Zaanstad, November 24, 2011 - On November 24th, the Zaanstreek-Waterland Safety Region organized a major disaster exercise to train emergency response, evacuation and subsequent care of a large group of displaced people following a plane crash disaster. Main goal of the exercise was to practice and evaluate the cooperation and management of various emergency services during an air crash as well as coordination of the victims in the shelters. Over 100 emergency professionals and 150 extras were involved in the exercise.

To simulate the plane crash & determine the necessary incident response strategy, the emergency services used RescueSim, a multidisciplinary virtual emergency training platform that simulates all possible incidents and disasters. Using RescueSim a full scale plane crash was simulated and in the simulator all emergency services and municipalities subsequently trained and coordinated their various emergency response strategies during and after the incident.

In the exercise, all "people care" objectives were exercised. From control to execution on the scene of the incident and setting up a victim shelter. Taking care of non-wounded, of residents in their homes, etc. It is about aligning and coordinating different processes e.g. the Red Cross distributes food and blankets, the psychosocial services take care of specific victims, municipal officials are responsible for the registration of displaced persons, animal care takes care of the  pets, etc.

The following municipalities and organizations participated in the exercise: municipalities Zaanstad, Landsmeer, Oostzaan and Wormerland, police Zaanstreek-Waterland, GHOR (GGD Zaanstreek-Waterland, GGZ Dijk en Duin & Victim Foundation jointly the PSHOR team), the Dutch Red Cross and Animal Rescue Zaan. The exercise took place at various locations in the above municipalities.

The exercise is part of the exercise program 2011 for Zaanstreek-Waterland. Exercising is one of the main teaching methods for cooperation during disasters. Next year sees a major exercise scheduled for the other five municipalities in the region.

For more information about Rescuesim, visit www.rescuesim.com
For more information about Safety Region Zaanstreek-Waterland, visit www.veiligheidsregiozaanstreekwaterland.nl