Power Outage & Communications Failure Tabletop Exercise Kit

Run a focused, 90-minute tabletop exercise on power loss and degraded communications. Help your team examine decision authority, staff notifications, essential services, public information and recovery using your organization's actual plans.

This editable Response-Depot kit provides a structured scenario, facilitator prompts and practical tools to turn discussion into assigned improvement actions.

What's included

• Facilitator Guide (Word): setup and customization instructions, a 90-minute agenda, opening and hotwash scripts, and 10 timed scenario injects with discussion prompts.
• Participant Manual (Word): starting situation, five exercise objectives, three module worksheets, decision log and participant feedback.
• Evaluation & After-Action Report Template (Word): observation worksheet, results by objective, improvement plan and worked example.
• Action Tracker (Excel): improvement actions, exercise decisions and attendance, with an overview, current instructions, a fictional example, status dropdowns, days-remaining calculations and checks for missing closure evidence.
• Quick-Start Instructions: file guide and steps for preparing, running and following up on the exercise.

Exercise at a glance

• 90 minutes, including a 15-minute hotwash
• 10 timed injects across three discussion modules
• Five objectives covering activation, communications, continuity, public information and recovery
• Five downloadable files: three editable Word documents, one Excel workbook and quick-start instructions

Who it's for

Emergency management and continuity staff, local organizations, nonprofits and business teams seeking a structured discussion exercise they can adapt to their own services and facilities.

How to use it

Download the files, replace the organization-specific placeholders, assign exercise staff and gather current local plans. Follow the timed agenda, capture decisions, conduct the hotwash and track approved actions through verification.

Digital product: no physical item is shipped. Word-compatible and Excel-compatible software is required; Microsoft Word and Excel are recommended. Customize the materials before use. Document layout and spreadsheet calculations have been checked; the exercise has not been field tested. Completion does not certify readiness or establish regulatory compliance or government endorsement.