Disaster response equipment

[TF Medic]

My service is standing up a FEMA disaster response team that I volunteered for. I am putting together a bag with personal items for this and am looking for advice from others who have done this type of work. What were you glad you brought? What did you not bring but wish you would have?

My employer provides all medical supplies/equipment, this is for personal items only. I am an experienced backpacker and hunter and I'm comfortable living out of a backpack for a while. I have what I consider obvious choices selected, I'm looking for things that came in handy that might not be obvious until you've done this sort of thing. Thanks for your help.

 

[DesertMedic66]

This is a really good list that is made by AMR with some FEMA recommendations. Aside from those things on the list baby wipes or any type of cleansing wipe will become very popular on deployments.

 

[TF Medic]

Thanks, that is a good list. Anyone else?

 

[CALEMT]

As a seasonal we had "out of county bags" that we put on the engine. It took a couple fires to get it dialed. Everyone sets their stuff up differently but what I had in mine was:
Personal hygiene kit (shower stuff, shaving, etc.) PT shoes
Uniform t-shirts (about 8) Shower towel
Uniform pants (2) PT shorts
Civilian shirt (1) Sleeping bag
Civilian pants or shorts (1) Cell phone charger
Socks (around 5 pairs) Shower shoes
Underwear (around 8 pairs) Extra PPE (brush gear)
Regular shoes Sweatshirt or Jacket

Pretty sure I may be missing a thing or two but you get the gist of it. Desert's list is far better for the type of responses that you're talking about. We would stay in hotels (most of the time) and have hot chow. I've never been on a FEMA disaster response, but what I have been on is a lot of wild land fires with many different agencies/ departments. Oh and I should also mention is that we would go out of county numerous times, but I never (or heard of) going out of state.

 

[escapedcaliFF]

My engine (NPS Fire) was on strike team rotation and we got called out to Arizona from where I use to be in Central Komifornia. We always had our individual 14 day pack on the engine. Mine consisted of 7 pairs shocks/underwear, 3 tshirts, sleeling bag, water filter, one man tent, sleeping pad, extra pair of brush pants and top, toiletries, extra cell phone charger, and that was pretty much it. We ended up 12 days in Arizona then where sent on a 3 day drive across country to Hurricane Sandy. Spent 17 days there doing recovery operations but slept every night in a hotel. Level 1 and 2 incident teams all have a ton of support contractors deployed with them and tends to become a giant army with everything from contractor catering serving steak and lobster to fuel tanker truck fueling points. After 9/11 and Katrina they really went crazy with the spending and the idea of ICS. Each region has Iccident command teams of different levels from all pulled from the alphabet soup of government agencies. It just depends on the level of a disaster and what to expect. You might spend every night in a hotel or be sleeping out of your rig like a gypsy.

 

[Ewok Jerky]

After about 5 days a decent base of operations should be in place with soap, potable water, toothpaste, xtra socks and such. So I packed my bag with 5 days worth of crap, mostly based on the template @DesertEMT66 posted.

For me crucial items included 5 pairs of socks (I like clean socks especially when I'm not able to shower), some sort of water flavoring syrup to counter the water tab flavor, AA and AAA batteries plus batteries for my flashlight, a roll of tp, baby wipes, ChapStick, sunblock, tums and some OTC meds like nsaids and allergy pills for myself, and if course a decks of cards with cribbage board, I also keep a pocket version of the tao te ching (or your ancient text of choice) stashed in there too.

All the toiletries (toothpaste, deoderant etc.) Are all travel size and fit into a smallish toiletries bag. You will have access to everything after a couple days.