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Redding's Community Emergency Response Team
Volunteers are in demand
for Emergency Sheltering Drill
Apr 26, 2007
by MAR WALKER
If the recent statewide rains had been snow and ice storms, or had arrived with hurricane force winds, power outages might have left people shivering without heat or water for days. Many people might have needed temporary shelter.
With last week’s high water as a reminder, the town’s Community Emergency Response Team is planning an Emergency Sheltering Drill for May 5 from 9 to noon at Joel Barlow High School.
The state of Connecticut has provided cots to be set up in the school’s lower gym, which has shower facilities. The town of Bethel has lent a stock of two-way radios. Preparations are underway, and job assignments given, but one thing remains.
About 100 people are needed to come and pass through the shelter setup between 9 and noon on May 5. Each will receive a “scenario” and will be asked to give the information from the scenario to those manning the shelter’s various posts, according to town Health Officer Doug Hartline, who is in charge of logistics along with Jay Crawford.
Half an hour
“It shouldn’t take anyone more than a half-hour to 40 minutes” to go through the shelter’s various areas, Mr. Hartline said Tuesday.
CERT member Jean Adler offered homemade cookies for drill participants as an incentive to participate, and said they would have the chance to chat with their neighbors before heading off to the Frog Folic at the Community Center.
Flow
“The map looks complicated, but the shelter is simple,” Mr. Hartline told CERT members at a preparatory gathering at the school.
“People to be sheltered will be walking in the door by the gym. There will be a registration table. In the parking lot we will also have a greeter,” he said.
“Cots will be set up in the lower gym, which is where the showers are. The entire Barlow building is on generators,” Mr. Hartline said.
However, Barlow will not be running on the generators during the drill.
“It’s a whole process they have to go through. They have to reboot a lot of their systems, so we are not going to do that,” he said.
The generators, and the nearby accessible gym with showers and a cafeteria, and smaller rooms for communications, a clinic, behavioral issues, and a command center were some of the reasons Barlow was considered an idea location for such a shelter. First Selectman Natalie Ketcham and Emergency Management Director Joe Payola would determine if an emergency event warranted opening the town’s shelter. If so, the Community Emergency Response Team would be called out to open it.
Many tasks
Tina Crawford and Richard Hockman will be co-managing the shelter. Ms. Crawford, also an emergency medical technician, was a volunteer in Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina. She said she was hoping for a good turnout for the drill “The more, the merrier,” she said.
“It would be wonderful if we had the number of people that would make it seem real,” said CERTS member Jane Hamilton Merritt.
Ann Hawkins will oversee Disaster Health Care. Mr. Hartline said a lot of firefighters will be present and two EMTs from the fire department.
”They will be our triage team. They will determine does this person need to go to the hospital right away, they will get a sense for the immediate need for care,” he said.
Sharon Rehme, Commission for the Aging chairman, will provide social work services for families distressed by the emergency. Ms. Ketcham and Ms. Merritt will act as public information officers, and Jim Upton and Bob Spear will serve as both dormitory managers and to monitor security and safety.
Cross training
“Cross training is one thing that we learned was important when we participated in a shelter drill in New Milford,” Ms. Adler said. “You will notice everybody has two hats.”
Joan DeSalvo, Ms. Adler and Pat Rohe will take registrations; runners and greeters include Vanita Wagner, Margo Gross, Masaka Vigneault, Candy Wood and Vicky Holt.
Rocky Tomlinson, director of the Emergency and Community Services with the American Red Cross of Western Connecticut, was on hand to talk about the drill.
He said cots would be set up in one of two patterns in an emergency shelter, depending on how long people would need to be housed there. For an acute emergency where many people needed immediate temporary shelter, the cots could be set up with each having 12 square feet of space. If the average stay were anticipated as longer than a few days, each cot would be set up with 40 square feet of space.
Ms. Crawford said that in Louisiana, many family and neighbor groups circled their cots like a wagon train and contained young children within the circle.
Another aspect of the shelter, a facility for pets, will be erected this time in the parking lot, but in a real situation, nearer the exterior doors of the lower gym so pet owners could have easy access to care for their animals.
Radio protocol
Ham radio operator Joe deGroot gave instructions on how to use the two-way radio lent by the Bethel Health Department for the drill, and how to communicate effectively — to be quickly understood.
Mr. deGroot is a member of ARES, Amateur Radio Emergency Service, which supports emergency communications through ham radios. He gave instruction on the radios and was full of practical advice administered with humor.
“Why not cell phones?” Mr. deGroot said. “Cell service might not be available. Dialing and finding the right number takes time, and in a real disaster, everyone is calling and cells are jammed,” he said.
“Wouldn’t it be better to open seven smaller places around town, rather than just one?” someone asked during the preparations.
“If you are going to have a full-blown shelter, seven is an impractical number,” Mr. Tomlinson said. All of the functions would have to be duplicated times seven, and it would make reporting from each shelter very difficult. Instead of one call to see where your loved ones were, you might have to make seven calls.
Anyone interested in volunteering may simply go to Joel Barlow High School between 9 and noon on Saturday, May 5.
© Copyright 2007 by Hersam Acorn Newspapers |
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