Disaster Preparedness Program and the “Coastal Chaos” Exercise

JULY 6, 2021 ─ On the afternoons of June 29 and 30, the Disaster Preparedness Program (DPP) partnered with the Gulf of Mexico Regional Collaboration Team to hold a virtual tabletop exercise. Named “Coastal Chaos,” this exercise was designed to bring regional NOAA Gulf of Mexico entities together to improve coordination, communication, and collaboration.

Title slide for Coastal Chaos

The exercise was broken into three modules which allowed participants to discuss the prioritization of regionally-based assets, resources, and capabilities. Participants discussed ways to support NOAA staff and partners across Line Offices during a disaster as well as the ability to maintain a coordinated response in a hazardous situation.


To guide the development and discussion, Coastal Chaos posed the following objectives:


  • Assess impacts to NOAA personnel, mission, and infrastructure (PMI) in the Gulf of Mexico region.

  • Discuss available resources, assets, capabilities, and expertise throughout the Gulf of Mexico region and determine prioritization during a multi-hazard event.

  • Evaluate NOAA’s regional capacity to maintain a coordinated response to a hazardous situation through discussion of the best methods to provide coordinated, prompt, reliable, and actionable information between NOAA line offices, to upper management, with the Regional Collaboration Team, as well as back to the field level.

Both days of the exercise were well attended with representation from each of the NOAA Gulf of Mexico offices.


For more information, please contact Katie.Krushinski@noaa.gov.

Last updated Tuesday, February 28, 2023 1:24pm PST