National Level Exercise 2011 (NLE 2011) took place in May 2011. The purpose of the exercise was to prepare and coordinate a multiple-jurisdictional integrated response to a national catastrophic event.
NLE 2011 was designated as a Tier I National Level Exercise. Tier I exercises (formerly known as the Top Officials exercise series or TOPOFF) are conducted annually in accordance with the National Exercise Program (NEP), which serves as the nation’s overarching exercise program for planning, organizing, conducting and evaluating national level exercises. The NEP was established to provide the U.S. government, at all levels, exercise opportunities to prepare for catastrophic crises ranging from terrorism to natural disasters.
NLE 2011 was a White House directed Congressionally-mandated exercise that included the participation of all appropriate federal department and agency senior officials, their deputies and staff; and key operational elements. NLE 2011 focused on regional catastrophic response and recovery activities between federal, regional, state, tribal, local and private sector participants.
NLE 2011 simulated the catastrophic nature of a major earthquake in the central United States region of the New Madrid Seismic Zone (NMSZ). The year 2011 is the bicentennial anniversary of the 1811 New Madrid earthquake, for which the NMSZ is named. NLE 2011 was the first NLE to simulate a natural hazard.
NLE 2011 activities took place at command posts, emergency operation centers and other locations to include federal facilities in the Washington D.C. area and federal, regional, state, tribal, local and private sector facilities in the eight member states of the Central United States Earthquake Consortium (CUSEC). The eight member states of CUSEC encompass four different FEMA regions: Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Tennessee (FEMA Region IV); Illinois and Indiana (FEMA Region V); Arkansas (FEMA Region VI); and Missouri (FEMA Region VII).
In conjunction with the NLE, EPA Region 7 conducted a field exercise component that was intended to exercise and assess field data collection and data transmission tools as well as data processing and display procedures.
