Everyone Should Do This
I signed up for the local Community Emergency Response Team, and finished my training last Saturday. It's moderately intensive: two Friday evenings and two Saturdays, with a lot of information and some practical work too.
On the first Saturday, we had an exercise using the Minneapolis Fire Department's training tower, doing search & rescue (using teddy bears as victims). The instructor said "OK, who wants to be Incident Commander?" I pointed to the woman next to me and said "I think Rene should be; she's already had TSA training."
Rene demurred, saying she really didn't want to be Incident Commander. "I think Rob should be Incident Commander," said the instructor.
Learn to keep your mouth shut, Rob...
Actually, it was interesting, informative, and a lot of fun, even if I didn't get to do S&R on teddy bears.
The final exercise was similar; a six-storey building, but in this case we weren't rescuing just teddy bears, but also real live humans playing the part of victims of a tornado. Let me tell you, schlepping a 30-lb fire extinguisher up six flights of stairs at a semi-run (OK, I handed it off to my buddy when we hit the fourth floor, I believe) is a fair bit of exercise for a moderately-sedentary 47-year-old man. Schlepping a full-grown adult who's shocky, hysterical, and mildly combative down four flights of stairs after bandaging and splinting his compound fracture of the tibia only boosted my respect for firefighters and EMS personnel.
Anyhow, I really enjoyed the training, met some very interesting people, and I strongly recommend it to everyone. You don't need to be able to carry someone downstairs, either; there are plenty of things you can do when things go to poop that don't necessarily require much physical activity. But I think it's a good idea for as many people as possible to get the training, so that if there is disaster and the professionals are overwhelmed, you can at least get in and do whatever is within your abilities. Let's face it; after Katrina, we know we can't rely on the gummint to fix things: we may be on our own for a while. Wouldn't you like to be part of the solution?
If your town doesn't offer CERT training, you might be able to get it through a nearby town, or persuade your town to start a program. People who live near Minneapolis are lucky: the Minneapolis CERT program will train you even if you don't live in town.
That was one of the high points of the weekend, along with going to the Mall of America to buy a game for Morgan (we settled on Don't Break the Ice!) and looking at a house we might buy if we can get our credit straightened out and qualify for the mortgage.
Other parts of the weekend, not so good. Had what I thought was a promising relationship vanish like a bubble of napalm and spent Sunday evening at the office because I had homework and our PC/'Net connection at home are just too s...l...ooooooooow.
But overall, yeah, I've had worse weekends. Oddly, I seem to be too busy having good and bad days to actually journal them. Hmf.
On the first Saturday, we had an exercise using the Minneapolis Fire Department's training tower, doing search & rescue (using teddy bears as victims). The instructor said "OK, who wants to be Incident Commander?" I pointed to the woman next to me and said "I think Rene should be; she's already had TSA training."
Rene demurred, saying she really didn't want to be Incident Commander. "I think Rob should be Incident Commander," said the instructor.
Learn to keep your mouth shut, Rob...
Actually, it was interesting, informative, and a lot of fun, even if I didn't get to do S&R on teddy bears.
The final exercise was similar; a six-storey building, but in this case we weren't rescuing just teddy bears, but also real live humans playing the part of victims of a tornado. Let me tell you, schlepping a 30-lb fire extinguisher up six flights of stairs at a semi-run (OK, I handed it off to my buddy when we hit the fourth floor, I believe) is a fair bit of exercise for a moderately-sedentary 47-year-old man. Schlepping a full-grown adult who's shocky, hysterical, and mildly combative down four flights of stairs after bandaging and splinting his compound fracture of the tibia only boosted my respect for firefighters and EMS personnel.
Anyhow, I really enjoyed the training, met some very interesting people, and I strongly recommend it to everyone. You don't need to be able to carry someone downstairs, either; there are plenty of things you can do when things go to poop that don't necessarily require much physical activity. But I think it's a good idea for as many people as possible to get the training, so that if there is disaster and the professionals are overwhelmed, you can at least get in and do whatever is within your abilities. Let's face it; after Katrina, we know we can't rely on the gummint to fix things: we may be on our own for a while. Wouldn't you like to be part of the solution?
If your town doesn't offer CERT training, you might be able to get it through a nearby town, or persuade your town to start a program. People who live near Minneapolis are lucky: the Minneapolis CERT program will train you even if you don't live in town.
That was one of the high points of the weekend, along with going to the Mall of America to buy a game for Morgan (we settled on Don't Break the Ice!) and looking at a house we might buy if we can get our credit straightened out and qualify for the mortgage.
Other parts of the weekend, not so good. Had what I thought was a promising relationship vanish like a bubble of napalm and spent Sunday evening at the office because I had homework and our PC/'Net connection at home are just too s...l...ooooooooow.
But overall, yeah, I've had worse weekends. Oddly, I seem to be too busy having good and bad days to actually journal them. Hmf.