Bishop - Tribes test disaster preparedness skills

Earthquakes, floods, storms and terrorist attacks can come without warning and have the ability to cripple public health and safety organizations. And in a county as isolated as Inyo, residents must be prepared for the worst.
That’s why 30 tribal members from Independence, Big Pine, Bishop and Benton gathered last week for a comprehensive disaster management course on the Bishop reservation.
The 20-hour, three-day training program, which is funded and taught by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the California Governor’s Office, takes participants through some of the scenarios that could crop up in the case of a disaster, teaching them how to organize an incident management team, safely battle fires, search for survivors and provide medical aid to injured individuals.
The program culminated Thursday afternoon with a simulated disaster, complete with victims, fires and other hazards, and an opportunity for program participants to put their newfound knowledge to use.
“This program is designed to educate people on how to prepare for a disaster,” said FEMA representative and one of the primary teachers for the course, Brian Smith. “Basically, we’re teaching them survival in that case.”
Participants learn the basic incident command structure, which places an incident commander and secretary at a hub, or safe location.

Those individuals will communicate and oversee several smaller groups with assigned tasks. For instance, during Thursday’s drill, the incident commander kept tabs on the movements and progress of three groups: fire, triage (medical) and search and rescue.

A group of disaster drill participants carry an “injured” resident to safety Thursday on the Bishop Paiute Reservation. The crew was taught to use any means necessary to get people to safety, thus the team used a table as a stretcher to remove the injured man from a damaged structure. Photo by Mike Gervais

In the event of a real disaster, the incident commander would probably manage several more groups in each of those categories, sending them to different parts of the community to help residents affected by the disaster.
“We have several modules we teach,” said Smith. “We prepare them for fire safety, medical operations, search and rescue, disaster psychology, organization and what to do in a terrorist attack incident.”
Every one of those skills was put to the test during the training exercise on the last day of the program.
Disaster management teachers divided the group in half, with 15 left to select an incident commander and divide themselves up into the three teams, fire, search and rescue and medical.
Then, with the incident commander managing the teams from the Tribal Elders building on Barlow Lane via walkie talkie, the teams set out to aid victims of a mock earthquake.
The necessity of disaster psychology became very apparent right off the bat. As the teams reached the scene of the disaster a “victim” came to them in hysterics, pleading with them to enter a home and help her friends and family who had been injured.
The triage and search and rescue teams attempted to subdue the victim, as the fire management team entered the structure to check for fire, gas and structural dangers.
But the hysterical victim continued to prod the other teams, urging them to enter the possibly unsafe structure. The teams put their training to use and attempted to calm the injured individual as they waited for the all-clear from the fire crew.

A Tribal Emergency Response Team member tends to a critically injured resident during Thursday’s drill. The team began by checking the structure before prioritizing the injuries and treating victims. Photo by Mike Gervais

Once they entered the facility, crews found several victims with various injuries and some “deceased” individuals.
They set right to work, assessing each case as the victims were located. Team members were given cards to identify the individuals as a medical priority, someone who can wait for treatment or as a casualty.
Search and rescue team members did most of the assessments as medical team members went to work setting “broken bones,” finding splints, bandaging wounds and escorting hobbling people outside of the structure and to safety.
Search and Rescue teams also located two individuals who had been pinned under heavy debris in the “earthquake,” and went to work building small lifts out of four by four blocks to safely lift and hold the heavy objects off the injured people, and get them to safety.
Fire crews were called out to a back field where a “fire,” fueled by a propane prop manned by a FEMA trainer, broke out.
The crew went to work, utilizing the buddy system and fire extinguishers, and doused the blaze.
Once all the victims were secured and treated, class was called back into session, and instructors evaluated the teams on their handling of the disaster.
“At the end, we assess the situation, talk about what they did right and wrong, and they get their assignments and functions in case of a real-life disaster,” Smith said.
In addition to the training, FEMA and the Governor’s Office provide team members who attended the classes with a disaster management kit that includes hard hats, bandages, flashlights and other necessities for a disaster management crew.
Though they hope to never have to use them, the 30 individuals who participated in the training exercise are now equipped with skills to handle most any disaster, and lead their communities if law enforcement and public health entities are immobilized or overwhelmed with other tasks.