 The ability to keep the public safe is the first responsibility of government. To do this, disaster exercises and drills are conducted several times a year to keep first responders and emergency management personnel prepared for any type of natural or man-made situation that might arise. The city of Fort Worth, Tarrant County and the Texas Department of Public Safety recently joined forces for a mass evacuation exercise. The statewide exercise was a real-time scenario of what would happen if a Category 5 hurricane were to hit the southern tip of Texas. As part of this exercise, the fictional hurricane, Tejas, has struck the lower real Grand Valley, causing an emergency evacuation of thousands of residents. The Texas Department of Public Safety issued requests for assistance in sheltering these simulation volunteers who are acting as evacuees in the city of Fort Worth Office of Emergency Management and Tarrant County offered their services. What we need to make sure of, especially from the state's perspective, is that we are here ready to support our local officials in a time of need along with the citizens of the state of Texas whenever that's called upon. Providing disaster relief is a team effort and several city, county and state departments jumped in to help. Continuing air evacuation operations. The Fort Worth Joint Emergency Operations Center was activated. Fort Worth Neighborhood Services converted Worth Heights Community Center to a shelter facility for our temporary guests. Cots, blankets, pillows, towels and personal hygiene products were secured, delivered and set up in the gymnasium. Kitchen and dining facilities were also assembled. The Fort Worth T provided two buses to transport the evacuees from the west side of DFW Airport to Worth Heights. 47 volunteers, simulating a real disaster evacuation, were flown into DFW on a chartered flight from the Rio Grande Valley. Each volunteer wore a yellow band on their arm as a test for a new app being developed to help track evacuee families and their personal property. Texas State Guard troops registered the evacuees' armbands and climbed aboard the buses to continue their journey. Escorted by Department of Public Safety vehicles, the buses made their way to Worth Heights Community Center where the volunteer evacuees were registered as guests of the city of Fort Worth. How comfortable was that pillow? Most girl, one to ten. Nothing like home. Once the evacuees were checked in, they were assigned a 40 square foot place to call their own for the night. If this would have been a real disaster, these evacuees might have found themselves spending days or even weeks in this shelter before it would be safe to return home. Fort Worth has helped to shelter hurricane victims in the past. The latest was in 2008 when the city of Fort Worth hosted hurricane evacuees twice, first when Hurricane Gustav struck Louisiana, then when Hurricane Ike struck the Texas Gulf Coast. We were activated for about two weeks for Hurricane Gustav and then we had about a four to five day break and then we activated again for another 10 to 14 days for Hurricane Ike. As evening approached, the Salvation Army provided a dinner for the group and city staff members that were providing assistance and security. As this event was only an exercise, a skeleton crew operated the shelter and joined Emergency Operations Center. In a real sheltering incident, both facilities would have been fully staffed. It would prove to be a short night for these travelers as their wake-up call was set for 5 a.m. It was a slow start as the evacuees tidied up their area, gathered their belongings, and had a quick breakfast provided by the Salvation Army. As 6 a.m. rolled around, the tired, voluntary evacuees ambled out of their overnight accommodation to be greeted by a beautiful sunrise and disaster exercise personnel. One more check of the armbands and the voluntary evacuees re-boarded the buses to begin their trip back to DFW Airport and their homes in the Rio Grande Valley.