ECS Offers Virtual Emergency Management Staff Trainers to Government Agencies at No Charge to Prepare for Hurricane Season

Orlando firm hopes to ease the stress of dealing with hurricane preparedness during pandemic.

June 1, 2020: Orlando, FL – Waymon Armstrong, ECS CEO/President, announced that Engineering & Computer Simulations (ECS) will provide its Emergency Management Staff Trainer (EMST) to any local, state, or federal government agency at no charge, beginning on June 1, the official start of the hurricane season, to assist with hurricane preparedness training during these challenging times. Originally developed in 2007 and used to train First Responders and agencies providing assistance related to Hurricane Katrina, this virtual trainer includes hurricane preparedness and emergency scenarios for twelve states, including Florida.

EMST is a hands-on, staff trainer that presents real-time information, including how to best incorporate emails, social media updates, news reports, maps, images, and online articles. Users can conduct simulated conversations and meetings, using these materials. In addition, trainees learn the best practices to prioritize tasks, respond to or moderate situations, and to predict how their responses will affect the remainder of the emergency situation.

The trainer incorporates a wide variety of scenarios, ranging from small-scale human error to large-scale natural disasters, terrorist attacks, pandemics, and civil unrest. The scenarios can be customized and allow for role-specific training for individuals, teams, and multiple agencies working together as a Joint State Response Training System (JSRTS). EMST also incorporates an After-Action Review capability that automatically assesses each participant’s performance.

ECS EMST Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) will be offering complimentary webinars to assist trainees and provide information about customizing specific scenarios.

Armstrong states: “ECS has been proud to support our military service members and first responders with global training solutions since 1997. In honor of our 23^rd anniversary this year, we want to provide EMST to government teams that can benefit from this type of hands-on crisis response training, especially after all that they have had to deal with during the COVID-19 pandemic. While we sincerely hope that this hurricane season is mild, our team stands ready to assist First Responders to save lives during these critical times.”

EMST is available to government agencies June 1 – December 31, 2020, at no cost. Interested parties should contact info@ecsorl.com for more information and the webinar schedule.