Sunday, March 26, 2006
leave a trail of Civil Defense brand cracker crumbs and you'll be fine
I was just reading more of the news out of Belarus. Just as with the Orange Revolution in the Ukraine, this is a very interesting story to follow. Remember, I was too young to realize the impact of the fall of Communism in the 1980's.
Well I want to explain the last few pictures I took (see sidebar). Saturday morning I attended a search and rescue exercise in Pawtucket. The event was sponsored by the local Red Cross Chapter and involved represtitives from local firsst responders and CERT teams. It was...interesting. If you've been following the news lately than you know the mess the Red Cross is going through right now, at a national level as well as at many local chapters. Rhode Island is in that (sinking) boat unfortunately. The drill was effective to me because it was the first search and rescue drill I had atteneded and I was able to attend and watch the event as an communications evaluator. I have an associate I work with who was asked to evaluate the communications throughout the event, and knowing my emergency management interest he asked if I wanted to help out, which I accepted without hesitation.
I'll be anxious to hear about the de-briefing and reports that come out of this event. I know through conversations and eavesdropping (I loved being an evaluator--I could do this job for life! Become really good at something and then evaluate others regarding the subject...fits my personality perfectly. Be a fly on the wall...) with individuals there (participants and evaluators) during and afterwards that there were many things I found going wrong that others saw as well.
So I'm interested to see if those things make the reports, as well as the (pages of) feedback I supplied from only my communications point of view.
I'm trying to be nice and level-minded about the event, however in my opinion the drill did not run smoothly; this is thinking from the perspective of the person who was lost. If I was stranded in the woods, I sure wouldn't want the search teams leaders to take an hour and a half to prepare (after arriving half an hour late) while volunteer teams sat around awaiting instruction before departing out to search. That's just me though. And maybe if this was an actual event it would have run differently. Still, don't you think that the true purpose of a full-scale drill is not to show up and compare equipment and ba back for lunch precisely at noon, regardless of the outcome of the drill, but instead to treat the entire event as if it were reality?
What's my point in all this: don't get lost. And if you do get lost, be prepared for survival. The Democrat in me believes in the power of a strong national government to support the individual in times of need; the Republican in me says the local areas should be even more prepared and focused...with monetary assistance from the Federal level, of course; and the realist in me says prepare yourself and be aware of the dangers of life. (warning: what follows are emergency management cliches and/or double talk. proceed with caution!) We need to move beyond a culture of dependency. We can't always control our hazards, but we can control our own vulnerabilities. Through education we can become aware; when we become aware we increase the chances of survival in desparate times. As crazy as that sounds, unfortunately after Katrina this is all too real. This should be the mindset of every American right now. I'm not saying build a bunker and stock up on supplies--although... ¶ 3/26/2006 03:56:00 PM
Well I want to explain the last few pictures I took (see sidebar). Saturday morning I attended a search and rescue exercise in Pawtucket. The event was sponsored by the local Red Cross Chapter and involved represtitives from local firsst responders and CERT teams. It was...interesting. If you've been following the news lately than you know the mess the Red Cross is going through right now, at a national level as well as at many local chapters. Rhode Island is in that (sinking) boat unfortunately. The drill was effective to me because it was the first search and rescue drill I had atteneded and I was able to attend and watch the event as an communications evaluator. I have an associate I work with who was asked to evaluate the communications throughout the event, and knowing my emergency management interest he asked if I wanted to help out, which I accepted without hesitation.
I'll be anxious to hear about the de-briefing and reports that come out of this event. I know through conversations and eavesdropping (I loved being an evaluator--I could do this job for life! Become really good at something and then evaluate others regarding the subject...fits my personality perfectly. Be a fly on the wall...) with individuals there (participants and evaluators) during and afterwards that there were many things I found going wrong that others saw as well.
So I'm interested to see if those things make the reports, as well as the (pages of) feedback I supplied from only my communications point of view.
I'm trying to be nice and level-minded about the event, however in my opinion the drill did not run smoothly; this is thinking from the perspective of the person who was lost. If I was stranded in the woods, I sure wouldn't want the search teams leaders to take an hour and a half to prepare (after arriving half an hour late) while volunteer teams sat around awaiting instruction before departing out to search. That's just me though. And maybe if this was an actual event it would have run differently. Still, don't you think that the true purpose of a full-scale drill is not to show up and compare equipment and ba back for lunch precisely at noon, regardless of the outcome of the drill, but instead to treat the entire event as if it were reality?
What's my point in all this: don't get lost. And if you do get lost, be prepared for survival. The Democrat in me believes in the power of a strong national government to support the individual in times of need; the Republican in me says the local areas should be even more prepared and focused...with monetary assistance from the Federal level, of course; and the realist in me says prepare yourself and be aware of the dangers of life. (warning: what follows are emergency management cliches and/or double talk. proceed with caution!) We need to move beyond a culture of dependency. We can't always control our hazards, but we can control our own vulnerabilities. Through education we can become aware; when we become aware we increase the chances of survival in desparate times. As crazy as that sounds, unfortunately after Katrina this is all too real. This should be the mindset of every American right now. I'm not saying build a bunker and stock up on supplies--although... ¶ 3/26/2006 03:56:00 PM
