An ERJ-170 crew; with only minutes to prepare for a possible emergency evacuation due to a failed left engine; calmly accomplished all required preparations and; while prepared for the worst; managed a safe; uneventful and responsibly managed completion of the flight.

Narrative

Our flight left on time and with about 58 minutes to go I went to the flight deck where the Captain informed me of the remaining time. When I left the flight deck I finished cleaning my galley and took my garbage to the back galley. I felt the start of descent so I headed to the front of the aircraft. As I got to row four a triple chime sounded and I saw the emergency red light flashing. Both flight attendants immediately grabbed our phones. The First Officer advised we had a minimum time; planned evacuation emergency situation. He calmly let us know we had a left engine failure and that we had eight minutes to prepare the cabin. He advised we wouldn't have to do the brace command as we should have a normal landing and that we would have the fire department follow us to the gate. Then; while the First Officer was doing his passenger briefing; the other flight attendant and I secured our galleys; checked the bathrooms and locked them.I then read the 'Emergency Landing Cabin Preparation' as my partner did the demo. We both walked through the cabin and made sure the passengers didn't have any questions and that they were in compliance and had their seat belts fastened. When we heard the previously briefed landing alert from the cockpit we secured ourselves in our jump seats. We had a normal landing without further incident and were able to go to the gate and deplane the aircraft normally. I feel that part of the reason we had a successful emergency landing was because our training department has done an excellent job of preparing us for this type of emergency situation.