OUTLINE FOR
DISASTER PREPAREDNESS
THIS OUTLINE IS USED BY A F.E.M.A.
INSTRUCTOR AND CONSULTANT.
HE HAS GRANTED US PERMISSION TO USE IT
GENERAL INFORMATION
First, there are nine areas that need to be addressed when putting your plan together.
They are:
1.) Put your plan on paper.
2.) Provide training.
3.) Have hands on drills.
4.) MEDICAL Determine what medical supplies and equipment
will be needed
5.) SUPPORT EQUIPMENT Establish what other support equipment
and supplies will be needed
6.) PURCHASE The supplies and equipment needed.
7.) STORAGE Determine how and where the equipment and supplies will be safely stored.
8.) TRANSPORTATION Establish how the equipment and supplies
will be transported from where they are stored to where they will be needed.
9) HOSPITALS ROLE
PUT YOUR PLAN ON PAPER
This is one of the most important areas in your preparedness. Without it, there will be total confusion. The plan must include the following:
1.) What types of disaster are you preparing for. (i.e. floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, major fires and explosions, chemical accidents, terrorist actions or a multi-vehicle accident .)
2.) Determine where the disaster is most likely to occur. What impact will it have on the area?
A.) Is the area densely or sparsely populated.
B.) Is it likely to be cut off from the rest of the area.
C.) Are there special hazards in this area such as flooding, dangerous chemicals or a higher risk of terrorist attack
PROVIDE TRAINING
Without training, your preparedness will not be effective. The training should include the following:
A.) What areas will be responded to first
B.) The level of training needed for the search and rescue teams.
C.) Organize and train the medical response teams. In
most disaster, the professionally trained personel are
limited. In California, the communities have formed
what are called "Community Emergency Response
Teams" better known as CERT, DART AND NERT. These teams will be a great asset when disaster
strikes because they will be able to take care of the
vast majority of the injured.
Without preparedness, it will take from 72 hours to
seven to ten days to get help in from the outside.
D.) Establish the level of medical aid to be rendered. It is
natural to want to save everyone. However in a large
incident, it is commonly practiced that the patients that are the most likely to survive will be attended to first. Those patients with heart, breathing and heavy trauma are made comfortable and attended to as soon as the others are treated.
HANDS ON DRILLS
The first important action is to put your plan together. The second is to practice your plan. This allows both your professionals and your volunteer team members to become familiar with the plan of action and the equipment to be used.
It would be wise to hold annual drills. In the beginning you will want to have monthly training meetings and quarterly drills.
MEDICAL EQUIPMENT & SUPPLIES
The most common types of medical aid that is needed are for open wounds, fractures, abrasions and burns.
When putting together a disaster trauma kit is important to keep it as simple as possible. One of the problems rescuers face is confusion. The most common cause of confusion is repeatedly having to make decisions. When trying to put together a good trauma kit, there is the desire to put everything in the kit. Having to make a decision as to use a 2x2, 3x3 or 4x4 just adds to the confusion. To solve this problem just include a lot of the largest size of dressings and bandages
We would recommend the following for your trauma kit
1.) sterile 4 x 4's
2.) sterile 5 x 9's
3.) non sterile 4 x 4's
4.) 2 triangular bandages
5.) 1 " tape
6.) cold packs
7.) leg splint
8.) arm splint
9.) 1000 ml bottle of saline
10.) 1 pair of paramedic shears
11.) 2 pair of gloves
12.) 2 face masks & eye shields
The kit should service from three to five patients before having to refill it.
Using a well designed trauma kit, it will eliminate the continual running back and forth to the supply box.
BACK-UP SUPPLIES Boxes of back-up supplies should be put together.
They should be filled with all of the items in the trauma kit.
MEDICAL EQUIPMENT
Other items needed for a triage operation are
1.) portable stretchers
2.) triage banners
3.) triage tarps
4.) patient pads to protect them from the heat of coldness
of the ground
5.) blankets
6.) backboards
7.) generator
8.) lights and stands
SUPPORT EQUIPMENT
In addition to preparing for the medical needs, other support planning and equipment will be needed. Things to consider are
1.) command post
2.) food and water
3.) sanitary needs
4.) portable shelters
5.) cots, blankets and hygiene needs
6.) portable lighting
7.) decedent equipment and supplies
8.) communications
9.) security
10.) haz-mat decontamination
HAZ-MAT DECONTAMINATION
Haz-mat decon has become an important new consideration in disaster preparedness. It is viewed as a two stage operation. The first stage is at the incident site. This will help prevent additional contamination to personel and equipment.
The second stage should be at the hospital. One should not assume that the patient has been properly decontaminated . To prevent contamination of the emergency room and staff, incoming patients should be decontaminated outside of the hospital.
Items needed for the decontamination process
1.) 1 10 x 30 privacy tent
2.) 3 scrubbing pools
3) 1 electric pump to evacuate contamintated water
4.) contaminated water resevoirs
5.) scrubbing wands or brushes
6.) gallons of cleansing liquid
7.) 200 disposable scrub suits for victims
8.) 200 disposable shoe covers
9.) 200 personal belongings bags
10.) 200 red bags for clothing
11.) 1 hamper stand to hold bags
12.) 1 generator
13.) 2 1000 watt lights and stands
14.) haz-mat suits for personell
15.) face protection and breathing equipment
PURCHASE
It only makes sense that if you are going to put together a plan and train your personell, that you purchase the equipment and supplies that they will need.
STORAGE
How and where you store your equipment and supplest is very important. If they are not properly stored and maintained, they will not be there or ready to be used when needed. Factors to consider when choosing a method of storage are as follows;
1.) Storage should be away from building, trees and power lines so that they do not become part of the incident.
2.) The storage container must be water, dust and rodent proof.
3.) The storage container should be designed as a medical aid station.
This would then let the public know where to go in a time of need.
4.) The container must me out of a flood plain.
5.) The container should also be used as a command post or a casualty collection point.
6.) The containers should be placed through out the community. By
doing this, those area that might be cut off from the rest of the community will have their own supplies.
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TRANSPORTATION
When a container is placed in a safe spot, it may not be located close to where you will need to set up your triage operation. In addition to find a good location for the storage of you cache, you also need to provide for an easy method of moving the supplies to where they will be needed.
Many departments are using small enclosed trailers to store the cache in. They can be moved to where they are needed by any size of a vehicle. This would allow you to set up your triage area close to the incident site.
These trailers could be stored inside the cargo containers and taken out when they are needed. The trailers also makes it easy to take back up supplies to another location when needed.
THE HOSPITALS ROLE
On a daily basis, the hospital plays an important role in the health care of the public. When disaster strikes, things change greatly. The reason for this is as follows:
1.) The disaster destroyed or caused the hospital to close.
2.) The hospital may be in the flood plain.
3.) The hospital by be too far from the injured.
4.) The roads may be closed.
5.) The hospital is over whelmed with patients.
Most disaster plans have the major portion of the medical aid being rendered at the triage site. From this point, the patients that need on going care are transferred to a casualty collection point. They are cared for there until they can be moved to a hospital. Well equipped triage sites and casualty collection points are very important, because it may be some time before the patient can be moved to a hospital.
Hospitals must prepare in the same manner. They need to have equipment and supplies stored away from the building, trees and power lines. They need to be prepared to carry on in case the hospital has to be evacuated.