On May 9 and 10, 2007 various local and regional emergency management officials gathered in Bossier City at the Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness for a state wide computerized command post exercise about an approaching fictional category 3 hurricane named “Dean.”  The exercise, hosted by the Louisiana Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness (GOHSEP), was designed as a test for the state in the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

On display was the response of south Louisiana parishes in evacuating from an approaching storm and of parish emergency planners in northern Louisiana in establishing and managing the potential arrival of thousands of general population and special needs evacuees seeking shelter.

The local Office of Homeland Security staff in partnership with the American Red Cross, local personnel from Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals, Region #7 Medical Emergency Coordinators, along with representatives from Desoto and Claiborne Homeland Security Offices, participated in the two day exercise. During the drill, the Governor's Office of Homeland Security used a new state-wide command and control system called Web-based Emergency Operations Center (WEB-EOC). The local Caddo-Bossier homeland security office was the first to use this system after hurricanes Katrina and Rita and it worked so well that the rest of the state has decided to follow. “Northwest Louisiana and in particular Caddo-Bossier was cited as a model of command efficiency by the national Department of Homeland Security for use of this real-time command and control system during America’s worst natural disaster "says LTC Gene Barattini, Assistant Director of Operations for CBOHSEP. "Now all seven of our north Louisiana parishes are connected with this excellent incident command system via our in-house WEB-EOC network. Through that, we have instant contact with the state officials in Baton Rouge. What a quantum improvement from Hurricane Katrina.”