K-12 School Severe Weather
COLUMBUS, OH – The Ohio Emergency Management Agency, in cooperation with the Ohio School Safety Center within Ohio Homeland Security, announced today that a new K-12 School Severe Weather Tabletop Exercise Toolkit is now available to help primary and secondary school staff, first responders, and other partners prepare for strong winds and tornadic events, such as the devastating tornadoes that struck the Dayton region last year.
The free K-12 School Severe Weather Tabletop Exercise (TTX) Toolkit provides all of the materials and information necessary to easily plan and host a tabletop exercise.
The exercise covers three main objectives:
- Shelter in Place: Define the school’s shelter-in-place procedures using designated shelter areas to maximize safety during an emergency.
- Close School: Define the school closing process specifically addressing the notification of relevant parties with consideration to transportation, reunification, and social services.
- Rapid Assessment: Define the protocols for evaluating and assessing a severe weather threat to determine the correct course of action during an emergency situation.
Exercise toolkit materials include:
- PowerPoint Presentation for the exercise
- Facilitator’s Guide
- Participant Situation Manual
- Planning Timeline
- Meeting & Support Documents
This toolkit is located on the Ohio EMA website at: https://ema.ohio.gov/Exercise_TableTop_Toolkit.aspx.
This toolkit was adapted from material provided by Cuyahoga County’s ReadyEx initiative.
Ohio EMA’s four previous toolkits are:
Business Continuity: Disaster in the Workplace
Higher Education Active Aggressor Tabletop Exercise Toolkit
Houses of Worship: Targeted Disruption
These toolkits have been downloaded a combined total of nearly 2,700 times in 46 states and nine countries.