2025 Mississippi Simulated Emergency Test

The 2025 Mississippi Simulated Emergency Test (SET) will take place on Saturday, August 9, 2025, from 8:00 AM until 8:00 PM CDT.

This year’s exercise will use a scripted homeland-security scenario involving coordinated incidents that result in significant damage, communications disruptions, and demands on local emergency-response resources.

In addition to improving on our performance from last year’s SET, participating ARES teams will have an opportunity to demonstrate amateur radio’s emergency-communications capabilities to the public and our served agencies.

Preparation for the exercise will include coordination meetings and conference calls. Each County Emergency Coordinator (EC) will develop local scenario details appropriate to the county while remaining within the overall SET exercise framework.

Each participating ARES team should use the statewide scenario as a starting point and tailor its simulated response to the conditions and communications challenges most likely to affect its own county.

Scenario Overview

Beginning at 8:00 AM on Saturday, August 9, the exercise will simulate a series of coordinated incidents affecting transportation and critical infrastructure across the region. The simulated incidents will result in significant traffic disruption, damage to infrastructure, demands on emergency-response agencies, and interruptions to normal communications.

ARES participants may be asked to:

• Activate and support Emergency Operations Centers (EOCs).
• Establish and maintain amateur radio communications networks.
• Maintain situational awareness and relay information between participating locations.
• Provide clear, timely, and accurate information to served agencies.
• Demonstrate the ability to maintain communications when normal systems are disrupted.

All incidents and activities described as part of the SET are simulated for training and evaluation purposes.