KATHMANDU, Nepal -- More than 100 civilian and military authorities gathered at the Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu Monday to begin the first test of the Disaster Response Plan crafted in 2012.
The TIA DRP, shorthand for the name of the exercise, is a civil-military disaster preparedness and response initiative between the governments of Nepal and the United States. The plan was initially drafted in 2012 by the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal and Tribhuvan International Airport Civil Aviation Office. It specifically deals with emergency response and management procedures following a large earthquake at Nepal's only international airport. The exercise runs from Sept. 15-18.
"The plan has never been tested," said Ratish Chandra Lal Suman, Director General of Nepal's Civil Aviation Authority. "This is our first opportunity to test this plan. We will learn this plan, identify gaps in the plan, and we will learn what needs to be improved in this plan."
Justin Pummell, a geographer with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, explained that Kathmandu, the country's urban core, sits in an old lake bed and is vulnerable to liquefaction. Its land-locked position could easily cut the country off from emergency services and aid if there were a natural disaster that rendered the airport inoperable.
Suneeta Bhardwaj, a Nepalese fire official, said Nepal ranks 11th in the world among the top 20 countries for earthquake vulnerability and seismic records in the Kathmandu Valley indicate that a major earthquake, registering as high as 10 on the Modified Mercalli Intensity scale, occurs every 75 years.
The exercise objectives are to increase awareness of the disaster response plan to stakeholders, identify gaps in the plan, enhance communication between stakeholders and provide a venue to evaluate foreign assistance procedures at Tribhuvan International Airport.
Detailed steps in the plan include processes and methods to respond to an earthquake immediately following the event, including short- and long-term recovery measures required to restore the airport to varying levels of functionality. The DRP also includes information on rapid runway repair, ground-handling equipment requirements, throughput calculations, seismic vulnerability and foreign humanitarian assistance considerations.
Scheduled activities during the exercise include presentations by subject matter experts, review of lessons-learned from other natural disasters, a site tour of TIA critical facilities, an emergency demonstration, a command post exercise, a field training exercise, and an after-action review.
The first day of the exercise included an opening ceremony, an overview of airport operations and organization, and a review of Nepalese army and police support during emergencies. Subject matter experts in aviation, seismology and disaster preparedness from the participating agencies also provided information. Participating agencies for the exercise include the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal, Tribhuvan International Airport Civil Aviation Office, U.S. Army Pacific, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Air Force Pacific Command, III Marine Expeditionary Force, United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, World Food Programme, International Civil Aviation Office and others.
The TIA DRP exercise is part of U.S. Army Pacific's "Pacific Resilience" series of exercises. "Pacific Resilience" is USARPAC's main platform to engage, partner and prepare in a whole of government approach using military and civilians to plan and execute events. It utilizes medical, engineering, humanitarian assistance and other related activities to implement, corroborate and test plans, equipment and personnel against a variety of emergency scenarios that continuously affect the Asia-Pacific region. To date, PR DREEs have been held in six countries since 2000. In 2015 there are plans for five PR DREEs: Bangladesh, Nepal, Mongolia, Lower Mekong Basin, and Papua New Guinea.
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