Volunteers respond to soggy simulation

By Elizabeth Perry
Tuesday, March 31, 2009 5:15 AM CDT


Saturday morning was rainy and cold, but volunteers still gathered in O'Fallon Sports Park to play victims in a simulated plane crash.


They were part of a Community Emergency Response Team, or CERT, exercise. CERT volunteers have checked on people whose utilities went out during an ice storm and have sandbagged during floods.

During this exercise, CERT volunteers were to locate and safely move victims and give basic first aid. CERT volunteers also were learning to contain a disaster scene, so people didn't wander in and disrupt lifesaving care.

Volunteer Karen Conner-Hatcher applied gory makeup to the "victims." She is not a professional makeup artist, but it is a high compliment to say her work looked ghastly.

Conner-Hatcher said the more realistic the makeup, the easier it is for CERT members to get into the event.

T.J. Miles, 11, of O'Fallon had a puckered slash on his face.

"I like wearing the makeup. It's fun," Miles said. "Some of the people here are really messed up.

"Miles mentioned a girl with sugar glass sticking out of her forehead. The girl, Hannah Puckett, 11, is a Central Elementary student whose mom is a CERT volunteer.

Puckett had posed as a victim for CERT trainings five times. On Saturday, her role was a fan of a celebrity also on the fake flight, played by 17-year-old Samantha Simms.

Puckett clutched a Photoshopped picture of Simms standing with "Twilight" film star Robert Pattinson. In the scenario, Puckett tried to get an autograph from Simms just as the plane was crashing because the pilot was drunk.

Miriam Hannibal, 17, and Jaime Nardi, 16, played siblings separated from their father. Nardi spoke little so she wouldn't disturb the burn makeup on her face.

Hannibal said they had taken their roles so seriously during previous CERT scenarios that people thought they'd actually been injured.

Both want to become actresses, and they got into character imagining what it would've been like on the plane before it crashed.

"It's just a matter of opening your eyes as a victim," Hannibal said.

The victims piled into a junked plane and sat on the ground covered in blue tarps. Their corn syrup blood pooled in the rain as the actors cried for loved ones. About 11 a.m., organizers called the victims back, few CERT volunteers were in sight, and the victims were in real peril of hypothermia.

"We would have been dead already. The plane crashed at 6:50," Puckett said.

O'Fallon police Detective Sgt. Robert Kendall said the weather brought the training to an early close, between 1 and 2 p.m.

Plane crash situation sharpens response of crews

March 30, 2009
O’Fallon
by Kris Kolk

On Saturday, March 28, a simulated airplane crash appeared near the soccer fields at the O’Fallon Sports Park. Aircraft wreckage, fire, flares, and “victims” showing a variety of wounds, scattered the grounds. Other “passengers” waited a couple hundred yards away—hoping to be found and then rescued. Further, a debris pile trapped dummy victims.

The site seemed surreal. Amidst the “blood” and screaming, there was an eerie sense of calmness. This was, after all, a choreographed simulation intended to test the capability of the St. Charles County CERT (Community Emergency Response Teams), emergency responders and mutual aid providers.

St. Charles County W.O.R.L.D.S. was fortunate that O’Fallon Police Officer Diana Damke introduced us to Norman Nieder from Cottleville CERT.

Nieder explained that this exercise had been planned since November, following a drill in September. An assessment period allowed participants and planners to determine what went right, what to do differently and how to make an environment more challenging.

Nieder showed us into a staging area where participants portraying victims were getting into their roles. The group was a mixture of children and adults, with fake injuries ranging from a gash on the cheek to compound fractures.

Volunteers included some method-acting Thespians from Timberland High School, sporting full blood and injury make-up.

We were then led down to a pile of rubble under which life-sized and life-weighted manikins were trapped and where Cliff Smith, CERT Instructor, manned the pile. Smith described a procedure called “cribbing.” Using a combination of levers, braces and fulcrums, a cribbing team was to carefully move pieces of the pile, making sure to keep as much pressure off those trapped by the rubble.

Smith, from the not-for-profit corporation, People Helping People, Inc., showed much enthusiasm about the project. He said that in a classroom environment, there may be simulation exercises using tables and concrete blocks, but nothing to this extent.

An exercise of such scale gives participants an opportunity to refine emergency procedures, so that responding almost becomes second nature.

An emergency responder may think “I remember I did this one time in the practice session and now it’s the real thing,” Nieder said.

The event did present an unscheduled actual emergency when one of the participants seemed overcome by cold. An ambulance responded to this coinciding, real-world incident.

Planned as one of the largest full-scale drills organized among all previous exercises in the St. Louis/St. Charles metropolitan area, the exercise was cut short due to cold, rainy weather.

St. Charles County disaster response participants include members of CERT groups from St. Charles City, Cottleville, Dardenne Prairie, O’Fallon, St. Charles Community College, St. Charles County, St. Peters/Central County, Weldon Spring and Wentzville.

Also participating was the region’s first TEEN CERT. This exercise was the first time the teen responders were deployed alongside adult CERT teams. Other participants were to come from Maryland Heights, Creve Coeur, Town & Country, Eureka, Black Jack and Crestwood.

O’Fallon Police and Fire Department, St. Charles County Ambulance District, American Red Cross, Crider Center for Mental Health, and the St. Charles County Department of Emergency Management were all anticipated to participate. Other municipalities on scene included Independence Fire and Washington University EMT as well as other mutual aid organizations.

http://sccworlds.com/

Centralized response center to open in Portage des Sioux

Dedication set for Emergency Operations Center

By Kalen Ponche
Tuesday, March 17, 2009 3:13 AM CDT

The northern end of St. Charles County will have a working Emergency Operations Center just in time for the flooding season.

St. Charles County Councilman Jerry Daugherty, D-District 6, started working on creating an Emergency Operations Center in January of 2008. Work is expected to be completed by the dedication scheduled for Saturday.

The Emergency Operations Center is located inside the old St. Francis of Assisi school at the intersection of Second and Farnham streets.

The facility will provide first responders, from police officers to firefighters, a central headquarters from which to work during an emergency situation.

"I think the main thing is during a flood or a tornado we'll have a central spot for people to get information," Daugherty said. "Last year we handed out food and water and cleaning supplies to people who were flooded."

In the past during flood or ice storms, the emergency responders didn't have a place to work.

"In the 1993 flood, our emergency operations center was a johnboat and a bag phone with a can of Spam and a jar of pickles," Daugherty said.

Finding a place to build a headquarters has been a lifelong dream for Daugherty, he said.

Work began on the project last January and by the time the Mississippi started to flood last spring, an elevated floor had been installed and phone lines were being put in.

Four lateral filing cabinets and office furniture were donated, Daugherty said. AmerenUE donated three computer systems and AT&T ran DSL service to the room. The project also received cash donations from the Land Between the Rivers Historical Society and an individual.

The money allowed organizers to purchase map cases that also were elevated. Now city maps and documents can come out of Mayor Mark Warner, the city clerk and Jerry Daugherty's homes.

The project also gives the city of Portage des Sioux a place from which to build a city website and a location for people to get information.

The city has planned a dedication ceremony from 10 a.m.-noon Saturday outside the center.

Daugherty said he hopes to recognize all of the people who helped the project come together. County Executive Steve Ehlmann will be the keynote speaker and the Orchard Farm High School marching band will perform. Area fire departments are expected to have fire trucks on display. Daugherty said a helicopter might touch down as well.

The Land Between the Rivers Historical Museum, located in the same building as the operation center, will be open to visitors.

Attendees are asked to RSVP to Mayor Mark Warner so the city can buy enough food.

Want to go?

WHAT: Dedication for the Portage des Sioux Emergency Operations Center and City Hall
WHEN: 10 a.m.-noon Saturday
WHERE: Farnham and Second streets, Portage des Sioux; located inside the old St. Francis school building
EVENTS: Presentation of colors; keynote speaker St. Charles County Executive Steve Ehlmann; barbecue pork steak lunch; performance by Orchard Farm High School marching band; displays from emergency response agencies
REGISTER: RSVP to Mayor Mark Warner at 636-899-0640 or mwsparky@sbcglobal.net