Scenerio ; It's the big one !!!

[certguy]

A while back on another site I posted a scenerio similar to this one . I was surprised by the results . I'm posting this one to see how you guys do .


It's 9:30 am on a cold december day in your central CA town . It's 37 degrees by your thermometer and light rain with snow flurries is falling . As you're getting ready for church your town is suddenly wracked by a magnitude 7 earthquake . You and your family barely get out of the house in time as it collapses . You're stunned for a minute or two till your training kicks in and you start triaging your family . Thank god you all made it out with only minor lacs , bruises and abrasions . Your wife takes care of the kids while you secure the gas and electricity to prevent a fire . You realize with relief , as you enter your backyard that your camping trailer which also has your disaster supplies in it , made it through okay . You tell the family to stay put for now after starting the heater and start checking on your nieghbors .


There are 3 houses near you . 1 fully involved in fire , the other 2 collapsed . At the first house where an elderly couple live , the wife is walking outside with a possible fx. right wrist and several lacs hysterically calling for her husband who she says is inside . You call out and get no answer . For now you leave her with your wife as there are no communications working but your ham radio . At the other house you call out but there's no answer . You're pretty sure that family had already left for church . You try to get help on the radio and find out your town's completely cut off by damaged bridges and large rockslides . No first responders can reach the area . You remember your town has a CERT ( community emergency response team ) with a disaster trailer and where thier staging area is . You load your pt. into your SUV and go there .


On your arrival , there are 8 CERT members there , 5 others are unaccounted for , possibly pts. Some are gathering intell and others already setting up a triage / treatment area . They're also already getting pts. These volunteers are given basic training in disaster first aid , START triage , treatment area setup , ICS , small fire suppression , LIGHT urban search and rescue ( can enter lightly to moderately damaged buildings only ) and leveraging and cribbing . Thier trailer is set up to support this mission . They're trained to get things rolling till the first responders arrive , then work under them . With a sinking feeling , you realize you're the only first responder that's made it there , though several live in town . You talk to the team leader and reluctantly become the IC .


The situation sucks . There are 5 churches in town , all of which were in services when the quake hit . You also have a 30 pt. board and care facility that has minimal staff on weekends . You haven't heard from any of these yet . There are reports of multiple structure fires , multiple trapped victims in damaged buildings , downed power lines , MVA's , gas leaks etc. You thank god it's winter and you don't have to worry about wildfires or hordes of tourists . Through a ham radio operator , you contact the duty FD BC , who informs you one of the valley's three fire stations collapsed , injuring the crew and putting the rigs out of service . The valley's 6 ambulances are okay but so far they only have crews for 4 . Your valley , as is your community is completely cut off and the weather's too bad for helos to get in yet . You tell the chief you now have 50 - 60 pts. in the treatment area . Many are red tags . The chief says you're on your own for now .


Your community does have resources . You have a medical clinic ( closed when the quake hit ) an equipment rental yard , a rafting company ( several buses , and extra medical supplies among other goodies ) 3 mini mart type stores , and 2 forst service campgrounds .


Your first dilema . Though you're getting some spontaneous volunteers , do you send out search and rescue teams or dig in and let the pts come to you till you get more help ? It's your show now . YOU are the IC.

 

[TKO]

I'll start this off, but I'm not going the whole route.

I'm going to organize. Need ppl to run the home show: communications, staging and treatment, equipment and operations, and intel.

Next I'm going to get Search & Rescue moving. Start with a couple of reconn units (partners in vehicles). Need to know where we've been hit worst and our priority spots. Is the mall full of people and now collapsed or is there an electrical tower over the senior's complex down? They can also educate citizens they come upon to find shelter or care back at the CERT area. Those citizens not injured can be effectively utilized as well in sweep lines.

The SAR members will conduct outword sweep lines, not entering buildings so much as calling for survivors to respond. Those house can then be tagged or marked as clear or priority rescue required, until more manpower is secured.


Do the most with the little you have until you have more to do more with. This scene demands action and action demands intel. There's going to be anarchy but you have to keep it together and focus on delegating. You can't be involving yourself in matters that monopolize you.

 

[certguy]

Hi TKO ,
Mall ? Senior complex ? I think you've got your area in mind which is good and one of the goals of this scenerio . You may be talking about the board and care though . We do have a senior apt. complex in another town in the valley but not part of this scenerio .


You have a very small staff and a very big pt. load . Do you really have the manpower to do search and rescue ? It's now 5 hours into the disaster , the weather's getting worse , and you have over 200 pts. with the number still growing . A motor home and 2 pickups just pulled into your triage area , all packed with pts.

Some help is trickling in . A doctor , 2 RN's , 3 cna's , 2 firefighters , 2 medics , 2 off - duty sheriff's deputies , and about 30 spontaneous volunteers .

I forgot to mention in resources the rental yard has several large outdoor propane heaters available and there's a propane supply company next door with 2 fully loaded 1,000 gal. tankers .

You have several problems to deal with ;

Shelter for your pts. and staff .
Warmth for them .
Public health's becoming a problem , there's no water for toilets .
Water for drinking and pt. care .
Resupply for your treatment area .
Where can you set up LZ's for the choppers when the weather clears ?
How are you going to get your pts. there ?
Lighting for the treatment area , the CERT trailer has 1 generator and 2 pole lights , will that be enough ?
Food for your people and rehab for your workers .


How are you going to pull this off ? I.C.S.

 

[certguy]

Oh come on guys !
Is TKO the only one willing to try this one ? This one's a challenge , but it's also a situation any of us could get caught in someday . In a large disaster , you're not always going to have hordes of mutual aid coming right away . You very well may find yourself on your own with only community resources . This scenerio is designed to get you thinking about what you may face in your community , how you would handle it , and how to utilize what resources the town has till the calvary can get there .


This is an intimidating scenerio , but not as much as you think . Here in CA , unfortunately , we've had a lot of experience with disasters and that is why the Incident Command System ( ICS ) was started here . I don't know if the entire country is using this yet , but they should . CERT members are also trained in this . There's only 1 incident commander ( for this scenerio , you ) Responsibilities are then delegated , with each person in charge of no more than 5 to 7 people or units , and can be easily expanded or shrunk as the need arises . Here's the basic layout ;



Incident Commander ( IC )


Operations Logistics Planning Administration
Chief Chief Chief Chief



For this scenerio , we won't worry about admin . Operations would entail all medical , search and rescue , and fire suppression/utility control functions . Logistics is your support section , and planning gathers intel , sets objectives , and plans how to achieve them .


How would you put this system to work for you in thsi scenerio ???


Hint ; Each chief would have dept. heads working under them with crews under thier command .

 

[Sapphyre]

Ok, I'll try. Keep in mind, my ICS experiance/training is not in this type of response.

With 8 CERT members, 3 of them are going to become my section chiefs. I'd start out figuring who's best at scrounging, that one is my Logistics (because anyone who's worked in an ICS situation for a big show knows that if logistics sucks, your response is going no where fast). Hopefully one of the other CERT people is a decent CFR (I think that's what we're calling them now) so that they can be Operations' Medical Branch Director.

Logistics' job will be to sort out the issues with heating/shelter/lighting/sanitation/etc. Operations will direct any SAR activities. My recommendation, though, would be to use those 4 ambulance crews, 2 of them at the staging area to help with medical care of those people who've found us, and the other two doing the door to door calls. I would recommend that they not attempt to enter any structure that appears to be damaged, and to be very careful of the ones they do enter. I would also recommend to the Medical Branch that any functional patient, once their needs have been seen to, be put to work helping others, at least until we get more volunteers. Um, that's it for now.

 

[certguy]

Not a bad start Saphire , but remember , you don't have those 4 ambulances , they can't get to you and are in fact , the only ambulances for our entire valley with 12 communities . There is also a small hospital in our valley , but again , you can't get there from here . Time to get creative .

 

[certguy]

Maybe this would be a better way to do this ;

Anybody up for a little role playing ? I need ;


IC


OPS LOGISTICS PLANS




Let's set up our own ICS .

 

[Sapphyre]

I'm game. Up for any of the chief positions, including IC. Certguy, since this is your scenario, I nominate you for Plans/Intel, unless you just want to be sysop

 

[Capt.Hook]

I don't think I can go very far either, so I won't try at the entire ICS yet. My primary concern is medical, of course. 6 rigs, ALS or BLS?. Even with crews for 4, lets get all 6 rolling. The crews could split, possibly using other responders as helpers.

I would dig in at first. We can't afford to compound the problem. HQ and Triage #1 priority. The doc and RNs will run the clinic. Although short staffed, other volunteers will pitch in. The cops will command primary SAR, with the medics jumping in to aid the ambulances.

As mentioned, nothing happens until our base is set. Assuming cell service is out, correct? We'd use a runner system in reliable cars to transport info. The rental yard and propane supplier are needed for a temporary heat source, either in a building or possible rental tents. Of course we'd take care for venting.

Water. Firehouses are damaged, but can a truck be salvaged to pump clean water from a well? I'd have a firefighter take that to task. Enough homes are able to provide containers for clean water storage. A CERT will head up the task of provisional "looting" for usable tioletries and food.

We have to find out the availabilty of aid. Choppers? Let them pick an LZ. They can see the damage much better that me, at this point. Maybe 1 or 2ambulances can transport to awaiting helos once things are set up.


Shoot, can't play anymore. Gotta go.

 

[certguy]

Okay Sappyre ,

I'll take plans . I'd like to see how you'll do in logistics . If you check back in the scenerio , you'll see what you've got to work with . All we need now is El Jeffe ( IC ) and an ops officer .

 

[Capt.Hook]

Whoops. I just checked back and saw those other posts. I'll try to play again.

 

[Sapphyre]

So, you want to be Ops or IC?

 

[certguy]

Sorry about the way the flow charts got messed up . The computer crunched them together .

OUR MISSION IS TO DO THE GREATEST GOOD FOR THE GREATEST NUMBER OF PEOPLE .

Plans is up and running . Here's the latest intel . ;

Largest rescue problems are at the churches . All 5 report moderate to heavy damage with multiple trapped victims in each . The uninjured are attempting to rescue as many as possible and get them to you . All churches report they had at least 100 in attendance when the quake hit , many kids are involved .


The board and care has collapsed . Cries for help can be heard , but no one made it out .

There are 16 active structure fires . ( and no fire engines )

120 reports of trapped victims in structures .

6 MVA's , 2 with pinned in victims .

16 reports of downed power lines .

26 reports of blocked streets due to debris , trees , or large cracks .

Though there is no electricity for the community's water pumps , the town's 5 large gravity fed water tanks are intact , probably with safe water .

2 water tenders have showed up at the CP and are staging . Only 1 can carry potable water .

Though the roads are impassable , the other obstacle between your pts. and the hospital is a large lake . It could be hazardous and would take time to set up , but a boat shuttle could be organized .

So far , there's been very little looting . The stores still have most of thier stock , 3 of them are also gas stations , but there's no electricty for the pumps .

I recommend when IC decides to send out S&R teams , the priority should be the churches , followed by the board and care .

The weather shows no signs of clearing , recommend setting up the shuttle till the choppers can get in .

Spontaneous volunteers in staging now number about 120 , and 4 more off duty FF's have showed up . ! county , 2 USFS , 1 BLM .

Your original personnel are getting pretty tired and hungry , they need relief .

 

[rescuepoppy]

The Big One

OK playing out as a table top I'll take rescue ops. First thing I want is to try to establish some communications,maybe raiding electronics stores or others for walkies and the like. find out if we have anySAR trained people on hand they will be your team leaders. Send out teams to do mostly surface search for any survivors that can be reached without a lot of time or effort,use cars trucks and buses to transport back to where the med facility is set up. At this time with the equipment and personell you have you are not going to get in to any heavy rescue. Use whatever is on hand to get to and transport injured,it would be nice to have medical personell out with the teams but probably not possible at this time so all patients will have to be transported to be triaged at medical facility.Not to sound like the voice of doom and gloom but any person trapped deeply in any rubble is going to have to wait until further help can arrive.Also try to organise doorto door search to check well being of those in homes or businesses that dont appear to be damaged.

 

[Sapphyre]

Ok, I'm sending out a team of two of our spontaneous volunteers to go raid a grocery/convience store for food, and at the moment bottled water, for at the command post/medical.

While that's being taken care of, it's time to start rotating out our staff. The fresh FF volunteers, I'm going to suggest to staff medical (med ops, do you approve?)

Is the town's medical clinc intact, and does it have a generator? I realize it's most likely small, but, to me, that seems a logical treatment area.

For general shelter, time to get those heaters and tents from the rental company and get them set up. Does the rafting company happen to have cots, or at least those self inflating full length cushions that backpackers tend to carry? What about sleeping bags and/or blankets? I suppose if we have to, we can use the rafts themselves. Given the temperatures, anyone sleeping outside really should be off the ground.

This is a stressful situation for all involved, as the staffers are also victims. I want to limit shifts to 8 hours at a time, personnel providing. During briefings (are we doing briefings?) I'm going to emphasize the importance of keeping an eye not just on our patients, but on our workers, lets look for signs of overwhelming stress, and give any of those affected a break, or at least time to vent/cry/scream, then maybe move them to a job that's a bit less demanding for the time being (that is, if they are capable of working).

The non-potable water truck, does it have a pump on it? If so, he's going to the lake to provide water for the toilets.

Would we happen to have a fuel tanker in town? If so, I'm using it to directly tap the tanks at the gas stations to keep the vehicles we're using running.

I would like to test the water in the gravity fed tanks before we start tapping those and distributing the contents. The other option, assuming we have the staffing, is to simply filter and apply bleach treatment, just in case. Don't want to have to deal with intestinal issues caused by the food/water we're distributing on top of the issues directly caused by the quake.

 

[certguy]

This will be the Wofford incident . Wofford ops , there are no electronics stores , however , 8 ham radio operators are now at staging . Contact logistics if you want to deploy them .


Wofford logistics from plans , I have the following info for you . The clinic is moderately damaged , but scroungable , overhanging powerlines are a hazard . Reccomend treatment stays where it is .

The non potable water tender does have a pump , but given the probability of septic system damage , would good lod fashioned latrines be better ? That would free this tender to give us a little firefighting capability . Draft from the lake .

No fuel tanker in town .

Ops And logistics , did you get that ?

 

[rescuepoppy]

ThE BIG ONE

Lets get the hams spread around to the areas with the most probability of larger number of patients. leave at least two at CP one for ops com the other trying to contact outside for back-up. Remember evene if repeaters are down we can still use simplex for coms between those that have it

 

[Sapphyre]

Roger, Plans.

Sending out a couple volunteers to the clinic for all the supplies they can find. Perhaps we have someone who works there and is aware of where everything is?

When you say latrines, are you talking about the type that need to be dug, or the port-a-johns? If we're digging latrines, we need some volunteers to get on that, and also to contruct some sort of enclosure for privacy/heat (and to contain the odor).

Ok, about the HAM operators, do they have alternate power source radios with them? HT's are ok, but, I'd like to see mobiles. Mobiles=more power=better distance, even on simplex. Base stations are great too, if they're alternate power source, with a decent antenna (that is at the location of the radio).

Unfortunate on the fuel tanker, will continue to consider methods of accessing the fuel at the gas stations, eventually the gas in our vehicles is going to start to run dry.

Going to reassign our firefighters to fighting some of the fires. Concentrate on fires that will easily spread, isolated fires can burn themselves out.

What do we have as far as boats, powered and manual? How many of our fresh volunteers have any sort of medical training (FA, FR, even if it's years old, I'll count)?

 

[certguy]

We still need an IC . Any takers ?

Logistics from plans - yes , I do mean the old fashioned ones you dig . The forest service campgrounds have porta potties , but remember , they'll need to be serviced , and we don't have that capability . The hams came dressed for the party , HT's , mobiles , a pickup set up as a mobile comm center with multi band capability , and thier own generators , antennas , batteries , a mobile home , food , water , and other assorted goodies . Logistics , you now have the following that has arrived in staging ;

A local contractor has sent 2 backhoes , 1 dump truck , 1 utility truck with assorted hand tools , 4 pole lights , and a trailer mounted generator .

A tree trimming company has 2 cherry pickers , chainsaws , and a crew of 4 for you .

The rafters have arrived with 3 buses , 2 loaded with supplies , 16 rafts , 4 guides who are wilderness EMT certified , and the owner says he has another bus and a 12 passenger van available but has no more drivers . Don't you just love rafters ?

About 20 construction workers have showed up willing to help .

A local ranch has sent a flatbed with a pump and 200 gal. tank on it as well as 3 of thier wranglers .

We now have a vintage crown engine , operational , with most of the gear it would need and 3 retired LA county FF's ( they were restoring it ) .

2 resteraunts are offering thier food , it'll spoil if not used .

The local Red Cross rep. states the building normally used for a shelter is unusable . He'd like to set up a tent city in the campgrounds for survivors . Salvation army will assist with feeding .

A local tow company has 2 towtrucks with jacks and prybars available .



Ops from plans - Check with logistics she has some things you may need . The CERT trailer does have pry bars , cribbing , and light rescue tools .

Conditions on the lake are still bad . High winds and large waves . Reccomend we delay the shuttle if we do it .

OPS FROM RESCUE TEAM 1 - PRIORITY TRAFFIC , A SMALL FIRE IS STARTING AT THE FOURSQUARE CHURCH , WE HAVE ROUGHLY 40 TRAPPED VICTIMS THERE , REQUEST FIRE EQUIPMENT ASAP .

 

[certguy]

Ops from plans - NWS is predicting clearing and warmer weather within the next 12 to 24 hours .


Logistics from plans - lake patrol has 2 boats available for use if and when we do the shuttle .