so our local ARES group finally got around to doing a simulated emergency exercise last saturday and i have to say it was a real eye opener. we've been talking about doing one for like two years and the EC kept pushing it back but we finally got a scenario set up with the county EOC and ran it for about four hours.

the scenario was a major flooding event, multiple roads cut off, and we had to establish comms between the EOC, two shelter sites, and a staging area for emergency vehicles. sounded simple enough on paper. it was not simple.

biggest thing i noticed right away was that people just assumed someone else had the frequencies and the net control plan sorted. nobody had actually printed out the ICS forms ahead of time. our NCS did a great job staying calm but there was probably a 20 minute period early on where traffic was just a mess, people talking over each other, not identifying properly, sending incomplete messages. one guy kept giving his street address instead of grid coordinates which honestly slowed everything down.

we also found out pretty quick that two of our members had HTs that hadnt been charged since the last meeting. and one of the repeaters we were planning to use had some kind of issue that day so we had to scramble to a backup. which was good in a way because it forced us to actually use the backup, which nobody had really tested.

anyway im curious if anyone else has run drills like this recently and what kinds of surprises came up for your group. feels like the more we practice the more we realize we dont know.

yeah this is pretty much exactly what happened during our Skywarn exercise a couple years back. the ICS forms thing is huge, people underestimate how much that stuff matters when things are actually moving fast. we ended up making laminated quick reference cards for our go-kits after that and it helped a lot, at least the most common form numbers and what goes in each field.

the uncharged HTs thing though... that drove me crazy at our drill too. i think some folks just dont treat it seriously until theyve actually been in a situation where comms failed for real. we had a guy who showed up to a real activation after a tornado outbreak with a dead battery and no spare. never again after that one. now our EC sends out a reminder two days before any drill to charge everything and do a quick radio check at home first.

the repeater issue is actually kind of a blessing in disguise like you said. nothing teaches you to respect your backup plan like having to actually use it under pressure. we make a point now of running at least part of every exercise on simplex even if the repeater is working fine, just to keep everyone comfortable with it.

this makes me a little nervous because our group is talking about doing something similar and i keep wondering if we're even ready. like how do you even start putting together a scenario? did your EC write the whole thing or did you get help from the county EOC people?