PHOENIX — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Los Angeles District tested its emergency readiness March 17 during a continuity of operations exercise, or COOPEX, simulating a command relocation to Phoenix.
Hosted by the LA District’s Emergency Management Team, the COOPEX is intensive training designed to review, practice and assess the district’s response to a catastrophic event using virtual scenarios.
“Emergencies can be very sudden, and we want to make sure our leaders already know what to do when the time comes to maintain command, control and communication,” said LA District Commander Col. Andrew Baker.
Representatives with the LA District’s Crisis Management Team, or CMT, joined emergency management teams from the Sacramento and Albuquerque districts to attend the event. The participants focused on learning from the Emergency Management Team’s recent response to the LA wildfires.
“Performing a COOPEX annually is a requisite part of district emergency preparedness,” said Grant Adams, an emergency management planner, who led the training. “However, there is also an opportunity for the district to capitalize on lessons learned from the 2025 LA fires and incorporate those lessons into the COOPEX to better prepare new CMT members.”
Army Regulation 500-3 and Presidential Policy Directive 40 require USACE to have a Continuity of Operations Plan, or COOP, to ensure it can respond and perform essential functions in an emergency.
“Beyond the regulatory requirement to conduct continuity of operations exercises, these are critical to us being prepared for real-world continuity of operations events,” said David Kingston, LA District Emergency Management Branch chief. “Our district leadership did an outstanding job. There were a lot of changes in the Crisis Management Team membership, but each of them prepared for the COOPEX and really provided some great insights to how we would respond to the virtual training situations.”
The training had three main objectives: testing protocols in a realistic scenario, reviewing inter-district roles and validating comprehensive continuity plans from emergency response to recovery.
“We did accomplish our objectives,” Kingston said. “Most critical was the bringing together of the CMT to really work through scenarios that stretched their critical thinking, and the identification of action items to make us even better in responding.”
The LA District Emergency Management Team provides engineering services to respond to national and natural disasters to minimize damage and help in recovery efforts.
“As the result of the COOPEX, I really do think we are ready to respond to another real-world disaster,” said Kingston. “Our response to the SoCal wildfires in January 2025 was incredible because of our training during previous COOPEXs.”
| Date Taken: |
03.24.2026 |
| Date Posted: |
03.27.2026 17:47 |
| Story ID: |
561484 |
| Location: |
PHOENIX, ARIZONA, US |
| Web Views: |
17 |
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0 |
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