When a derecho strikes: ISU Engineers build emergency management training game
It’s a crowded Saturday morning at the downtown farmers’ market in a major Midwestern city.
It’s tomato time. Peppers are ripe and red. There are food trucks. Musicians. And, despite clouds to the west, lines of people.
Then, with little warning, a storm blows in. And keeps blowing: Damaging wind gusts of 58 mph and a damage trail that eventually extends to 240 miles. A derecho has hit downtown.
How will emergency management officials respond? What should police do? Firefighters? Medical responders? Public works employees? The mayor’s office?
A “novel, online serious game on emergency response” designed, built and evaluated by Iowa State University engineers in partnership with Polk County Emergency Management in Des Moines will help emergency forces practice their responses. The game will force “players to grapple with the uncertainty and trade-offs in their actions,” according to a project summary.
