A Multi–City Disaster Exercise
Orange County's Harbor Region consists of the cities of Newport Beach, Irvine, Costa Mesa, Laguna Beach, and the University of California Irvine. With a large urban area that sees significant daily population movements, the emergency managers of the Harbor Region and the County are required to maintain effective joint operational response capabilities at all times.
In Spring 2023, Orange County EM held a County-Wide Tsunami Evacuation Exercise. Emergency managers were challenged to gauge the effectiveness of proposed response measures, including contraflow, road blocking and shelter location placement, all while giving orders in realtime to responders.
Executed by Operators & AI
Using Ladris AI, emergency managers on scene designed a response to reduce maximum worst-case trip times by nearly 30% from 4 hrs, 50 mins to 3 hrs, 30 mins. The simulated response was executed by law, fire, EM and the US Coast Guard working in sync across city jurisdictions.
Outcomes
Quantifiably Improved Response Capabilities
Harbor Region emergency managers were able to quantify the effectiveness of their response strategies, reducing worst-case evacuation times by 56%.
Tested Multi-Jurisdictional Evacuation Processes
The Harbor Region was able to prove effective coordination with state and federal partners in responding to complex, multi-city evacuations.
Baseline for Ongoing Operational Trainings
Building on this exercise, the Harbor Region continues to drill with Ladris AI to produce evacuation estimates, tactics & insights as a baseline to gauge response capabilities.