"No single agency will be able to come in and save the day in a disaster." Common sense tells us that, and anyone who didn't know that before hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans certainly must know it now. "In 95% of situations the victim or a bystander is the first to respond." Those quotes are from Regina Chapline at a conference late last month at the Permian Basin Regional Citizen Corp Conference held in Odessa, Texas. Ms. Chapline is the Texas Citizen Corps Manager, and she was one of several educational and entertaining speakers addressing the theme of "Energizing Community Resources"
September is National Preparedness Month but many of the attendees had gotten a head start. So what are they preparing for? Well, in this part of the world we've got wild fires, structure fires and refinery fires to name a few. Plus there's often the threat of a tornado. And there's the possibility of a terrorist attack, although in my opinion, the most tempting terrorist target would be a place where national TV saturation coverage would be more convenient.
There were Citizen Emergency Response Team CERT volunteers in attendance from various area communities, and they demonstrated some of their skills. For example, a squad from Big Spring demonstrated triage and first aid, and a group from Pecos demonstrated cribbing. "What's cribbing" you ask? Cribbing is the use of poles, boards and leverage to lift fallen objects off of people.
See some training photos here showing various CERT training segments, e.g., fire suppression, search and rescue, cribbing and triage, or check out the CERT training videos on basic first aid.
Find a CERT program in your neighborhood here. Do-it-yourselfers can take online tutorials -- pass the test and print your very own certificate! Or download the instructor and student materials from this site.
Here are some more highlights from the July conference. Charles F. "Buck" Hamilton (CV-pdf) provided a common sense way to set priorities in an emergency:
Hierarchy of response:
take care of yourself;
take care of your family;
take care of your neighbors;
take care of your community; and
take care of your state and nation.
Greg Clark of Wal-Mart told about something few people would know about unless they've actually been in a disaster. Wal-Mart is the supplier for everyday essentials in many communities, and if the Wal-Mart store gets shut down there could be some real shortages. So the company has an emergency operations center staffed 24 hours a day to help the company and communities deal with disaster. See Wal-Mart Disaster Relief for details.
And let's not forget amateur radio operators. Their ability to communicate is a tremendous asset during disasters. And just about anyone can take the test and become an amateur technician. Heck, even I passed the darn thing. But if you do, use it. Don't be like me and get the license then do nothing with it. You don't have to learn Morse Code, but if you've read this far then give yourself a treat and watch this skit from Jay Leno's show in which a couple of guys in bow ties and green eye shades use Morse Code in a speed competition with a couple of cell phone texters: short version; long version.
As the scouts say, "be prepared."
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