It's an exercise designed to make sure that Georgia is ready in case a hurricane hits.

"We're in the emergency preparedness business, and we always want to be prepared," says Lauren Curry, Chief of Staff for the Georgia Emergency Management Agency, which is heading the exercise.

The idea is to gather together all relevant state agencies and private businesses and simulate what will be needed if and when a hurricane hits the coast of Georgia.

"We're focusing, here in Atlanta, on long term care facilities and hospitals along the coast," Curry tells WSB.  "How would we get some of Georgia's most vulnerable citizens out of the way of an incoming hurricane?"

She says the logistics need to be planned far in advance.

"Those will be folks, mainly in nursing homes, who would be harder to move and would take longer to move," she says.

"How many people do we have down there that might need an ambulance," says Curry.  "Do they need full life support?  Would they be able to be transported on a motor coach?  And how would we get those transportation services to those folks?"

To figure this all out the exercise involves the Georgia State Patrol, the National Guard, private industries like motor coach and ambulance servers, along with hospitals and nursing homes.

"We need to know how many people are there so we can be ready," says Curry.

In all the hurricane preparedness exercise, operating in both Atlanta and Savannah, will use more than 200 people.

And even though the Georgia coast has not taken a direct hit from a hurricane in over a century, Curry says that doesn't matter.

"We get that a lot," says Curry.  "This could be the year that a hurricane could threaten the coast of Georgia."