Apartment industry participates in national terrorism simulation exercise.

In April, NAA/NMHC and some of the industry's largest apartment firms were invited through NAA/NMHC's membership in the Real Estate Information Sharing and Analysis Center (ISAC) to participate in a national terrorism simulation exercise conducted by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

The exercise, which included a fictitious chemical attack and explosion at a Connecticut port town and a biological attack in New Jersey, involved more than 20,000 government officials and was opened for the first time to a small number of private sector firms, including apartment owners and managers.

This was a unique opportunity to allow private sector firms to leverage this multi-million dollar federal exercise to test their own emergency response procedures. During the simulation, NAA/NMHC and participating apartment firms received streaming video emergency alerts and coverage online through a CNN-like network. Those alerts enabled NAA/NMHC to assess its communications systems for notifying members in the event of a real terrorist attack.

Participating apartment firms were given the option of simply receiving the news alerts or participating more actively by activating emergency response plan activities. For information on future simulation exercises, contact NAA's Barbara Vassallo at [e-mail] or at 703/518-6141 Ext. 106.