Earthquake

[certguy]

The point of this scenerio is ; What if you find yourself suddenly on your own in a widespread disaster with no backup ? You don't have a fancy unit to work out of , no FD backup , no PD . Those CERT personnel may be the only organized help you and your community see for a while . They may not be pros , but in a disaster they can and do save lives . In this scenerio as in the real thing , you have to come to the realization that you can't be everywhere at once , and there are a lot more pts. than you can handle . With a whole community involved , where do you set up your treatment area ? Many of us take for granted our normal resources and are in for a real eye opener when we have the big one . Are you and your family prepared ? Sounds like a DAH ! , but I'll bet some of you aren't . Do you have disaster supplies set aside ? Do you have a family plan ? Do they know how and when to shut off the utilities ? A family that's prepared is a family you don't have to worry about as much . Sometimes we're so busy teaching the community , we don't practice what we preach. Knowing you're area's disaster plan also helps , but just in case , don't be afraid to look at alternatives . What resources ( non - emergency ) are available in your area to help ? Picture the FDNY earthquake scenerio , how fast will they be overwhelmed ? I got you guys talking about the scenerio , anybody care to take it on ?

[certguy]

Hey Brentoli ,

Did you know during the Mexico City quake , spontanious volunteers saved over 800 lives but lost 100 of thier own doing it . CERT also trains people to do LIGHT urban search and rescue and how to do it more safely with the realization that people can and do jump in and help out in a disaster . Those 100 could've lived if they knew the do's and don'ts .

[AnthonyM83]

These CERT teams only give a false sense of security.

To who? Most citizens don't even know what the heck a CERT team is. To me it wold seem like societal fault to not have some kind of emergency plan with emergency volunteers setup, regardless of how well it'd actually turn out working...

[Scaramedic]

I answered your question Cert, I would try to find a triage point, i.e. where the pros/equipment are at or I would start taking care of people in the neighborhood.

If you are talking a massive wipe out the infra-structure type of scenario then odds are you are going to be on your own for awhile. CERT or no CERT, these things tend to get lost when a city is on it's ass. The only own people you will probably be able to help are those around you.

At this point your personal EMS supplies will last about five minutes. You should be ready to use anything handy. It becomes Macgyver medicine real quick. Ask your neighbors for towels, blankets, sheets, have them stock pile any water they have left. In the case of a massive city wide disaster you are going to have three classes of patients: dead, soon to be dead and alive. You are not going to be intubating or running arrests, dead is dead. In the case of an big earthquake (or worse a terrorist nuke attack if your talking big disasters) roads are going to be useless. Transport might not be able to get to your patients for days. You stabilize the ones that will live, i.e. yellows and greens, you organize the dead (black) and the soon to be dead (red). Organize your neighbors to help find survivors, get help from any other Medical Professionals around you, in other words try and be a leader in a really bad time. In the end that will be the biggest asset of your CERT training.

Peace,

Marty

[eroemmich]

I would start from the beginning and follow my MCI information that I have learned until more help arrived!! I would never leave my fellow human beings behind, family first yes, but they know who I am and what I do and they are proud of me for doing so!

[certguy]

Yeah Marty ! Good advice . I forgot to mention that caddy corner from your staging area , a CERT response trailer is parked . You now have triage / treatment area setup equipment , a large treatment kit ( supposedly can treat 150 pts. ) c-spine equip. , stretchers , a generator and floodlights , light rescue tools , cribbing , and misc. other equipment. The trailer can also be used as a command post.

[Scaramedic]

You have no idea how bad my luck can be. I would probably run down there, open the door and find it was stripped by meth addicts.

Peace,

Marty

[Just Plain Ruff]

I stand by my earlier answer

If this is a widespread disaster then my entire neighborhood is going to gravitate towards my house as many if not all of them know I'm a paramedic so I as well as my next door neighbor who is a sheriff's deputy will be very busy.

I have a survival kit made up to last my family for 7 days. We don't have a generator but that's soon to come.

The deputy will be providing protection to our little triage and treatment area and the physician down the street will be working along side me in my little mecca or oasis.

AS for going in to work, if the damage is so bad, I don't think my chevy cavalier who thinks it's a Hummer is going to get very far on the roads from the description of the event. So I'll stick around home.

Heck, I've got a walmart that is 6 blocks from my house and a Lowes that is 5 blocks so the deputy and I can comandeer what we need.

[steph1030]

family should be first and foremost no exceptions

[certguy]

Hi Scaremedic,

Your luck sounds like mine . Over the years I've discovered Murphy's an optimist with a sense of humor . Everybody's got to make thier own choice , but if we all stayed home , a lot of folks will pay for it . Maybe I'm old fashioned , but if EMS becomes just another job , time to move on .