In Case Of Emergency, Read Blog

A reader and contributor to this blog, Bruce Curley, sent me a link to his blog, PoetsLife, with some photos of a disaster exercise in which he played a victim (see bandaged man below) held earlier this month in Carroll County, Maryland. The scenario tested in the drill was a tornado touching down on a family picnic at the Farm Museum of Carroll County grounds. 

Periodically, I post photos of my own participation in drills and other CERT activities. But Bruce gave me the idea to ask if others would send me shots of their participation. I think that seeing these pictures will help illustrate the work that citizen volunteer can do in emergency preparation. I think they may encourage other readers to take part in CERT, the Red Cross, the Medical Reserve Corps or other citizen disaster volunteer organizations. What you can see from these photos is that civilians can really help emergency personnel practice their preparation and response. Plus, for the citizen, it can be fascinating, community-building, and even fun. Below his photos, Bruce has provided an interesting and descriptive write up of his experiences in this drill and an another exercise.

So, whenever you have a photo or photos of a drill or other disaster volunteer activity you have participated in, please email them to me along with a short description of what’s going on and maybe what you learned. And I’ll post it for others to see.

BRUCE CURLEY – CARROLL COUNTY, MD

Bruce Curley’s  writeup:

On two Saturday’s recently, I was a Community Emergency Reserve Team (CERT) volunteer “victim” in the EPLEX exercise at BWI Airport (http://poetslife.blogspot.com/search/label/Emergency%20Exercise) and the Carroll County tornado exercise at the Farm Museum in Westminster, MD. (http://poetslife.blogspot.com/search/label/Tornado%20Emergency%20Exercise). At EPLEX, I played a six-year old plane crash survivor with an eye ball hanging out. At the Farm Museum I played someone who was “killed” from flying debris at a family picnic that was hit by a tornado. 

Both involved large numbers of players, i.e. state and local police, sheriffs, firefighters, emergency medical technicians, incident commanders, evaluators, other volunteers, communications personnel, hazardous material teams, collapsed building recovery teams, K-9 teams, search and rescue, etc. The players got to practice and sharpen their skills for the real event. I got to offer myself as a “victim” which helps the players train, respond, and practice skills (like triage) in a realistic setting. I also get to meet and know the emergency professionals I will assist when a natural or man-made disaster strikes next.

I like talking to and laughing with the other CERT and student service-hour volunteers at these exercises. I always come away from them confident that, as Americans, we can better handle disasters because we’ve exercised in between the last disaster and the inevitable next one. And, I’m grateful that the dedicated and skilled professionals I observe at these exercises are so willing to give of their time, talent and energy on a day off.