Earthquake in Germany: Humanitarians practice the emergency case
Stuttgart — One of the largest scale humanitarian preparedness and response exercises to date took place in the woods near Stuttgart, Germany. More than 200 experts from 30 countries participated in a one-week simulation hosted by the Federal School of the German Agency for Technical Relief (THW). For the first time in combination of the Emergency Telecommunications Cluster’s (ETC) OpexBravo Exercise and the Logistics Response Team (LRT) Training delivered by the Logistics Cluster.
This large-scale inter-agency field simulation aims to enable fast and efficient assistance in case of emergency. The attendees take part in a fictive scenario: A devastating earthquake hit the country of Tukastan. First reports mentioned 365 people were killed and 1.5 million in urgent need of food, shelter and medicine. Several aftershocks however impede the setup of logistics and telecommunications — according to the script.
“This is a unique scenario, which places the participants in realistic situations while challenging them to achieve a comprehensive set of required emergency response objectives”, says André Hermann from WFP Global Logistics. “It is extremely helpful for humanitarian personnel to work with and learn from their colleagues from other agencies and to develop best practices before the next disaster occurs.”
At the sixth day, pale faces and dark circles under the eyes of the participants underline the serious character of this exercise. Many found only little rest in their simple camp beds and tents. Some could not sleep due to the cold, others were disturbed by the ongoing noise: The diesel engine of an electricity generator ran all day and night. Telephones are ringing here and there, which is a good sign since telecommunications staff have been able to temporarily repair the lines — at least for the humanitarians.
“Our staff could fix damaged equipment and control centres. But we urgently need more personnel and technical support to provide internet and telecommunications access to the broader public,” explains Jalal Shah, WFP Coordinator for the Emergency Telecommunications Cluster (ETC).
A helicopter from the German Federal Police landed close to one of the three camps. Several humanitarians jumped off, some exhausted got on board. Later the helicopter picked WFP food rations cargo and disappeared behind the hills of the Swabian Alps.
Since more than ten years, WFP works in close cooperation with THW. Both organisations managed numerous international emergency operations. For the first time, the two clusters emergency preparedness exercise took place in Germany with 44 participating organisations such as UNICEF, UNHCR, OCHA as well as NGOs from Oxfam, the International Red Cross Committee and Medicines Sans Frontières (MSF). The trainings is funded by the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the government of Luxemburg.
