CDP to host annual Hurricane Theme Week in April

FEMA’s Center for Domestic Preparedness (CDP) will host its 2022 Hurricane Theme Week April 3-9 on its campus in Anniston, Alabama.

The CDP will combine four courses – Healthcare Leadership for Mass Casualty Incidents, Hospital Emergency Response Operations for Mass Casualty Incidents, Environmental Health Training in Emergency Response Operations and Framework for Healthcare Emergency Management – and more than 100 coastal area healthcare and emergency response professionals for a week of hurricane-themed training, including a culminating exercise at the center’s Noble Training Facility. The capstone exercise will merge a large response and recovery operation with the decontamination of live-actor and mannequin ‘patients,’ as well as other environmental health tasks caused by a hurricane.

Hurricane Theme Week will also include a guest lecture from meteorologists from nearby Birmingham, Alabama, who will speak on hurricane preparedness and lessons learned from recent Atlantic hurricane seasons.

The 2022 hurricane season begins June 1 and runs through Nov. 30.

While the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has not released its forecast for the season, in a typical year the U.S. experiences 14 named storms, seven of which are hurricanes and three of which are major hurricanes. Major hurricanes have winds of at least 111 mph and can reach speeds of over 180 mph.