PHILIPSBURG (DCOMM):--- The full-scale live drill, Hurricane Exercise 2025 (HUREX 2025), that took place on Tuesday, June 17, 2025, has concluded with Emergency Support Functions (ESFs), partners, and stakeholders testing their operational processes and protocols for an emergency response to an incident.
The drill took place along the Airport Road and Simpson Bay Lagoon area, where the multi-scenario entailed an aircraft carrying 321 passengers and crew crashing into the Simpson Bay Lagoon after breaching the perimeter fence during landing.
In this multi-event scenario, the ESFs and Emergency Operations Center (EOC) also had to deal with a vehicle being struck carrying very important persons (VIPs) which happened when the aircraft breached the airport grounds and crossed the roadway into the lagoon.
At the same time, a category five hurricane was 60 hours away from making landfall.
Various emergency services and military vehicles, vessels from the Dutch Caribbean Coast Guard, and the airport, as well as personnel from various governmental and non-governmental entities (e.g., Red Cross, Windward Islands Emergency Services WIEMS) took part in the training exercise.
This training exercise was organized to test protocols and procedures, and the preparedness of the national disaster response system to an incident or natural disaster.
The HUREX exercise included the 10 Emergency Support Functions (ESFs) of the national disaster system.