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Training for a Disaster – Monday

By Claire Durham
July 27, 2009 at 9:19 pm

Practice makes perfect as the saying goes and that is applicable when it comes to disaster response. So with that in mind, I’m writing this from the ‘comfort’ of my tent by torch light in a field in near Bristol. As one of the facilitators, I arrived last night in the lashing rain and the dark dressed in wellies and a waterproofs not relishing the thought of having to put up the tent that would be my home for the coming week. I can’t quite put into words the sheer happiness and elation I felt when I peered into the misty darkness and could just make out the faint outline of my tent. JC our warehouse manager had taken pity on us and had put up a tent for each of us!

In true British summer style, the rain was still falling steadily this morning and with the rest of the camp still to be put up we headed off to a locally recommended cafe for a full English breakfast. Miraculously on our return back to base camp we were greeted by the first rays of sunshine and also the first of the participants.

The first stage of disaster training is to set up the camp, so it was all hands on deck as set up the personal tents up before moving on to the inflatable office tents. Equally important is the kitchen and dining area. In true ERU style we are to be fully self sufficient for the week so we have brought all our food and the impressively named ‘Beef Master’ BBQ on which we’ll cook all of our meals. With all of the vans and trucks unloaded and a pretty decent camp set up we were able to launch into the first the classroom based sessions.

This training course gives us an opportunity to refresh our skills and get to some hands on practice. Without satellite phones and radios we are unable to call people or send and recei ve emails so we spent the afternoon setting up this kit and reminding ourselves how it works.

A main part of out job in the immediate days following a disaster is setting up a warehouse for the life saving items such as blankets and jerry cans. Whilst this sounds simple in some ways, image that forty aircraft a day are flying in, each holding thousands of boxes and you start to get an idea of the work load involved. Gathered in groups in the inflatable tent we were treated to a slide show demonstrating the good, bad and down right ugly in warehousing. I noticed one of the photos was of a warehouse I set up but I’m not going to tell you which category it fitted into!

It was a great chance for people to share mission stories. It is so interesting and useful to hear other peoples real life experiences and it’s what I love about this training.

Well it’s been a long first day and the aroma of veggie sausages on the BBQ is wafting my way so I’m going to sign off for today, but I’ll report back on day two tomorrow. Just keep your fingers crossed the rain holds off!

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Tags: Bristol, disaster response, emergency response unit, logistics, training

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