Montgomery County Training and Exercises

Situated near Philadelphia and consisting of 24 boroughs and 38 townships, Montgomery County is a vital commerce center for the Delaware and Lehigh Valleys and the third-most populated county in Pennsylvania, with over 750,000 residents. Recognizing the important role it plays in providing for the protection, vitality, and resiliency of its constituents and the continued delivery of critical services, the County, through the Public Safety Department, contracted Delta to provide professional services in the delivery of three multidisciplinary and interagency Tabletop Exercises (TTXs) and associated training.

Over a seven-month period of performance, Delta delivered training and exercises oriented to Emergency Operations Center (EOC) operations, the implementation of municipal Emergency Operations Plans (EOPs), and the interdependency and interface between township EOCs and the county EOC. Training and exercises were compliant with national and state directives, standards, and guidelines, including the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program, and course material from Incident Command System (ICS)-400. Delta delivered two municipal-level TTXs for Cheltenham and Limerick Townships, and one county-level TTX to address the municipal-to-county EOC interface. An After-Action Report and Improvement Plan completed the delivery of services. In addition to addressing EOC operations and EOP implementation at the County and municipal levels, each exercise helped familiarize personnel with emergency management methodologies and tools to conduct comprehensive exercises. Delta developed all materials and documentation to support the training and conduct of exercises, including a performance-based, operations-focused pre-exercise training curriculum that was challenging, realistic, and encompassed the principles and imperatives associated with effective emergency management for an “all-hazards” response. Delta also provided experienced Subject Matter Experts to design and deliver training and facilitate the exercises.

Training was oriented toward relevant response disciplines, compliant with ICS principles, and tailored to the unique considerations of each municipality and functional construct of each EOC/Incident Command Post. Delta’s multimedia presentations were delivered in an interactive, team-building, and group problem-solving learning environment, and the training fostered critical thinking and reflective reasoning. Training focused on working through the unified command process, the roles and responsibilities of the major positions in municipal EOCs, and the communication flows within the EOC and with the on-scene incident command structure, and addressed the release of public information by the EOC and ICS command structure.