA Director & Chair of the Business and Industry Committee for the Alabama Association of Emergency Managers, and James Coker, Director of the Jefferson County EMA.

Greg, Keith, and James gave short presentations, then will held a roundtable discussion on state and county emergency preparedness and what we can be doing now, working with these local agencies, to protect our organizations, and also be part of community recovery.

Finally, we opened the meeting for discussion and planning of our Earth Ex 21 Emergency All-Sector Exercise, tentatively scheduled for September 30 to October 2, 2021. We hope to offer our members and other organizations in our sector an immersive exercise, leveraging the EIS Council’s 2021 Black Sky exercise, but with direct coaching, and on line input from SMEs in each sector plus local agencies. This is going to take some doing, but is a great opportunity to be proactive in our communities and industries.