Researchers ad Sandia National Laboratories have developed a software tool that allows emergency preparedness officials and first responders to view and modify accurate modes of building damage and other post-event disaster effects. The Standard Unified Modeling, Mapping and Integration Toolkit (SUMMIT) application was funded by the Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate with support from the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s National Exercise and Simulation Center. The software was debuted at the National Level Exercise 11 exercise in Arkansas in May. The SUMMIT software tool was used as an Apple [APPL] iPad application by first responders in Arkansas while others in a central command post in Washington, D.C., were able to see the visualization software on large screens. “Almost by definition…exercise planners have an inherent challenge in creating drill scenarios that can be vividly imagined and thus acted upon by participants,” says Karim Mahrous, the SUMMIT project lead at Sandia. “Typically, first responders playing in an exercise must pretend and dream up how damaged building might look. With SUMMIT, there’s no more pretending.” Having a graphical view of damage makes it easier to comprehend what is going on and enhances the exercise, Sandia says.