Storm Season

Trauma Talk

• Will Chapleau
• 2006 Jun 13

As I write this, the media is fixed on stories about the first day of the hurricane season — June 1. Many of us are still reeling from the aftermath of the last one, and thousands are still struggling to recover.

There’s not much trauma greater than the trauma inflicted on individuals, communities, infrastructure and response capabilities by natural disasters. Even with all the technological advances to predict natural disasters and allow time to prepare, their randomness often catches us short of preparedness.

In the past year, we’ve seen Asian communities washed away by waves, homes all over the globe shaken into rubble, and our own shore battered by wind and water. While we mourn the thousands lost and the communities destroyed, we must begin to assemble the history of these events to prepare for the future .

On the news tonight, I watched a video that has been airing in Florida that emphasizes the importance of evacuating when the order is given. Audio from 9-1-1 tapes was played in which trapped, injured and ill people who didn’t evacuate were told by dispatchers that first responders would not be able to reach them. Powerful. Although it seems harsh, it’s the tough-love truth that must be communicated. 

As first responders, our tradition is to run in when others run out. There’s no situation that we won’t try to respond to. But the reality is that in order to do the most good for the most people, we must protect ourselves and our assets in order to respond when it’s safe to do so.

Another program today showed the crews of a fire department, which was decimated by last year’s storms, contemplating their plan for evacuating their families and belongings to safe ground. They could then respond in the stricken zones, knowing their families were safe.

The stories are all signs that people are thinking. Preventing injury and loss of assets are the first and most important responses to a natural disaster or the potential for it.

Other lessons are more personal. Most of you remember the finger-pointing after Katrina, as everyone looked for someone to blame when people were left waiting for days and days after the storms. The aftermath should serve as education on disaster management for all of us. Our disaster response system is only as strong as the understanding every responder has of the system and their role within it, should disaster strike their community. Every overarching layer of the regional, state and national emergency response depends on the layer below being able to request assistance, to direct the allocation of resources and to help those providing assets determine need and the manner in which to address it.

The National Incident Management System is the national plan for response to disaster, whether man-made or natural. Most of you’ve heard of it, particularly if you work for an agency that receives federal grants, because compliance with NIMS is a requirement of receiving funds. Beyond that, all of us need to think about our job, and where we fit into the mix.

We’ve all heard the saying “garbage in, garbage out” about computers. Disaster response is the same. If we don’t have good local planning and trained emergency planners prepared for the regional, state and national response, we give them garbage and their response will be garbage compared with what we really need. Poorly trained emergency response personnel with bad intelligence on what’s happening in their area of responsibility will fail in communicating their needs to the next level. This process depends on all of us.

We are all held accountable for disaster response. If you don’t believe it, ask your neighbors. I’ll bet every one of them will tell you that they expect us to have the answers when disaster strikes. That’s the expectation. Anything else is a failure.

So with expectations high and the potential for catastrophic failure, where do we begin? What can each of us do?

Well for starters, what do you know about your agency’s emergency response plan? Find it, read it, and determine what your role would be in disaster situations. Talk to your supervisors and administrators about the plan and how it fits into the community’s plan. Further, you can volunteer to serve on the committees that review the plans and orchestrate drills to train for response.

In addition, we must teach our citizens and ourselves as citizens how to prepare for disaster and even lessen the impact. All over the country, we’re training citizens to protect their families and how to participate in citizen response teams. If you don’t know about CERT, the Citizens Emergency Response Team program, go to the  FEMA site and check it out. These teams can provide a lot of muscle for the myriad tasks we’re faced with during disasters.

With our training in EMS, we understand the importance of public information and education in the grand scheme of public safety. Teaching people about disasters — how they occur, how we can lessen the impact and how to recover — will give us our best chance.

So get involved in your agency to understand your role in response and your community to learn what you and your neighbors can do when bad things come your way. If all of us consider disaster planning and training a priority, we can give ourselves the best chance of an effective response — at least the best we can deliver.

All over the U.S., storms are approaching. Let’s get ready. Let’s be smart. Let’s stay safe.

• More articles by Will Chapleau

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• Will Chapleau

  During his career as a paramedic for 30 years and a trauma nurse specialist for 17 years, Will Chapleau has worked on ambulances and in trauma centers and has been an EMS educator for more than 20 years. Currently, he is the manager of the ATLS program at the American College of Surgeons, serves on the boards of directors for the National Association of EMTs and the National Association of EMS Educators, and is the Illinois state chair of the Society of Trauma Nurses. He has published numerous texts and journal articles and has lectured all over North and South America, Europe and Asia. He can be reached at WChapleau@facs.org.

  Learn more from Will Chapleau at the EMS Today Conference & Expo, March 24–28 in Baltimore.