I was 1 of 500 volunteers at a statewide disaster preparedness drill on Wednesday. The drill was suppose to simulate a terrorist attack at a concert which in reality was a small baseball stadium. Since my friend and I attended the event early, we were assigned the roles of being "victims" and be triaged based on our "injuries". Mine was being pregnant and a history of seizures.
Halfway through the exercise, we took a break for a BBQ lunch which we ate with lightning speed before all 500 evacuees were transported by a score of buses with 5 police motorcycle escorts to the evacuation center. Once at the center, we were required to wait in line and fill out a form so we could be interviewed and be medically treated. From a victim's point of view, I can't say it went very smoothly, but I hope the different agencies learned something.
- AV
Well that was exciting to read. Even tho it may not of gone smoothly i am sure something was learnt from it. I think when disaster strikes its pretty hard to for things to go smoothly. Thanks for the stop over on my blog i am going to check yours out more and come back.
ReplyDeleteThanks Lilli & Nevada for dropping by. It was definitely a learning experience for everyone. Come back soon and I'll go by your blog too.
ReplyDeleteNothing like some ribs after a hard day of disaster preparedness drills.
ReplyDelete~Oswegan
May we never need to use these preparedness lessons - the evacuation line looks the same as the lunch line. It is just scary to me
ReplyDeleteWe did one of these drills in Phoenix a couple of weeks ago. It take a lot of preparation to do one of these things. Thanks for sharing the photos.
ReplyDeleteI got to be a patient once and rode in an ambulance. I didn't care for it much. I gave my co-workers a hard time before they sent me off! I was told to play the injured part and so I did! lol
ReplyDeleteOswegan, it was more like a whole day of standing around in the hot sun. We definitely appreciated the lunch.
ReplyDeleteI too hope the agencies learned something from this. Our world has gone insane, doesn't look like we will ever learn to live in peace. Sigh.
ReplyDelete(Was that BBQ lunch tasty? I hope so! :)
Isadora, I agree with you about hoping never to need these. There were more people in the evacuation line which means we got our priorities straight.
ReplyDeleteMarsha, especially with 500+ people involved just in my county. Glad to see money was spent in doing something like this even if it looked chaotic at times.
ReplyDeleteDot, I was hoping to ride in an ambulance too since I've never been in one. Last time my friend did this, she almost got car sick when lying down in a stretcher and having the ambulance drive in circles to simulate it was going to the emergency room.
ReplyDeleteFenix, you're telling me, but glad that we have money to spend on drills like this. Yes, lunch was great as we were all hungry from acting dramatically. :)
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like a very interesting way to spend the day. Koodo's to you and your friend for volunteering for something so important.
ReplyDeleteLynne, it definitely was interesting and they needed our help otherwise they couldn't do the practice drill. Thanks for commenting. :)
ReplyDeleteI think this sounds interesting to be a part of, even if it wasn't as smooth as it could have been.
ReplyDeleteAbout your comment on Flat Stanley, wouldn't it be something if you knew one or more of those stormtroopers? How cosmic is that!
Lynette, I guess no drill will go smoothly so that's why they're training. It's a small world that Flat Stanley would have met some of my friends from the Pacific Northwest.
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