Disaster In A Day - What Schools Need to Know

Earthquake SOLUTIONS

Focused on an earthquake catastrophe, this all-in-one-day training is emotionally intense and specialized to training school personnel at a specific site. It lays out, in unforgettable and experiential ways, the skeletal structure of the major responsibilities for managing a disaster.

"Wednesday was such a good day for our entire staff. I have received nothing but positive input from the staff. I'm here on a Saturday so I can put together and re-arrange all our earthquake kits and bins and so forth. It's much easier to do when no one else is around and I can totally focus on just this task.

I am sending you the last few copies I received from the evaluation. Again, I have received nothing but good responses. I can not thank you enough fro your time and expertise. I know our staff feels more confident in their roles and the jobs ahead of them should a major event happen."

Selected comments from a school administrator in Aliso Viejo

The morning begins with a myth-exploding unit, and a challenge to come to grips with the potential scale of a devastating emergency. The curriculum then steadily marches through the step-by-step sequential process in which the management of a disaster must occur in order to be effective.

Participants experience the Rocking Shoes Blues, do hands-on table-tops that are customized to the site risk factors, walk-through an on-site rescue and much, much more.

This all-in-a-day approach offers at least some elements of most of our other courses, including earthquake injury prevention, evacuations issues ICS critical decision-making, parent release & family reunification, medical station management, logistics, sanitation. While most of the sub-units require substantially more depth of training for full effectiveness, setting this broad outline helps participants see the bigger picture and begin to organize their heads around the issues. It begins to define a pathway through to the end, including the interim steps that will need to be taken to bring a school to a reasonable level of preparedness.

Most of all, this course is very highly motivating. People tend to be forever changed to at least some degree.

The training day cannot be simply dropped in as a stand-alone item. It requires some work in advance, including at least a modified preliminary assessment, the production of an appropriate command map, and possibly other things. This is in order that that the training curriculum can be customized to anticipate likely incidents at the client's actual site.