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A drill is an incredibly effective way for emergency management and homeland security professionals to test and develop disaster response abilities within an organization. Often focusing on a single operation or function, this type of exercise ensures that participants go beyond just talking about what they would do during a disaster or a crisis. Drills go one step further and allow participants to actually go through the steps they would take in such an event.
While drills are narrow in their scope and can be developed in a relatively short period of time, their benefits are vast. They are indispensable when it comes to developing confidence in executing specific procedures, functions, or decisions, and operating pieces of equipment that an organization (and its people) anticipate needing to use during a disaster.