What's The Number For 9-1-1 ?!

Our ward always has fun but purposeful activities. This last Saturday was no exception. It had to do with emergency preparedness and went a little something like this....

At 5:30pm our neighbors, Brian and Andra Blackhurst, dropped off at our home a dossier regarding the activity. On the front it read, "Do Not Open Until 6pm". At 6pm, we opened the envelope and in it was a Red, Yellow and Green card stock paper along with instructions. It explained that in the event of an emergency, our block captian was Brian Blackhurst, that the Hamner's home had been designated as a command center for the neighborhood (to be manned by Bishop Rich, John Hamner the communications specialist, Trevor Sharp the emergency preparedness specialist, Rick Moultrie the High Priest Group Leader, Becky Larsen the Relief Society President and me the Elder's Quorum President), and that the McBride's home had been set up as the trauma center. There were also instructions to check in with our block captain in such an event and then I was to report to the command center as soon as possible. Any communication would be via radio on channel 1. The colored paper was to be placed in the front window for the block captain to determine what each household's need was. Red meant there were life threatening injuries or death. Yellow meant serious injuries, but not necessarily life threatening. Green meant all is well.

My little girl was hurt...only in theory, but it was amazing to feel my heart race anyway.

The next page in the package said something to this effect, "At 5:55pm today, a 7.0 earthquake rocked the Wasatch front, hitting American Fork especially hard. The streets are damaged and not fit for traveling, there are power and phone lines down leaving no electricity or phone service (cell or land). Marque is unharmed, but Sarah has lacerations to her arm from broken glass from windows and Leah has excessive bleeding from her head." It then instructed us to react as we would in the event of a real natural disaster following the guidelines given as best as we could. Even though it was only a piece of paper, my heart raced as I thought of Sarah hurt or poor little Leah with "excessive bleeding from the head". I placed the red paper in the window and ran downstairs to fetch our ample first aid kit. Even though it was ample, it was troubling as I realized that a first aid kit had little chance of stopping excessive bleeding from the head of my little girl.

Leah playing while the adults of the block discussed how to better protect their little ones like her.

While Sarah wrapped Leah's head and her own arms, I called on the radio to the trauma center to firefighter, Jeremy McBride. I explained Leah's condition and he urged me to get her to him as quickly as I could. I let the block captain know where we were headed and switched our sign from red to green. I then started the ATV and with Sarah and Leah on the back I raced a few streets over to the trauma center. As we raced there and arrived, I noticed that several in the ward with medical training had made their way to the trauma center to care for the wounded. After making sure my ladies were in good hands, I reported to the command center. Here I mostly listened to communications between the command center and the different block captains who reported the going ons of their block...neighbors crushed under fallen rubble, broken bones, lacerations were all the most common. There were a couple fires...one which was quickly extinguished and the other burned to the ground. We coordinated and directed the excess man power of one block to the other blocks that needed help moving the wounded. I did have to race to a couple areas when the communication broke down to gain a report of how things were progressing.

Sarah with her bandaged arm and Leah with her wrapped head.

Mostly I sat like a bump on the log at the command center and felt somewhat useless. I understand though that there are several who would need to be capable of manning the command center in the event that another was absent or hurt. It was neat to see how some were prepared and others were not. As we checked off house after house until all were accounted for, it hit home where we were weak and where we were strong. The activity did not go on without problems, but that was indeed the activity. It was intended to be a learning activity where we learned the importance of emergency preparedness and gain the confidence of having a plan.

Brian Blackhurst going over what items should be in a 72 hour kit.

Each of the blocks separated after the drill was called off and met to discuss what went well and what went wrong. We discussed the need for having or updating 72 hour kits for everyone and shared ideas and thoughts. We then met again as an entire ward to have a similar discussion. As was the food preparedness activity in February of last year, this proved to be most eye opening. We are prepared more now than ever before with even more preparation needed. They say the "big one" is inevitable so we must be prepared. I hope it never happens, but I even more so hope that I am prepared for my family if it does. This means I need to get CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) Training, re-certify with the Red Cross and more.

Bishop Rich and Andra Blackhurst directing a discussion afterwards.

Of course, what would a ward activity be without refreshments. I didn't get any because I got lasso'ed into taking every kid in the neighborhood for ATV rides. I had fun and they did too, but it sounds like I may have irked a few parents. Oops! Well, as usual, it was a great success and hats go off to the Blackhursts, Richs, Hamners, Sharps and McBrides for all their preparation in making our neighborhood safer and better prepared for a natural disaster.