Twister Response

So here in Ohio, we've been trapped under perpetual buckets of rain for the past three months or so. Its irritating and my yard has been ankle-deep with water but for the most part, its been a mild Spring when you compare us to other parts of the World. Truth be told, we're lucky to have very little in the way of natural disasters. We don't have tsunami's. We don't have hurricanes. Earthquakes are rare and almost always mild and I have yet to see a volcano in Ohio. Occasionally, we get some flooding but that's pretty rare, even this year.

What we are truly at risk of in our area is tornadoes. They happen here and they are destined to happen again. I can remember them as a kid, staying in my parents basement until the storm cleared. I have a friend whose childhood home was destroyed by one. If you look into Ohio history, some of the most devastating tornadoes on record have hit the buckeye state (look up Xenia, OH in 1974).

Lately, tornadoes have been all over the news with the destruction they've brought to the Southern U.S. As I've been reading about it and watching the news, I've wondered something; If these are the main natural disaster my jurisdiction  is at risk for, why haven't we trained more thoroughly for a response. So I've looked into it, read a few articles (there's a good one in the May 2011 Fire Rescue mag) and I've put together some things to think about.

So if the tones dropped tonight for an F5 nightmare blowing through a Midwestern town  like the one I work in, having an adequate response would require knowledge of how different agencies can respond and help.

Let's start with the Fire Department because we're going to be first in. Obviously, we will want to get on scene with a primary goal of identifying and mitigating hazards and using rescue equipment we have to gain access to and rescue victims. In combination departments like mine, its also going to be our job to triage victims according to injury, treat them and transport them to appropriate facilities. We're probably going to be the ones who get the incident command structure in place and start calling for the appropriate teams and white helmets (officers) that will make an incident this large run smoothly. The two main teams my county has that I would call are the Urban Search and Rescue Team and the Incident Management Team. Its also important to have dispatch contact the appropriate utility companies to eliminate hazards such as gas and power lines to the affected areas.

Police are going to have a job that may be overwhelming and difficult. That job is crowd control. People are going to gather around these scenes and many will be trying to gain access to their unsafe and damaged belongings. It's the job of law enforcement officials to keep these people out of harm's way and safe until the incident is managed appropriately.

Local Street and Road Departments may be used to put up barricades and detours as well as signage in the event of a blackout. If your jurisdiction has them, backhoes may need to be used by Road department officials to clear trees and other debris. If not, the ICS logistics officer may need to contact contractors for that work.

The Red Cross is going to be essential to these incidents. There will be many victims unharmed by the storm physically but without ready access to food, water or shelter. The Red Cross can provide assistance to these people during the incident. The organization is also a huge help to responders who may be on scene working for many long hours. When you've been dispatched for many hours working hard, sometimes in the wind and rain at 2:00 AM, a cup of coffee and a meal really helps.

As the ball keeps rolling, more and more agencies will get involved. The EMA will help organize. Animal control may be able to help with lost and scared pets. Maybe even the EPA will arrive depending on what the incident has affected environmentally.

The key for a guy low on the totem pole like me responding first would be this; Maintain safety for your crew, get an effective incident command structure rolling and start working on life safety i.e. rescue, triage, treatment and transport of victims.

If you are reporting to a command system already in place, be safe and do what the guys above you say to the best of your ability.

Lastly, I guess its important to keep it in your mind that these calls ARE going to happen and we need to just keep our possible response in mind and read up on how others have done it.