Clemson University teamed up with more than two dozen local, state and federal agencies to conduct a Family and Friends Assistance Center (FFAC) exercise on March 19. Ninety people from a broad range of departments and offices took over the Madren Center for the afternoon to conduct the exercise. FFACs are set up to provide victims, survivors and their loved ones support and care in the immediate aftermath of a mass casualty or mass fatality incident. Representatives from the Red Cross, the FBI Victims Services Division, the Anderson County Sheriff’s Office, the Central Police Department, the Pickens County Coroner’s Office, Prisma Hospital System, the South Carolina Department of Mental Health and many other organizations collaborated on the exercise, which simulated the standing up of a center in the immediate aftermath of a tragedy, complete with actors who played family members and friends of victims.
Clemson University Director of Emergency Management Sarah Custer says it’s essential for public safety officials to rehearse and hone readiness in the unlikely but not impossible occurrence of a worst-case-scenario event.
“We’re here to serve victims and their families in their very worst moments,” says Custer. “It’s critical to ensure that we are ready to serve them in a timely, compassionate and respectful manner that sets up the beginning of their healing with a strong foundation. This work embodies the strong culture of care that is present within the Clemson Family and will help shape how victims look back on the entire incident.”
Clemson’s Department of Public Safety conducts different levels of exercises throughout the year, but this is one of the largest they will do in 2025. Gathering professionals from so many different organizations into one place is an impressive feat of logistical engineering that would be nearly impossible to do more than once or twice a year, so every player makes the most of the experience.
“Exercises such as this one allow us to validate that our people, processes, facilities, equipment, and plans operate effectively in a safe, controlled environment,” said Emergency Management coordinator for training Caroline Cotra. “The FFAC exercise is just one piece of an extensive training and exercise program built to ensure that our community is prepared for all hazards, and we are grateful for everyone that came together to make this possible.”
The exercise included volunteer actors who played family members and friends of the victims of a fictional nefarious hazardous materials release event. More than a dozen volunteer actors kept the players on their toes for the duration of the exercise, throwing all kinds of different scenarios at them.
Each actor approached the check-in station of the FFAC with a prearranged part to play out, from a person trying to get their dropped phone back from inside the crime scene to a divorced father and mother trying to find out if their son was one of the victims. The actors’ commitment to their roles kept the exercise realistic. At the same time, the players’ responses were documented by observers who later shared their notes in a “hotwash” session after the exercise ended.
During the hotwash, Andrew Rzodkiewicz, Emergency Management coordinator for operations and leader of the FFAC, noted that the whole exercise seemed to only take five minutes because of how busy every player was throughout.
“It’s hard to get a battle rhythm down in two hours,” said Rzodkiewicz. “But everybody did a phenomenal job. I appreciate everybody showing up, doing the work and moving through it. We took the challenges thrown at us and turned them into opportunities to think, ‘How can we change this for the better next time?’”
Custer shared Rzodkiewicz’s perspective, noting that identifying opportunities to improve is why they organize such elaborate training exercises at least once a year.
“I hope we’ve built our FFAC team members’ confidence in their roles, identified opportunities for improvement, strengthened our processes by finding new best practices, and that while we work hard to prevent the need for the FFAC, we’ll know we’re ready in case it’s ever needed,” she said.
Rzodkiewicz said the next step will be to collect all the information from the observers’ notes and use the data to design better operating procedures, enabling more efficient future collaboration to serve the community better.
“We’re all going to get better from here,” he said. “This is not just my plan. It’s everybody’s plan. Because when it comes down to it, we are taking care of our family.”
A list of organizations that contributed to the exercise include:
- Participants
- Clemson University
- Family and Friends Assistance Center
- College of Behavioral, Social and Health Sciences
- College of Engineering, Computing and Applied Sciences
- College of Education
- Dean of Students Office
- Fraternity and Sorority Life
- Human Resources
- Office of Community and Ethical Standards
- Student Affairs Business Office
- Student Engagement
- Student Health Services
- Office of Emergency Management
- Police Department
- Marketing and Communications
- Madren Center
- Family and Friends Assistance Center
- Community Partners
- American Red Cross
- Anderson County Sheriff’s Office
- Call Experts
- Central Police Department
- Clemson City Police Department
- FBI Victim Services Division
- Max Events
- Pickens County Coroner’s Office
- Prisma Hospital System
- SC Department of Mental Health
- Clemson University
- Support
- Clemson University
- Clemson Computing and Information Technology
- Community, Engagement, Belonging and Access
- Fire & EMS Department
- Nieri Family Alumni & Visitors Center
- Occupational & Environmental Safety
- Residential Living & Residential Learning
- University Ethics & Compliance
- Watt Family Innovation Center
- Community Partners
- Oconee County Emergency Services
- South Carolina Emergency Management Division
- Tri-County Technical College Police Department
- Clemson University