Blanco County Disaster Response Group (BCDRG): Current Status & Newsletter:

BLANCO COUNTY DISASTER RESPONSE GROUP (BCDRG)

CURRENT STATUS AND SCHEDULE (NEWSLETTER)

No missions in progress. Back to planning, preparation and training.

FROM THE 09/02/11 BCDRG NEWSLETTER

This issue of the Blanco County Disaster Response Group newsletter includes:

1. Storm in the Gulf

2. Cooling station

3. October drought seminar

4. Other people's training

1. STORM IN THE GULF -- Tropical Depression 13 could be Tropical Storm Lee by the time you read this. It may or may not make it to hurricane strength by landfall, and it's almost certain to miss Texas entirely...but it's still likely to be the storm most intensely watched by weather people this season. Here's why.

Lee (to be presumptuous and use its name) is large but weak, and is currently being held in place by the big high we've been suffering under all summer. The weather bureau's computer tracks look like a pile of multi-colored spaghetti. Long strands indicate fast movement, too fast for much rain to accumulate; short tracks mean a slow storm which sits and dumps heavy rain on a smaller area; straight ones mean it gets free of the high's blockade and moves out on strong steering currents; wiggly ones show continued blockage and weak steering. Problem is, they don't know which it will be. Meanwhile, it's parked over the Gulf's extremely warm water, almost on top of an eddy that broke off from the Loop Current earlier this summer and makes a slowly rotating pool of even warmer water...and warm water feeds the cyclone.

In addition to the big high, there's a low-pressure trough coming south and east over the top of the high. If Lee moves east past the high and gets caught up by the strengthening trough, it could get shot across the southeast and out into the Atlantic. If so, it may connnect with Katia (it's called the Fujiwhara effect), slinging Katia northwest into the eastern seaboard where the ground already is saturated from Irene. Or it might not be caught by the trough at all, in which case Lee could just wander slowly east with heavy rains across the southern states.

There are lots of variables in there...too many for good forecasting...and its unpredictability makes it fascinating for the weatherfolk but frustrating for people needing reliability. Only certainties are south Louisiana will get a lot of rain this weekend (Lee's rains are already onshore, but the eye may hover offshore through the weekend). The other certainty is we're not getting any of it.

Because of the expected flooding in Louisiana and the ongoing recovery from Hurricane Irene, the American Red Cross and other agencies need all the manpower they can muster. If you're a trained member of the Red Cross or any other organization, please make yourself available for deployment and let them know you're ready.

2. COOLING STATION -- We've recovered from the three-day, triple-digit marathon at the rodeo. The gear is cleaned (mostly) and the supplies are replenished (mostly). We're ready to go again and hoping to stay home. Local firefighters are being called out frequently, but so far they've turned out to be minor fires, not like the 6,600-acre booger burning near Possum Kingdom in north Texas. As I write this, I've been listening to the VFDs fighting a small but hard-to-reach widlfire along the Pedernales, east of JC, with ground-troops and airborne water-drops, but they just can't seem to get it to stop. Considering that Blanco County is in the high or very high fire danger zone, we are hoping they all remain small, but we know the VFDs are prepared for worse, and we're prepared to help.

3. OCTOBER DROUGHT SEMINAR -- Save Saturday, October 15, on your calendar. That's the day we'll present a series of speakers on "Living with Drought". Folks who think we're just having a bad summer and it'll get back to normal when the seasons change are in for a shock. The climatologists tell us they don't see a change in the next year. That means we're going to be a lot drier for a lot longer, and we need to be ready to live with it. Speakers will cover the nature of the drought and expected length, then its effects on our health, homes, landscapes, gardens, livestock, pets, wildlife, water supplies, fire danger and more. Some speaker invitations are already out. Suggestions welcome. More details in the October newsletter.

4. OTHER PEOPLE'S TRAINING -- which you're welcome to attend. Free unless otherwise indicated.

The American Red Cross Hill Country Chapter (our mother chapter) courses are at the Chapter House, 333 Earl Garrett at Jefferson, in Kerrville. To register for a class, call 830-792-4677.

9/6 6-10:30 Adult CPR/AED (charge)

9/10 9-3 Client Casework: Providing Emergency Assistance -- how caseworkers open files and manage the paperwork to get assistance for folks who need it quickly. (in Sonora)

9/10 8-6 Adult, Child, Infant CPR/AED/First Aid (charge)

9/13 9-12:30 Disaster Services: An Overview -- how the Red Cross responds to disasters and how you can fit into the program.

9/13 6-8 New Volunteer Orientation -- what every new ARC volunteer needs to know about the chapter and how it works.

9/15 6-10:30 Adult Child/Infant CPR/AED (charge)

9/17 9-12:30 Disaster Services: An Overview -- how the Red Cross responds to disasters and how you can fit into the program. (in Fredericksburg)

9/24 9-3 Client Casework: Providing Emergency Assistance -- how caseworkers open files and manage the paperwork to get assistance for folks who need it quickly. (in Mason)

ARC Centex Chapter in Austin trains at its Chapter House at at 2218 Pershing Drive. To register for a class, call Stephanie Cosmas at 512-929-1294 or email scosmas@centex.redcross.org.

9/7 6-9:30 Disaster Services: An Overview -- how the Red Cross responds to disasters and how you can fit into the program.

9/10 9-5 Foundations of Disaster Mental Health -- interactive discussions and group activities to learn how to be part of a disaster mental health team.

9/17 8:30-12:30 Fundamentals of Disaster Assessment -- how to quickly assess the nature and scope of a disaster so the right relief can be sent in quickly.

9/20 6-9 DAT Workshop -- how Disaster Assistance Teams provide quick help to people in "small" disasters, such as housefires.

9/24 9-4:30 Fundamentals of Disaster Public Affairs: Local Response -- how to tell the ARC response story through the news (and other) media in a disaster.

ARC San Antonio Chapter trains at its Chapter House at 3642 East Houston Street. To register, call 210-224-5151 or go to http://www.saredcross.org/.

9/10 9-5 ERVs: Ready, Set, Roll -- What those ambulance-looking Red Cross trucks do and how to do it,from hauling supplies to feeding hungry folks.

9/23 9-12 Disaster Services: An Overview -- how the Red Cross responds to disasters and how you can fit into the program.

9/23 1-3 Weapons of Mass Destruction/Terrorism: An Overview -- What bad guys do, how they do it, why, and how to prevent and respond to it.

9/24 9-3 Client Casework: Providing Emergency Assistance -- how caseworkers open files and manage the paperwork to get assistance for folks who need it quickly.

9/24 9-12 Disaster Assessment Basics -- how to do the initial scan of a disaster area to help gauge the extent and severity of damage, and the resources needed for the response.

9/24 1-5 Fundamentals of Disaster Assessment -- extension of the morning course; more detailed disaster damage assessment.

You can take a course on Mass Care, Emergency Assistance, Housing and Human Services through your computer, whenever you like, even in your pajamas. You'll learn what aid is available through state and local governments and the kinds of relationships between the federal government and non-governmental response agencies. It's free. Go to http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/IS806.asp and follow directions.

The basic values don't change for people who do disaster casework -- handling the paperwork to get survivors the aid they need -- but the details of how they do it constantly change. Church World Service, which is one of the leading trainers of case workers nationwide, will do a short webinar on how the long-term recovery process is changing. It's from 1 to 2:30 pm Tuesday, 9/6. It's free, but they recommend you register in advance. Go to http://www.cwserp.org/ and you can download

Parents will risk their own lives to help their children in an emergency, but it makes more sense to prepare the kids before an emergency happens. The Federal Emergency Management Agency's FEMAKids program offers a free webinar on how to do that 9/6 at 1 pm. It was originally scheduled for 8/23, but got moved because FEMA...um...had a disaster (the DC earthquake). Go to https://connect.hsin.gov/backtoschool/?launcher=false about 10 minutes ahead and check in as a guest.

If the drought is an example of global warming, what do the cold winters show? Such questions and more are in a comprehensive Pew Research report whose parts are available on line, beginning at http://www.pewclimate.org/science-impacts/extreme-weather. Most is written for the reasonably well-educated common person. The answer to the question above is that global warming makes weather extremes more common, not that it directly causes any given drought or ice storm. Besides, the drought may be severe here, but not everyone suffers from it; we have only to look at residents near the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers to see the opposite result.

Last summer (that was December and January in Australia) there were catastrophic floods in Queensland which caught everyone by surprise, killed 35 people and did $5 billion worth of damage. Now a commission of inquiry has released its interim report on what went wrong and how to fix it. The report at http://www.floodcommission.qld.gov.au/publications/interim-report?utm_source=NHC+Master+List&utm_campaign=63259cf10b-DR_5718_12_2011&utm_medium=email includes more than 100 issues and recommendations. Examples: The coordinating committee couldn't take charge because members were cut off by high water. The floods took out the power to the command center. Distribution of relief supplies was blocked by washed out roads. Raises a lot of "what-if" questions for us, too.

How do we communicate emergency information to communities speaking little English? The Minnesota Department of Health held a webinar on the topic in June, and recorded it for you to view at your convenience, free, from your home computer. Takes about an hour and 15 minutes. The start page also lets you download slides from the webinar, a guide for creating your own limited-English communication plan, and a template for one. It's at http://www.echominnesota.org/webinar-communicating-without-english?utm_source=NHC+Master+List&utm_campaign=1a3caf88dd-DR_5728_26_2011&utm_medium=email.

A vulnerable population is a group which needs additional help during and after a disaster. You become part of a vulnerable population if you use a wheelchair, or lose your glasses, or are a 7-year-old separated from your family, or don't speak much English, or...lots of other things. Such people are always there and are more numerous than many planners assume. To help work them into disaster planning, the City of Seattle and King County have an on-line toolkit for planners. It's health-focused, but the principles apply to all plans. Start at http://www.apctoolkits.com/vulnerablepopulation/?utm_source=NHC+Master+List&utm_campaign=1a3caf88dd-DR_5728_26_2011&utm_medium=email start including the excluded.

Got some bad stuff on you? All over you? All over the neighborhood? CHEMM can help you figure out what it is, what it is doing to you, and what you should be doing about it. CHEMM is the Chemical Hazards Emergency Medical Management website developed by the US Dept of Health & Human Services to help first responders deal with chemical emergencies. The good news is, you get to use it, too. The site doesn't leave many chemical-related questions unanswered, and provides links to other emergency websites to make sure all bases (and acids) are covered (that's a joke, for those who cut high school chem lab that day). You'll find CHEMM at http://chemm.nlm.nih.gov/index.html?utm_source=NHC+Master+List&utm_campaign=1a3caf88dd-DR_5728_26_2011&utm_medium=email.

Ideas, suggestions, comments . . . see our website, www.blancocountydisasterresponsegroup.org,
or contact me at: George Barnette, Res: 830-868-0808, Cell: 713-252-2288, george@bnpr.com

FROM THE 07/01/11 BCDRG NEWSLETTER

This issue of the Blanco County Disaster Response Group newsletter includes:

1. Joplin EF-5 tornado

2. Class re-scheduled

3. Rehab tent

4. Email list revision

5. Other People's Training

Arlene, the first named storm of the Gulf season, has disappeared into the interior of Mexico...off the weather maps...nothing for us to be concerned about. We should remember that last year, the first of the season -- Alex -- crossed the northern Mexican coast and vanished from the weather maps, but not from reality. It turned north, camped in northern Coahuila, and dumped prodigious rains which flooded both sides of the Rio Grande for the rest of the summer. While Arlene is unlikely to do that, it's a reminder that taking our eye off the ball is always risky this time of year.

1. JOPLIN EF-5 TORNADO -- In June I was asked by the United Methodist Church's South Central Jurisdiction (which covers eight states and part of a ninth) to go to Joplin to help the church's Missouri Conference establish a system to manage the flow of Methodist volunteers who wanted to help survivors of the EF-5 tornado. As is usual after a disaster like that, the purpose was to draw order out of the chaos. Local authorities estimated there were more than 30,000 volunteers in Joplin the week following the storm...some with organized response agencies, like the American Red Cross, but most just there...with little thought to where they will sleep, how they will eat, or what they will do. Just pitching in actually can make things worse for the survivor, not better. The third week following the tornado, we developed the system to fit local needs and steered outside volunteers into it. The fourth week, we tweaked the system and smoothed out the kinks. When I left, it was set to run for the next year or two -- and will be needed for that long.

This was not a case of me telling them how to do it. They'll be living with the system long after I'm back in Blanco County, so it had to fit them, their needs and their resources. And they already knew how to set up a volunteer management system anyway. I advised, suggested, mentioned things I'd seen work elsewhere, and then helped execute the plan they settled on. And got out of their way.

Some of my ideas were helpful, but the best part was I picked up as many ideas as I left behind. The folks in Missouri had some practices that can work in other places and situations, and some of the ideas we developed for this time will be good to use in the future. That library of ideas about what works and what doesn't will be especially valuable when we eventually need it here at home.

The Methodist church in JC tells me they want to do a fundraiser for Joplin August 3rd, with my pictures and stories and all the details. You'll be welcome.

2. CLASS RE-SCHEDULED -- The class on recognizing mental health issues in people and separating those who are threats from those who are merely quirky has been moved off to August. Date to come.

3. REHAB TENT -- We finally got all the parts and figured out how to put them together just in time to put it on the shelf for the month of June (see #1 above). It's going to require a little practice to use it...mostly fiddling with it to learn how it sets up and comes down, and how to maintain the misting fan.

In the next few days we'll let the Texas Forest Service know it's ready for wildfire duty, and we'll schedule presentations to local fire departments so they'll know the resource is available to them, too. We'll also do a training session or two for our own folks -- an hour ought to cover it -- so you can help on the big fires and other hot-weather outdoor events. Interested in working on this? Respond to this email to get on the list.

4. EMAIL LIST REVISIONS -- Some folks are seeing this newsletter for the first time. I've been keeping multiple email lists, one for disaster volunteers, one for the Food Pantry, one for wheelchair ramps, etc. They overlap but aren't quite the same. So now everything's going on one list, with notices going out more frequently, and everyone will know about all the volunteer opportunities, and the community's projects and agencies can reach a broader group of potential helpers. One big list, but with one exception: if you really don't want to get this disaster newsletter, email me back and I'll take you off the disaster list. You'll still get everything else. If you don't want any of it, of course, email me with that information, too, and I'll drop you off.

5. OTHER PEOPLE'S TRAINING (which you're welcome to attend) -- Free unless otherwise indicated.

The American Red Cross Hill Country Chapter (our mother chapter). Courses are at the Chapter House, 333 Earl Garrett at Jefferson, in Kerrville, and are free, unless otherwise noted. To register, call 830-792-4677.

7/5 6-10:30 -- Adult CPR/AED ($30)

7/9 8-6 -- Adult/Child/Infant CPR/AED/First Aid ($50)

7/9 8-4 -- Disaster Frontline Supervisor class and simulation.

7/12 6-8 -- New Volunteer Orientation. Where you fit into the Hill Country Chapter.

7/13 9-1 -- Fundamentals of Disaster Assessment. How to make the initial damage estimates in a disaster area which tell the ARC and others what kind of resources and how much are likely to be needed.

7/16 9-12:30 -- Disaster Services Overview. What the ARC does in a disaster, how it does it, and where you can play a role. Basic training for all disaster services specialties. Class will be in Johnson City.

7/21 9-3 -- Adult Child Infant CPR/AED ($40)

7/23 8-1 -- Health Services Response Workshop.

7/27 1-5 -- Adult/Child/Infant CPR/AED/First Aid Review ($45)

7/28-29 9-6 -- First Aid/CPR/AED instructor training (two-day course) ($110)

ARC Centex Chapter -- All training is at the Austin ARC chapter house at 2218 Pershing Drive unless noted. To register, call Stephanie Cosmas at 512-929-1294 or email scosmas@centex.redcross.org .

The Central Texas Chapter website lists no training in July or thereafter, but I'm guessing that's a computer problem and the schedule will surface eventually.

ARC San Antonio Chapter --All training is at the SA ARC chapter at 3642 E. Houston St. unless noted. To register, call 210-224-5151 or go to http://www.saredcross.org/ .

7/8 6-8 -- Disaster Action Team (DAT) Orientation. How to deliver emergency aid to people in local incidents, such as housefires.

7/8 9-3 -- ERVs: Ready, Set, Roll. What those ambulance-looking Red Cross vehicles are used for and how to make them do it.

7/9 9-3 -- Financial and Statistical Information Management. Somebody's got to count the beans and draw information out of the numbers. This course tells you how.

7/9 9-12 -- Disaster Services Overview. Basic training for all disaster volunteers.

7/16 9-4 -- Disaster Frontline Supervisor. How to manage part of a disaster response.

7/22 9-5 -- Collaborating to Ensure Effective Service Delivery. How to work with other organizations to improve services to both groups' clients.

7/23 9-9 -- Collaborating to Ensure Effective Service Delivery. How to work with other organizations to improve services to both groups' clients. I'm betting this is actually 9-5, like the preceding day, not a 12-hour class.

7/29 9-5 -- Client Casework: Providing Emergency Assistance. How to open a case file and do the paperwork to begin providing people in need with the assistance they require. A skill much in demand in any disaster, and may lead to a paying job as casework shifts from ARC volunteers to longer-term staff.

7/30 9-3 -- Logistics Overview and Simulation. How to get disaster supplies from here to there correctly and promptly.

It's a freebie, but you have to go to Dallas to get it. The University of Illinois' Center for Public Safety and Justice is teaching a DHS/FEMA course and exercise on "Household Pets and Service Animals in Disasters: An Introduction to Evacuation and Emergency Sheltering" at the Arlington Fire Training Center, 5501 Ron McAndrew Dr, Arlington at 8:30 am July 12. Lunch is provided, also free. You'll be out by 4:30. Space is limited to the first 40 who sign up with Charlene Moe at UI at cedmi1@uis.edu .

The Texas Division of Emergency Management has one seat left in its three-day "Donations Management" course in Austin at the DPS Training Academy, 5805 N Lamar, Bldg C, Classroom C/D, July 19-21. Unsolicited donations from good-hearted people turn into a second disaster, as I witnessed in Joplin. People wanting to donate used clothing were turned away, so they dumped their bags on a parking lot, which quickly turned into a trash heap and then, after a rain and mildew, a health hazard. But how do you channel generosity so it helps the survivors? Partnership with the Seventh-day Adventists was our way of handling used clothing, and it would work after a disaster, too. To claim the last empty chair in the room, go to https://www.preparingtexas.org/ViewCourse.aspx?courseid=644ed55f-4d8f-4b2a-b116-4c03ad6b21d4 , create an account (it's free, too) and sign up.

There's a two-day course July 7 and 8 in "Emergency Planning for Special Needs Communities" at the San Antonio Office of Emergency Management (that's SA's Emergency Operations Center) at Brooks City-Base. It's free but there are pre-requisites. Start at https://www.preparingtexas.org/DeliveryDetails.aspx?classid=ddebd87f-84f2-4bda-96a0-d09ff75665f6 and create an account (free) and register. There are 23 seats left in the class at this writing.

The chances you'll need this specific application are slim, but the principles are widely applicable. It's an online course in cross-cultural communication, using flood warnings to a migrant worker community as the example. It's a collection of case studies that offers ten techniques for getting emergency information across to people with a different language and culture...a common need in disaster response. Only takes about an hour. Go to http://www.nynj-phtc.org/pages/catalog/cc2-flood/ and click the "Enroll" button.

Another course you can take in your pajamas is from FEMA, "Developing and Managing Volunteers". That would have helped some of our folks in Joplin. In addition to the obvious topics, it also covers the issues of spontaneous volunteers and who's liable when somebody gets hurt. It's free but you have to register. Go to http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/is244a.asp and follow directions. Hint: it's fair to download the final exam questions before you take the course, then check the answers as you go along. Honest.

Case management -- the job of opening files for survivors of disaster and helping them get the aid they need -- is a desperately needed specialty after an incident. People with training (the American Red Cross offers a one-day course) can start helping as soon as the office opens. If you're willing to stay with it, those volunteer jobs turn into paying jobs once the emergency turns into longer-term recovery. If you think you might be interested, find out what it's about by taking the short (about an hour) overview course from Community Arise (its free) at http://www.communityarise.com/online.htm .

Well, this is cool! Go to http://www.geomac.gov/viewer/viewer.shtml for an interactive map showing where the current major wildfires are burning in the US. Keep double-clicking on one and it will take you progressively closer in aerial photography until you can see cars on the roads (not live pictures, obviously). There's other data about the fires, as well. Or just hunt up the view of your house from space, courtesy of the US Depts of the Interior and Agriculture through their Geospatial Multi-Agency Coordination Group.

Ideas, suggestions, comments . . . see our website, www.blancocountydisasterresponsegroup.org,
or contact me at: George Barnette, Res: 830-868-0808, Cell: 713-252-2288, george@bnpr.com

FROM THE 06/03/11 BCDRG NEWSLETTER

1. June inactivity

2. Class re-scheduled

3. Clothing drive

4. Rehab tent

5. Johnson City plan, VOAD, LTRC, etc

6. Other People's Training

This is supposed to be the quiet month where people start getting ready for the activity that may come with hurricane season, although we don't usually expect it to get busy until August. Ha! There's already a little blip in the Gulf, expected to go into Mexico Saturday, and one brewing in the Caribbean, and this is only the third day of the season. Plus the horrible year for wildfires here in Texas. Plus the record tornado season the country has been going through this spring. Plus the flooding still going on and now starting anew in the upper plains.

1. JUNE INACTIVITY -- All our plans for June have gone away...I'm spending the month in Joplin, Mo, managing tornado relief volunteers for the United Methodist Church. As is common, there is not enough housing for the displaced residents, so we incoming folks either drive more than an hour to a motel room or semi-camp in town. I get posh executive quarters: air-mattress space in the corner of a Sunday School classroom, rather than a corner of a church gym with the hoi polloi. Done that, too, and can tell you there's not a lot of difference. Be back late June. Take care of things in my absence.

2. CLASS RE-SCHEDULED -- The class on recognizing mental health issues in people and separating those who are threats from those who are merely quirky has been moved off to July (at least). See #1 above.

3. CLOTHING DRIVE -- Wowser! The area used-clothing gurus at the Seventh-day Adventist Church had expected to haul our Blanco County collection to their warehouse in a pickup truck, and had said that for a first time campaign, we shouldn't feel bad if we didn't fill it. We had more than enough for a pickup truck before we opened the doors, and by the end, they were calling the warehouse for a big truck. They said we collected almost as much as the spring drive they did in San Antonio! What did it? Good support from the newspapers, good participation from some of the churches in the county, and especially help from our volunteers staffing the collection point through the three-day holiday weekend. Those folks just didn't know Blanco County.

4. REHAB TENT -- It's here and ready to go to work...just in time to go on the shelf for the month of June (see #1 above). It's going to require a little practice to use it...mostly fiddling with it to learn how it sets up and comes down, and how to maintain the misting fan. But I didn't have time to do that (I was still learning it myself) before hitting the road, so it'll be July before it's ready...just in time to cool off the heat sufferers at the 4th of July Spange-Dangle.

In July we'll schedule presentations to local fire departments so they'll know the resource available to them for wildfires and such. The Texas Forest Service, which manages the big grassfires for the state, already has us in their computer database of firefighting resources. We'll also do a training session or two -- an hour ought to cover it -- so you can help on the big fires and other hot-weather outdoor events. Interested in working on this? Let me know.

5. JOHNSON CITY PLAN, VOAD, LTRC, ETC -- It's all still cooking, although it's on a back burner this month (see #1 above). Be back on it all in July.

6. OTHER PEOPLE'S TRAINING (which you're welcome to attend) -- Free unless otherwise indicated.

6/7 9-5 -- ERV - Ready, Set, Roll. This is the class that teaches you how to run the Emergency Response Vehicle (ERV), the big ambulance-looking truck that feeds people, hauls supplies, and generally is a disaster response workhorse.

6/11 9-12:30 -- Disaster Services Overview. What the ARC does in a disaster, how it does it, and where you can play a role. Basic training for all disaster services specialties. Class will be in Mason.

6/14 9-4 -- Adult CPR/AED ($30)

6/16 9-3 -- Adult Child Infant CPR/AED ($40)

6/16 8-5 -- Mass Care II, Part 1. Advanced mass care; the first half of a two-day course.

6/17 8-5 -- Mass Care II, Part 2. Advanced mass care; the second half of a two-day course.

6/18 9-1 -- Fundamentals of Disaster Assessment. How to make the initial damage estimates in a disaster area which tell the ARC and others what kind of resources and how much are likely to be needed. Class is in Sonora.

6/24 9-12:30 -- Weapons of Mass Destruction/Terrorism. We don't think much about WMDs and terrorism out here in the sparsely populated boonies, but we'd be right in line for the fallout from a dirty bomb in Austin or San Antonio, and could receive evacuees from as far as Houston from an incident there. This class covers what's likely, what's possible, what to expect.

ARC Centex Chapter -- All training is at the Austin ARC chapter house at 2218 Pershing Drive unless noted. To register, call Stephanie Cosmas at 512-929-1294 or email scosmas@centex.redcross.org .

6/2 6-9:30 -- Disaster Services Overview. Basic training for all ARC disaster volunteers.

6/4 9-5 -- Logistics Overview and Simulation. How to help the ARC get the right disaster relief supplies to the right place at the right time.

6/11 8:30-12 -- Disaster Services Overview. Basic training for all ARC disaster volunteers.

6/16 6-9 -- Disaster Assistance Team (DAT) workshop. How to deliver emergency aid to people in local incidents, such as housefires.

The Austin Chapter's Mass Care Bootcamp is the weekend of Saturday and Sunday, June 25-26, with basic training in lots of sheltering, feeding, and other evacuee assistance skills. It's free, of course, and you don't have to be a Red Cross volunteer to take the classes. They'll work you to death but at the end you'll be ready to help the Centex or any other chapter. More information at 512-929-1242 or email jdominguez@centex.redcross.org .

ARC San Antonio Chapter --All training is at the SA ARC chapter at 3642 E. Houston St. unless noted. To register, call 210-224-5151 or go to http://www.saredcross.org/ .

6/10 9-5 -- Client Casework: Providing Emergency Assistance. How to open a case file and do the paperwork to begin providing people in need with the assistance they require. A skill much in demand in any disaster, and may lead to a paying job as casework shifts from ARC volunteers to longer-term staff.

6/14 6-8 -- Disaster Assistance Team (DAT) Orientation. How to deliver emergency aid to people in local incidents, such as housefires.

6/18 1-4 -- Disaster Assessment Basics. One of the ARC's jobs after a disaster is to do an initial assessment of the damage...how bad and where...so response planners can send the right resources to the right places. This is Part 1.

6/18 9-5 -- Shelter Operations. How the ARC opens, operates and closes emergency shelters, and all the different jobs volunteers fill during the process.

The Panhandle Regional emergency Preparedness Conference invites you to a free two-day series of short courses on such topics as mass casualties, mass fatalities, state and federal aid for local government, and donations management. It's 8-5:30 Thursday and Friday, June 9-10, in the Amarillo Civic Center. Register at www.actx.edu/cj but don't dawdle; registration is limited for this free event.

The National Hurricane Conference -- which actually covers all kinds of disasters -- has posted the PowerPoint slide sets from all the April conference presentations on line. It's not the same as being there, of course, and not every speaker used PPT, but its better than not getting any of the information. To see what the session topics and presenters were, check the schedule at http://www.hurricanemeeting.com/Documents/2011%20NHC%20Sessions.pdf , then go to the individual slide sets at http://www.hurricanemeeting.com/Documents/Speaker%20Presentations/2011%20NHC%20Prgm%20w%20Links%20to%20Spkr%20Presentations.pdf

Texas firefighters already have fought more than 10,000 fires since the wildfire season began 11/15, and it isn't over. In winter and spring, wildfires tend to be driven by strong winds accompanying fronts, so they move fast but wind forecasts can tell firefighters where the fire is likely to go. In the summer, the winds die down but the heat and dryness make the grass and brush more explosive, so the spread is sporadic and harder to predict. Here are some online resources for folks concerned about (or just interested in) wildfires:

-- National Fire Prevention Association: Firewise website shows how to protect your rural home against wildfire.

-- Texas Department of Insurance, Texas Fire Marshal: fire safety news and information, including arson and wildfires. http://www.tdi.state.tx.us/fire/index.html

-- Texas Department of Public Safety wildfire awareness: documents, videos and links to more. http://www.txdps.state.tx.us/dem/pages/pio_wildfire_awareness.htm

-- Texas Forest Service wildfire page: reducing risk, fighting wildfires and urban wildfire interface. http://txforestservice.tamu.edu/main/article.aspx?id=2010

-- International Association for Wildland Fire: news, information about wildfire prevention and fighting worldwide. http://wildfireworld.org/?utm_source=NHC+Master+List&utm_campaign=3825ae1059-DR_567&utm_medium=email

-- US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: health information on wildfires, including smoke inhalation

http://www.bt.cdc.gov/disasters/wildfires/?s_cid=ccu050911_012

How to Prepare for a Zombie Attack: it's common enough to be a yawner for organizations to post "what-to-do-if" information on line for one kind of disaster or another, but the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has a new approach. Actually, the advice is generic disaster-preparedness stuff, with enough zombie-specific material to make it interesting. It's actually fun...as government agency web postings go...and even made a bit of a splash in the media. Find it at http://emergency.cdc.gov/socialmedia/zombies_blog.asp? (Where else do you get this kind of vital information?)

Flood Manager game -- an online computer game that lets you be the city floodplain manager, deciding what to build where, and showing you how your decisions work out when the water rises. Free, but you have to register.

http://www.floodmanager.org/game/?utm_source=NHC+Master+List&utm_campaign=3825ae1059-DR_567&utm_medium=email

Sending a kid off to college in the fall? The Handbook for Campus Safety and Security Reporting is the US Department of Education's guide that tells the schools how they are supposed to record and report safety and security issues. This will tell you what information you should be getting from the school, and how to get it if you don't. http://www2.ed.gov/admins/lead/safety/handbook-2.pdf?utm_source=NHC+Master+List&utm_campaign=3825ae1059-DR_567&utm_medium=email

We're cycling out of this area's usual hail season -- another hazard we enjoy here. The Illinois State Water Survey has published everything you want to know about hail (and then some). The report (almost 100 pages) covers the whole country and is free to download at http://www.isws.illinois.edu/pubdoc/CR/ISWSCR2009-12.pdf .

"What You Need to Know About Infectious Diseases" from the National Academies is a short book that'll keep you awake at night, so don't put it on the bedside table. On the other hand, it does have valuable information written for the layman, starting with how infection works, and it is free for online reading or downloading at http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=13006 . Entertain your friends with the new strains of ebola hemorrhagic fever, the growing threat of dengue fever in Texas, and why yellow fever isn't far behind.

This isn't disaster-related, but it's a good volunteer opportunity. Trinity Lutheran Church in Stonewall is collecting homemade cookies to be sent to our combat troops in Afghanistan. They'd like to send several van loads of cookies from Johnson City to our combat troops for the 4th of July to let them know that we do appreciate the sacrifices they are making for us. Chocolate Chip cookies packaged in zip lock bags are desired. They can be frozen if you would like to start baking now. The cookies are needed by June 20, 2011. Betty and Jerry Charniak will be at the Food Pantry (The tin warehouse behind the Courthouse Annex) on June 20, 2011 from 10:00 AM until 1:00 PM to accept cookies for our combat troops. The cookies then go to the church in Stonewall, then to San Antonio where the Air Force will package them for shipment and get them to Afghanistan in time for the 4th of July.

Ideas, suggestions, comments . . . see our website, www.blancocountydisasterresponsegroup.org,
or contact me at: George Barnette, Res: 830-868-0808, Cell: 713-252-2288, george@bnpr.com

FROM THE 05/03/11 BCDRG NEWSLETTER

This issue of the Blanco County Disaster Response Group newsletter includes:

1. Japan relief

2. Class semi-scheduled

3. Clothing drive

4. VOAD, LTRC, etc

5. Johnson City plan

6. Rehab tent

7. Social media

8. Other People's Training

(Lots of news and activity this month!)

1. JAPAN RELIEF -- We led the field out of the starting blocks raising money for survivors of the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear power plant meltdown in Japan. Unfortunately, the race was a marathon, and our sprint speed hasn't held up in the long haul. Still, we're doing respectably, raising about $5,000 so far, with more work yet to go.

One thing I learned (again) was that not all my great ideas are all that great. I thought auctioning off the Japanese "Hope" t-shirt over the internet would be a terrific idea. That opinion was not shared unanimously. It went for less than I had expected, but every buck counts, so other than my wounded ego, it was all for the good.

2. CLASS SEMI-SCHEDULED -- The class on recognizing mental health issues in people and separating those who are threats from those who are merely quirky will happen in June. After a lot of turn-downs (that's not a standard course, that's potentially controversial) we re-connected with Jeanette DaVolt, the clinical psychologist from San Antonio who did the terrific course for us last summer on helping the mentally disabled in a disaster. She agreed the course would be beneficial and said she would come up to Blanco County in June (date, time, location to be determined) and do it for us. She'll cover early warning signs of mental illnesses, when a person becomes a threat to himself or others, and what intervention steps are open to the rest of us (not many). Good course for more than just disaster shelter workers.

3. CLOTHING DRIVE -- Need your help on this one. We're doing a disaster used-clothing drive in conjunction with the Seventh-Day Adventists and local churches and other organizations. We'll collect donated used clothing at the First United Methodist Church in Johnson City Saturday from 9-5, Sunday 1-5 and again Memorial Day Monday from 9-5. We'll do a rough sort, but it is the Adventists who are the international experts are handling used clothes for disaster relief. They'll do the detailed sort and screening, sanitize the clothing, and store it until it is needed, then deliver it wherever that need may be. We'll need volunteers, of course, for light work (suitable for children, too) each of the three days. PLEASE EMAIL BACK your availability to help during the weekend for the schedule; otherwise I'll have to nag.

4. VOAD, LTRC, ETC -- Our plan to set up a new organization for Blanco County is moving forward. It will be a VOAD, which is disaster-speak for Volunteer Organizations Active in Disasters, an umbrella group that opens channels of communication and cooperation between non-profits, government agencies, and businesses that would help in disasters. Knee-deep water is no place to exchange business cards, so we'll do our meeting and greeting in advance and figure out ways we can work together to enhance everyone's success.

One thing the VOAD will do is establish a Long-Term Recovery Committee (LTRC) which will immediately go on the shelf and remain dormant until needed. After a disaster, much of the aid that flows to individuals passes not through government but LTRCs. Many donors won't give to a community's recovery unless an LTRC is established. Since few communities have LTRCs in advance, they lose weeks or months discovering the need and organizing an LTRC while their residents are doing without the available aid. Having the LTRC ready to go means when the flood or tornado or ice storm visits Blanco County, we can begin channeling assistance to survivors week earlier.

Another thing the VOAD is good for is to become the parent entity for our existing Blanco County Disaster Response Group. We're OK as we are, clasped to the bosom of the First United Methodist Church in JC, which provides tax-deductibility for donations and keeps our bank account for us, but we need to grow up and go out on our own now. Like the post-adolescent ready to leave the nest, mother church is as ready for us to fly on our own as we are. No rush, but it'll happen.

5. JOHNSON CITY PLAN -- We've been asked to draft an operational disaster plan for the City of Johnson City. I've met with the mayor and city administrator, and have made a good start. The official city disaster plan is prepared by the county Emergency Management Coordinator, but the city recognizes that it needs some planning not in that plan. It will remain the official plan for official purposes...we'll just add some practical, hands-on, people-helping elements to it.

One thing we've done is interest FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) in accepting Johnson City as a laboratory for small-town disaster planning. They already have a program going with several major metro demonstration cities, but no small towns, a gap they recognize and have been talking about filling. When told what we're doing here already and what we hope to do, FEMA agreed JC would be a good addition to their program. What it gets us is direct access to their planning professionals as we work on our documents, and they suggested they could even send some of their experts to JC to help us! While there's no discussion of federal dollars being applied here, that sort of close cooperation usually means they can find some if it would help us succeed, and when dollars are available they can help steer us through the process to get some. It's a real coup for JC, and will make us one of the models to be copied by similar communities nation-wide.

The Texas Department of Emergency Management already had taken an interest in our project, even before the feds came on board. TDEM has promised help from their planners and other resources to help us make JC ready to deal with disaster. Between the state and federal agencies, we'll be drinking from a fire-hose as we learn our way around the planning process, but at the end we'll all be experts.

NEED YOUR HELP ON THIS. The project has grown faster than one or two people can handle. We need folks to take pieces of the planning and help work through it. Nobody gets sent out to be a Lone Ranger...we'll work collaboratively...in part because we'll all have so much to learn as we go. PLEASE LET ME KNOW YOU'RE INTERESTED in helping with this. We'll figure out what role you're comfortable doing as we go along. For community disaster planning -- preparation, response and recovery -- this will be national cutting-edge stuff. It's a big deal.

6. REHAB TENT -- By the end of this month, the parts now on order should be in and we should have a Rehab Tent to offer to responders who need it in the Texas summer. A rehab tent is a pop-up shelter in which an overheated person can cool off before heat exhaustion or heat stroke sets in. It's good for firefighters battling a wildfire on a hot day, search and rescue teams in the boonies, or responders helping clean up the aftermath of flooded or tornado-blasted homes. Where physical exertion in the heat is an issue, the rehab tent has value. It'll be equipped with a fan-driven misting cooler to chill anyone in the tent, chairs and loungers, water and other drinks, snacks, wet towels, and other odds and ends that can help cool a hot worker and return a firefighter to the fire-line. It isn't a cheap resource, but we were able to purchase it with generous gifts from the Johnson City Lions Club, Hochheim Prairie Insurance and the First United Methodist Church of Johnson City.

Who'll use it? We'll staff it with our volunteers, and be called out by any entity that needs us. Our local VFDs and law enforcement get first claim, but the portable rig can go wherever it's needed. We may also team up with the American Red Cross when our Hill Country Chapter's Emergency Response Vehicle is called out to support firefighters. I've talked with fire departments in several counties which have had wildfires this spring, and they unanimously endorse it. Bob Koenig, State Incident Management Team Coordinator for the Texas Forest Service (the state's lead wildfire manager), said it will be a unique and valuable asset to have in the TFS database of firefighting resources, and predicted we'd get a workout every wildfire season...as far from Blanco County as we're willing to go.

We'll need to do a little training on this to figure out how to set it up and keep it operating, but most of the work will be handing out drinks and towels to sweaty folks. We can use our own JC 4th-of-July Spange-Dangle and rodeo events to test it on civilians, assuming we don't find ourselves in the real action before then.

Interested in helping on this? Let me know.

7. SOCIAL MEDIA -- If you're like me, you remember FaceBook and Twitter as they once were: major time-wasters; people with nothing to do exchanging the trivia of their lives with other bored people. Surprise! Social media have grown up, and while there's still a lot of time wasted on them, they've become valuable tools for organizations, especially in disasters. In last week's Oasis fire near Junction, a FaceBook page was the main way Kimble County residents kept up with the news and found ways to help. Later this summer, we'll join the wave by adding the instant, two-way communication media to our toolkit. It will make us more effective and give more people more chances to participate in short-notice events. Details to come later. Just a heads-up.

8. OTHER PEOPLE'S TRAINING (which you're welcome to attend) -- Free unless otherwise indicated.

5/3 6-10:30 -- CPR/AED adult ($30)

5/5 6-9:30 -- First Aid ($25)

5/7 9-3 -- Client Casework: Providing Emergency Assistance. Appropriately taking the training to where the wildfire damage is, this class is out in Junction. How to open cases do the paperwork that allows emergency aid to flow to people who need it, from local house-fires up to major disasters.

5/10 9-12:30 -- Disaster Services: An Overview. How the ARC provides services in disasters, and the different jobs volunteers may prepare for. Taught in Fredericksburg.

5/10 6-8 -- New Volunteer Orientation. What the Hill Country Chapter does and how it does it; where a new volunteer fits in and how to prepare for the job you want.

5/14 9-3 -- Client Casework: Providing Emergency Assistance. How to open cases do the paperwork that allows emergency aid to flow to people who need it, from local house-fires up to major disasters. This class will be in Sonora.

5/14 8-6 -- Adult Child Infant CPR/AED/First Aid ($50)

5/19 9-3 -- Adult Child Infant CPR/AED ($40)

5/21 9-1 -- Fundamentals of Damage Assessment. One of the ARC's jobs after a disaster is to do an initial assessment of the damage...how bad and where...so response planners can send the right resources to the right places. This class, taught in Junction, shows how that happens.

ARC Centex Chapter -- All training is at the Austin ARC chapter house at 2218 Pershing Drive unless noted. To register, call Stephanie Cosmas at 512-929-1294 or email scosmas@centex.redcross.org .

5/3 6-9:30 -- Disaster Services Overview. Basic training for all ARC disaster volunteers.

5/14-15 8:30-5 -- Mass Care II. Advanced training in providing mass care to survivors after disasters.

5/21 8:30-12 -- Disaster Services Overview. Basic training for all ARC disaster volunteers.

5/21 1-4:30 -- Disaster Assistance Team (DAT) workshop. How to deliver emergency aid to people in local incidents, such as housefires.

ARC San Antonio Chapter --All training is at the SA ARC chapter at 3642 E. Houston St. unless noted. To register, call 210-224-5151 or go to http://www.saredcross.org/ .

5/7 9-12 -- Bulk Distribution Operations. San Antonio Chapter is the supply center for shelters and distribution centers in this part of Texas. This course teaches volunteers how to help get the right supplies to the right places on time in the midst of chaos.

5/9 6-10 -- Psychological First Aid. Good course to add to Spiritual and Emotional Care, NOVA or CISM. Focuses on recognizing stress in survivors and co-workers, and ways to relieve it.

5/20 9-12 -- Disaster Assessment Basics. One of the ARC's jobs after a disaster is to do an initial assessment of the damage...how bad and where...so response planners can send the right resources to the right places. This is Part 1.

5/20 1-5 -- Fundamentals of Damage Assessment. One of the ARC's jobs after a disaster is to do an initial assessment of the damage...how bad and where...so response planners can send the right resources to the right places. This is Part 2.

5/21 9-3 -- Serving People with Disabilities Following a Disaster. This is the excellent course Jeanette DaVolt did for us last summer. I focuses on how to recognize people with mental health issues in disasters, and what to do about them.

The San Antonio Volunteer Organizations Active in Disasters (SAVOAD) is offering the short introductory version of the National Organization for Victim Assistance (NOVA) training course, which is required for spiritual and emotional counseling in San Antonio evacuee shelters; not even ordained ministers can go in without NOVA training. The short course (4 hours) will be offered from 1 to 5 pm Thursday, May 19, at the Emergency Operation Center at Brooks City-Base, on the south side. Free. For information or to sign up, contact Jeanne Goodlin, 210-733-9159, sacommchurches@sbcglobal.net , or Dan Franklin, 210-662-7372, dan.franklin@texasbaptists.org .

We mentioned the future local Long Term Recovery Committee for Blanco County, and how it will speed the flow of assistance to us after a disaster. How does that work and how does it do it? Funny you should ask. Church World Service (which helps local communities set up LTRCs) has two days of short webinars on exactly that subject. They're on 5/3 and 5/4, six sessions of 50 minutes each, from 12-3 each day, and you can attend from home at your own computer. Register for the free webinar and download course materials at www.cwserp.org .

A free online weather program (still in beta testing) uses information from thousands of weather reporting stations to gather data and sort it into reports, charts or tables to answer your weather questions. Compare weather in two cities of your choice, see graphs of forecasts in three cities, get details on forecasts for your Mediterranean cruise. It's called WeatherSpark, and it's at http://weatherspark.com .

Blanco County is animal country, both wild and domesticated, and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is concerned that critters can pass unpleasant diseases to us. Think rabies, leprosy or Lyme disease, for example. The CDC held a conference call with doctors and health officials not long ago on how to prevent the transfer of diseases from animals to people, and they recorded it. You can listen (it's about an hour) at http://emergency.cdc.gov/coca/calls/2011/callinfo_042111.asp .

The CDC also has some timely guidance on avoiding injury from weather hazards. Look 'em up at http://emergency.cdc.gov/disasters/tornadoes/ or http://emergency.cdc.gov/disasters/wildfires/ .

Last month we told you about a coming online webinar from the American Medical Association on the medical and public health aspects of Japan's nuclear power plant meltdown. It happened. Much of it was technical...either nuclear physics or radiation medicine...but not all of it. You can catch the replay any time at http://www.ama-assn.org/go/japanwebinar .

The Oasis wildfire west of Junction, in Kimble County, is still burning as of this writing, as it has been since last Tuesday afternoon. Like JC or Blanco, Junction is served by a weekly newspaper...a poor vehicle for getting out emergency information on a rapidly changing situation like this. But the Junction Eagle has a FaceBook page, which normally carries postings of local interest. In this incident, it has been an excellent resource for people (including concerned folks out of state) to get information and for locals to contribute their own data. Find it at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Junction-Eagle/125559754134987?closeTheater=1 and you can scroll down through the postings, all the way to the first notices last week. An impressive use of social media in a disaster in a community much like our own.

Austin PD's training academy still needs volunteer drunks. APD needs to teach cadets how to do field sobriety tests, determining who's drunk and who's merely happy, and to do that they need volunteers willing to give up their sobriety for an evening in the name of education and public safety. It'll be next month, 6/17 and 6/24 from 6-12 midnight. You'll need a designated driver to get home...the place will be crawling with cops. Sign up with Officer Jason Wolf at jason.wolf@ci.austin.tx.us . (Who else gives you great opportunities like this?)

If you need another reason to not go to Houston, here's one: West Nile Virus. This tropical disease was first found in Uganda in 1937...a mild disease with a fever but not catastrophic. By the 1990s, it mutated into a serious encephalitic disease and broke out in North Africa, Europe, Russia, spread through the Caribbean and Central America...and turned up in New York. The good news is the NY strain has almost vanished in the US. The bad news is it was crowded out by two worse strains, both of which have turned up in the Houston area. Makes sense it would be Houston. West Nile Virus is spread by mosquitoes, and Houston is where good mosquitoes hope to go when they die. It's also turned up from New Mexico to North Dakota, but Houston seems to be where it's happiest. Strange...their chamber of commerce hasn't announced that.

New in our library of DVDs are videos on how local governments can reduce the effects of disasters, preparing your family for disasters, building safe rooms, and how to estimate substantial damage to structures.

Ideas, suggestions, comments . . . see our website, www.blancocountydisasterresponsegroup.org,
or contact me at: George Barnette, Res: 830-868-0808, Cell: 713-252-2288, george@bnpr.com

FROM THE 4/5/11 BCDRG NEWSLETTER

This issue of the Blanco County Disaster Response Group newsletter includes:

1. Japan relief

2. Other current activity

3. Scheduled events

4. Other People's Training

1. JAPAN RELIEF -- We moved rather quickly in response to the Japanese earthquake and tsunami, and the still continuing radiation problems. We already had scheduled a day to pack hygiene kits for Haiti the following weekend, at the First United Methodist Church, and switched beneficiaries to Japanese survivors. We also launched a fund-raising campaign and invited others in the county to join us. By late afternoon Friday, still less than 24 hours after the earthquake, our campaign was picked up by one of the Austin TV stations' websites. The following Monday, the station was out to interview several of those involved for a story that ran at 5, 6 and 10 that night.

Since then, we packed the hygiene kits (107 in about 20 minutes!) and have been raising money for Japan relief. One tactic is the email auction of a commemorative t-shirt with a map of Japan and the Japanese characters for "hope". Top bid sent to auction@bnpr.com by 12 noon April 15th gets the shirt, and the Japanese survivors get the money.

An unusual approach in information-gathering on the situation in Japan has been going directly to missionaries and relief agencies there for details on on personal-level needs of the survivors how the responders are working. One approach I haven't seen here in the US has been the use of bicycles for distribution in Sendai City when gasoline was too scarce to allow the use of trucks. Now the effort is to get people out of shelters by housing them with willing hosts around the country.

2. CURRENT ACTIVITY -- The creation of a Blanco County VOAD (Voluntary Organizations Active in Disasters) group continues at its own speed, which is slow.

We're still trying to line up an instructor for a class in recognizing mental disturbances, differentiating between the harmless and the dangerous, and knowing what to do about the latter.

The National Weather Service has issued its annual spring flooding forecast, listing the areas of the country most at risk from high water over the next three months. We're not on the list. Can't understand why not.

3. SCHEDULED EVENTS -- Plan to clean out your closets Memorial Day weekend! We're doing a disaster used-clothing drive in conjunction with the Seventh-Day Adventists and local churches and other organizations. We'll collect donated used clothing at the First United Methodist Church in Johnson City Saturday from 9-5, Sunday 1-5 and again Memorial Day Monday from 9-5. We'll do a rough sort, but it is the Adventists who are the international experts are handling used clothes for disaster relief. They'll do the detailed sort and screening, sanitize the clothing, and store it until it is needed, then deliver it wherever that need may be. We'll need volunteers, of course, for light work (suitable for children, too) each of the three days. More details next month

4. OTHER PEOPLE'S TRAINING (which you're welcome to attend) -- Free unless otherwise indicated.

4/5 6-10:30 -- CPR/AED adult ($30)

4/7 9-1:30 -- Child, Infant, CPR/AED ($35)

4/9 8-6 -- Adult Child Infant CPR/AED/First Aid ($50)

4/12 9-4 -- Adult CPR/AED/First Aid ($40)

4/12 9-3 -- Client Casework: Providing Emergency Assistance. If you missed the March course in Fredericksburg, here's your second chance in Kerrville. How to open cases do the paperwork that allows emergency aid to flow to people who need it, from local house-fires up to major disasters.

4/13 8-5 -- Service to the Armed Forces Casework. Providing ARC help to military personnel, families and veterans. (First of two days)

4/14 8-5 -- Service to the Armed Forces Casework. Providing ARC help to military personnel, families and veterans. (Second of two days)

4/14 8-4 -- Disaster Frontline Supervisor and Simulation. How to manage a disaster response.

4/14 9-5 -- Disaster Fundraising. Raising money to assist survivors of disaster.

4/21 9-3 -- Adult Child Infant CPR/AED ($40)

ARC Centex Chapter -- All training is at the Austin ARC chapter house at 2218 Pershing Drive unless noted. To register, call Stephanie Cosmas at 512-929-1294 or email scosmas@centex.redcross.org .

4/7 6-9:30 -- Disaster Services Overview. Basic training for all ARC disaster volunteers.

4/12 6-9 -- Shelter Operations. How to work in an ARC emergency shelter as a volunteer.

4/13 6-9:30 -- Shelter Simulation. Hands-on exercise to see how much you retain from the previous day's class.

4/16 8:30-4:30 -- Disaster Frontline Supervisor course and simulation. How to manage an ARC operation in a disaster.

4/19 6-9 -- Disaster Assistance Team (DAT) workshop. How to deliver emergency aid to people in local incidents, such as housefires.

4/23 8:30-12 -- Disaster Services Overview. Basic training for all ARC disaster volunteers.

ARC San Antonio Chapter --All training is at the SA ARC chapter at 3642 E. Houston St. unless noted. To register, call 210-224-5151 or go to http://www.saredcross.org/ .

4/29 9-5 -- Client Casework: Providing Emergency Assistance. If you missed the March course in Fredericksburg and can't take the one this month in Kerrville, here's your third chance. How to open cases do the paperwork that allows emergency aid to flow to people who need it, from local house-fires up to major disasters.

4/30 9-5 -- Shelter Operations. How to work in an ARC emergency shelter as a volunteer. Although it doesn't say so, I'm guessing from the length of the course that it includes the simulation exercise, too.

4/5 -- While I'm sure it can't possibly happen to Texas' coastal nuclear power plant, southwest of Houston, one does have to look and Japan and wonder what if we had evacuees coming our way from an incident there. What problems would they bring? What would they need? The American Medical Association has some answers, which it will give you in a one-hour webinar at 11 am Tuesday, 4/5 (tomorrow!). What are the different types of exposure? How do you know who's exposed to what, and what to do about it? What kind of preparation is reasonable? Registration is free at https://cc.readytalk.com/cc/schedule/display.do?udc=m20k3gqn91v0 . Then at 11 Tuesday, join the program at https://cc.readytalk.com/partlogin/i2z783143ip9 .

4/11 7-1 -- Airport disaster exercise at Austin-Bergstrom needs more than 100 volunteers for victims and other roles. These exercises are wonderful fun. In the last one, we were relatives of passengers arriving on a plane which crashed on landing. They discovered their plan for controlling such relatives didn't work, and our gang pretty thoroughly rubbed their noses in it. Don't know what the scenario will be this time, but they've arranged to use a 737 as part of the game. This time, ABIA is having the Austin Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) folks recruit the volunteers (trying to screen us out?). CERT members will be accepted first, then non-members if the need isn't filled. To get on the list, or the standby list if you're not an Austin CERT member, email Debbie Rich at Debbie.rich@ci.austin.tx.us . (Do we give you some great opportunities or what?)

4/12 -- The Texas Department of State Health Services is offering a free two-day training course for people interested in being public health-related information officers following an incident involving weapons of mass destruction or other terrorism event. It's the official ICS-318 course, and brings with it good and bad news. The bad news is it's in Round Rock, and lasts from 8 to 5 each of two days, Tuesday and Wednesday, April 12 and 13 (that's next week!). The good news is everything's free...the training, two nights in the hotel, and meals. We have one seat allocated to our group, with the possibility of a second. First come, first served. Contact Gene Mikeska with DSHS at 254-778-6744 or gene.mikeska@dshs.state.tx.us .

4/12 -- The San Antonio Volunteer Organizations Active in Disasters (SAVOAD) is offering two versions of the National Organization for Victim Assistance (NOVA) training course. NOVA training is required for spiritual and emotional counseling in San Antonio evacuee shelters; not even ordained ministers can go in without NOVA training. The long course (40 hours) will be taught in once-a-week classes, every Tuesday from 8:30 to 5:30, 4/12 through 5/10, at the San Antonio Baptist Association on IH 10 West. The short introductory course (4 hours) will be offered next month, from 1 to 5 pm Thursday, May 19, at the Emergency Operation Center at Brooks City-Base, on the south side. Both courses are free. For information or to sign up, contact Jeanne Goodlin, 210-733-9159, sacommchurches@sbcglobal.net , or Dan Franklin, 210-662-7372, dan.franklin@texasbaptists.org .

4/21 -- Thought #1: Blanco is a transitional county, where city folks move in next door to ranchers still running livestock, and surrounded by a variety of wild animals. Thought #2: One terrorism concern is an attack on the US food supply, and one way could be spreading disease among food animals. Thought #3: Climate change is expanding the type of animal-borne diseases we're vulnerable to, and lengthening the season for catching them. Thought #4: Epizoötics (epidemics among animals) are problems even in the best of times. With those thoughts in mind, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is offering a free conference call from 1-2 pm 4/21 covering current hazards and trends in animal-borne diseases. To call in from any phone, dial 888-989-3090 and use passcode 4443385. Free registration at http://events.constantcontact.com/register/event?llr=pf7m85dab&oeidk=a07e3ilothp8510009f .

4/21 -- The National Weather Service and local agencies are offering the Skywarn Weather Training Thursday, 4/21, from 6:30-8:30 pm in the Seguin Public Library, 707 East College, in Seguin. Yeah, I know it's a long way, but if you didn't go to the big one in Austin, this is what you get. It is free, though. For more information call Kay Hays at 830-303-9702 or email kay.hays@co.guadalupe.tx.us .

4/26-29 -- Texas Emergency Management Conference, Henry B Gonzalez Conference Center, San Antonio. The state has long had an annual hurricane preparedness conference, and last year added one on general disaster planning. This year, they're combining the two in one big conference, and putting it on our doorstep. If you're interested in disaster management in Texas, this is the firehose you need to drink from. Information at https://www.preparingtexas.org/preparedness.aspx?page=15702737-1651-4822-b595-0e4d9acc1f3e . Cost is $150, but you may get in for $35 as volunteer agency (that's BCDRG) staff. Don't know whether that'll fly, but for a $115 discount, it's worth a try.

6/17 and 6/24 6-12 midnight -- Austin PD training academy needs volunteer drunks. It's your opportunity to get drooling drunk at the City of Austin's expense. APD needs to teach cadets how to do field sobriety tests, determining who's drunk and who's merely happy, and to do that they need volunteers willing to give up their sobriety for an evening in the name of education and public safety. The note I got didn't mention it, but they usually run volunteers through a computer check, and some volunteers have to remain sober or semi-sober. Also, if you get picked to be a drinker, you'll need a designated driver to get home...the place will be crawling with cops. Sign up with Officer Jason Wolf at jason.wolf@ci.austin.tx.us . (Who else gives you great opportunities like this?)

Added to our library of DVDs is a video on preventing cyber terrorism. While this sounds like something we don't need to worry about, since none of us has an internet presence worth a terrorist's time, it's substantially the same thing as the little individual-level attacks by crooks trying to get to your credit cards or bank account. If you want to borrow it, let me know

Even before the disastrous earthquake in Japan, the focus of US disaster planners for 2011 was going to be earthquakes. We usually think of that as a California problem, but the area with the greatest potential for death and damage is the New Madrid Seismic Zone, centered in Missouri! Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma have had flurries of quakes since October...including a 4.7 in Arkansas at the end of February. The "Great American Shakeout" 4/28 will be a major exercise organized by eight states which could be affected by a New Madrid quake, testing their ability to respond to a major one. They're also inviting the public to consider how they might be affected and what they'd do. Then, in May, is TOPOFF 2011, a major national exercise using a similar scenario to test how various government, business and nonprofit entities would work together in such a regional response.

Ideas, suggestions, comments . . . see our website, www.blancocountydisasterresponsegroup.org,
or contact me at: George Barnette, Res: 830-868-0808, Cell: 713-252-2288, george@bnpr.com

FROM THE 2/2/11 BCDRG NEWSLETTER

This issue of the Blanco County Disaster Response Group newsletter includes:

1. Current activity

2. Scheduled events

3. Other People's Training

1. CURRENT ACTIVITY -- The creation of a Blanco County VOAD (Voluntary Organizations Active in Disasters) group is moving. Jerry Charniak at the Johnson City Christian Food Pantry is a little ahead of us in the incorporation process for his entity, and has generously passed along what he's learned (and is learning) about it. That kind of mutual assistance, of course, is why VOADs exist. Downside is it still will cost us almost $500 in filing fees. Can't be helped.

We worked with the Hill Country Chapter of the American Red Cross to distribute electric space heaters in Blanco County to folks who needed a little help keeping their homes warm. The ARC bought them in Kerrville and distributed most of them there, but gave us a case for our folks. Delivered the last one this week.

A project currently cooking is tracking down the woman whose home burned last night. Said to have started in the chimney-pipe of a wood-burning stove. The ARC provides a few days' food and shelter, then perhaps clothing and furnishings as needed. Main thing preventing ARC from doing this for more fire victims is finding out about them.

When the rolling blackouts began earlier today, we looked into the potential need to open a shelter as a warming center at First United Methodist Church in JC. Turned out not to be needed, nor practical in this instance. The Pedernales Electric Coop has only been turning power off for 10-15 minutes at a time, which is not long enough to make travel to a warming center necessary. Also, they can only shut down a whole community at a time, not pick and choose who keeps the juice on, so our shelter would be as cold as their homes. Good plan for ice storms, which selectively take out wires, but not suited to area-wide blackouts.

Speaking of the cold, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has a couple of web pages with cold-weather health and safety information:

Extreme Cold: A Prevention Guide to Promote Your Personal Health and Safety: http://www.bt.cdc.gov/disasters/winter/guide.asp

CDC Power Outages Homepage: http://www.bt.cdc.gov/disasters/poweroutage/

What You Need to Know When the Power Goes Out: http://www.bt.cdc.gov/disasters/poweroutage/needtoknow.asp

2. SCHEDULED EVENTS -- On Saturday, 2/19, we'll offer the American Red Cross basic shelter course, Disaster Services, An Overview. It's condensed some from the old course and has new videos and so forth. Location to come; we're hoping to hold it in Blanco to recruit more volunteers there.

It isn't scheduled, but we're hoping to partner with the Seventh-Day Adventists on a used-clothing drive in Blanco County, probably in early June...perhaps Memorial Day. The Adventists have staked out used-clothing as their turf in the disaster world, and everyone else is glad to give it to them because used clothes are such a pain to deal with if you're not prepared, and almost nobody is.

Also not scheduled because I don't have an instructor yet (but am close) is a spring class in how to recognize whether a person who displays unusual behavior is likely to be mentally ill or merely odd, whether a threat or not, and if ill or a threat, what kind of action (if any) you should take. Also hope to cover early warning signs of dementia and Alzheimers and what to do.

3. OTHER PEOPLE'S TRAINING (which you're welcome to attend) -- Free unless otherwise indicated.

2/3 9-1:30 -- Child, Infant, CPR/AED ($35)

2/8 8-1 -- Health Services Response Workshop

2/8 9-4 -- Adult CPR/AED/First Aid ($40)

2/9 9-5 -- Disaster Instructor Specialty Training (Part 1)

2/9 8-11:30 am -- CPR/AED adult ($30)

2/10 9-5 -- Disaster Instructor Specialty Training (Part 2)

2/10 8-10:30 am -- First Aid ($25)

2/12 8-6 -- Adult Child Infant CPR/AED/First Aid ($50)

2/17 9-3 -- Adult Child Infant CPR/AED ($40)

2/19 9-12:30 -- Disaster Services: An Overview (our class, tentatively in Blanco)

2/26 8-2 -- Statewide Disaster Exercise for damage assessment teams. Hill Country Chapter is one of 23 participating in Texas. Chapter players must have had the ARC damage assessment course.

ARC Centex Chapter -- I'm confident it's a glitch in the internet posting system, but for the second month there are no training classes listed on the online schedule. All training is at the Austin ARC chapter house at 2218 Pershing Drive unless noted. To register, call Stephanie Cosmas at 512-929-1294 or email scosmas@centex.redcross.org .

ARC San Antonio Chapter --The SA ARC Chapter has the same problem. Their online listing of disaster courses shows none scheduled for Feb, although they showed a full schedule in Jan. All training is at the SA ARC chapter at 3642 E. Houston St. unless noted. To register, call 210-224-5151 or go to http://www.saredcross.org/ .

2/12 8-12:30 -- Helicopter landing zone class, Shoreline Christian Center, 15201 Burnet Rd, far north Austin. Learn how the law enforcement and medical helicopters work, how to set up a landing zone for the medevacs, watch the choppers fly in and out of the parking lot, tour them and the other emergency vehicles on site. Not a skill you're likely to ever need, but way cool for kids of all ages. Free.

2/17 8-9 am -- A free webinar on Healthy Communities: Improving Access and Intergration for People with Disabilities will be available online, focusing on obesity among the disabled and what it means for those who help them, such as us in a disaster response. No charge, but you have to register in advance. For information go to http://www.informz.net/ualbany-sph/event.asp?eid=3876&uid=68689979&minst=1162980 and follow instructions to register.

2/19 9-4 -- Skywarn Training (basic and advanced) on weather phenomena, recognition, reporting and safety. All-star faculty. It's free, but you have to feed yourself at lunch. The course is in the Big Tex Auditorium, Commons Bldg, Pickle Research Campus, University of Texas. No pre-registration required; information at http://www.utexas.edu/depts/grg/kimmel/skywarn2011.html

2/24 6:30 -- Austin Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) monthly meeting. How to be a Neighborhood Crime Analyst. Austin Emergency Coordination Center (CTECC). Free, open to non-members.

3/1 -- The Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) in Austin has schedule its spring basic training course for new members (you're welcome to join them) one night a week, March 1 through April 12. In it you'll get an overview of what kinds of disasters we're vulnerable to and how the professionals deal with them...and how you can help. It's free and the classes are in Austin's emergency operations center, which is a really cool class venue. It's all free -- apply online at http://www.austinhsem.com/go/survey/2333/2022/ .

4/11 7-1 -- Airport disaster exercise at Austin-Bergstrom needs more than 100 volunteers for victims and other roles. In the last one, we were relatives of passengers arriving on a plane which crashed on landing. They discovered their plan for controlling such relatives didn't work, and we pretty thoroughly rubbed their noses in it. Don't know what the scenario will be this time, but they've arranged to use a 737 as part of the game. These exercises are wonderful fun. This time, ABIA is having the Austin Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) folks recruit the volunteers (they may remember us). CERT members will be accepted first, then non-members if the need isn't filled. To get on the list, or the standby list if you're not an Austin CERT member, email Debbie Rich at Debbie.rich@ci.austin.tx.us . (Do we give you some great opportunities or what?)

6/17 and 6/24 6-12 midnight -- Austin PD training academy needs volunteer drunks. Your opportunity to get drooling drunk at the City of Austin's expense. APD needs to teach cadets how to do field sobriety tests, determining who's drunk and who's merely happy, and to do that they need volunteers willing to give up their sobriety for an evening in the name of education and public safety. The note I got didn't mention it, but they usually run volunteers through a computer check, and some volunteers have to remain sober or semi-sober. Also, if you get picked to be a drinker, you need to have a designated driver to get home...the place will be crawling with cops. Sign up with Officer Jason Wolf at jason.wolf@ci.austin.tx.us . (Who else gives you great opportunities like this?)

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has a Children's Working Group devoted to seeing that children's needs and issues are addressed in disaster planning and response. They have information on the website and an emailed newsletter. Access their information or sign up for the newsletter at http://www.fema.gov/about/cwg.shtm .

Also on children in disasters, Action for the Rights of Children offers 14 training modules in two groups on what children's unique needs and issues are in disasters. Free download at www.arc-online.org/using/index.html .

Much of what disaster training is available is for big population centers. Rural communities are less likely to be terrorism targets, but more likely to have natural disasters. Out here we live on a different scale, with tiny budgets, volunteer manpower, longer travel times. But there is help. The federally funded Rural Domestic Preparedness Consortium (RDPC) takes day-long disaster training to rural communities, using instructors experienced in the needs and resources of rural towns and counties. In our DVD library is a one-hour panel discussion of the unique pressures on rural responders and planners, and the help available to them. You're welcome to borrow that, or go to http://www.ruraltraining.org/training/online and see what the RDPC has to offer. Their training isn't available on line yet, but they're working on that, and we're hoping to get them to Blanco County for a session, too.

Ideas, suggestions, comments . . . see our website, www.blancocountydisasterresponsegroup.org,
or contact me at: George Barnette, Res: 830-868-0808, Cell: 713-252-2288, george@bnpr.com

FROM THE 12/29/10 BCDRG NEWSLETTER

This issue of the Blanco County Disaster Response Group newsletter includes:

1. Past Year

2. Coming Year

3. Other People's Training

1. PAST YEAR -- Funny thing about the end of a year...it's often more active than we expect it to be. Here in Texas, we think of the natural disaster cycle as beginning and ending with hurricane season, and as it calms down in October and November, we think of the season being over. Then one of the fall cold fronts spins off a tornado, or we get a flooding rain, or a wildfire whips up on a south wind, and we wonder where that came from. Winter seldom...but occasionally...brings ice storms, taking out power to homes. Then with the spring comes the parade of storm fronts with the potential for more wind and tornadoes and floods.

Of those, we went to Quihi, in Medina County, after spring flash flooding there. In the summer, we delivered relief supplies to the Mexican border towns flooded by the inland rains from Tropical Storm Alex. At the end of the summer, Tropical Storm Hermine paid us a visit with heavy -- though not flooding -- rains. We were prepared to open a shelter here for travelers stranded by Hermine, but it wasn't that bad, so stand-by is all we had to do. End of the season, right?

Through it all, our volunteers supported the Johnson City Food Pantry. In December, we helped the American Red Cross distribute electric space heaters to the poor. Volunteer Sharon Zimberg has taken on the task of assembling a directory of social services available in Blanco County. In talking with other folks in November, we discovered there's a chance to get more affordable housing built in JC, and a social service center for the county, and getting our agencies into an online community of central Texas social services, and we're pushing those forward.

2. COMING YEAR -- We will get our 501(c)3 status, either for the disaster response group or a larger umbrella ground under which we'll be one service. We need both. Stumbling block is the $500 cost.

The ARC has changed the shelter training package (shorter, simpler) and we'll offer it in February. We'll do this one in Blanco, in hopes of stimulating more participation from that end of the county. Then...what? Is this the year we actually do rural search and rescue training and an exercise? Establish an official Community Emergency Response Team? Establish a working alliance with the disaster response group getting rolling in Marble Falls? It's a clean schedule; we can put on it whatever you'd like to know about.

And, of course, there are the things we can't plan. The La Niña weather pattern is holding and even strengthening, which means warmer and drier weather for us, and we're already in severe drought. There's some concern among the firefighters that this could be a big year for wildfires. La Niña also means more hurricanes, and the long-range forecasters are predicting a season even more active than the last one. While we aren't a big target for terrorists, there is increasing chatter about attempts of contaminate the food supply chain as a means of scaring people and disrupting the economy, and we could be involved in that.

We do know 2011 will be interesting, like every other year in disasters...filled with completely predictable events that will catch us by surprise, even though we're planning for it and watching.

3. OTHER PEOPLE'S TRAINING (which you're welcome to attend) -- Free unless otherwise indicated.

The American Red Cross Hill Country Chapter (our mother chapter). Only one disaster course listing for January (below); there probably will be more, but the online schedule ran out before Christmas. Courses are at the Chapter House, 333 Earl Garrett at Jefferson, in Kerrville, and are free, unless otherwise noted. To register, call 830-792-3296.

1/4 6-10:30 -- CPR/AED adult ($30)

1/6 6-9:30 -- First Aid ($25)

1/8 8-6 -- First Aid/CPR/AED Adult, Child, Infant ($50)

1/20 9-3 --CPR/AED Adult, Child, Infant ($40)

1/20-21 8-5 -- Mass Care II. Supervisor and manager-level training for major disaster relief for those who are -- or want to become -- disaster managers.

1/29-30 9-6 -- First Aid/CPR/AED instructor course ($110)

ARC Centex Chapter -- There certainly will be some in Austin, but nothing's posted to the schedule on their website. They should be back in business after the holidays. All training is at the Austin ARC chapter house at 2218 Pershing Drive unless noted. To register, call Stephanie Cosmas at 512-929-1294 or email scosmas@centex.redcross.org .

ARC San Antonio Chapter --All training is at the SA ARC chapter at 3642 E. Houston St. unless noted. To register, call 210-224-5151 or go to http://www.saredcross.org/ .

1/8 9-12 -- Disaster Services Overview. Basic volunteer course on how disasters happen, affect people, and are responded to by the ARC and other agencies.

1/8 1-3 -- Disaster Action Team (DAT) Orientation. How to work as a member of a DAT, which responds locally from single-family incidents such as fires to community-wide floods.

1/11 6-10 -- Psychological First Aid. Recognizing and dealing with stress in clients and co-workers during and after a disaster.

1/15 9-12 -- Disaster Assessment Basics. How to assess disaster damage and fill out the forms to start relief moving toward those who need it. There'll be a national disaster assessment exercise later in the year, and those who have had the training can participate.

1/15 9-5 -- Disaster Frontline Supervisor and Simulation. Supervisors learn to lead relief teams with classroom instruction and a simulation exercise.

1/17 6-9 -- Weapons of Mass Destruction/Terrorism Overview. What we might be vulnerable to here and what we might be called to help with in higher priority target areas.

1/21 9-3 -- Shelter Operations and Simulation. How to meet the shelter needs of displaced people effectively and sensitively.

1/22 9-4 -- Client Casework: Providing Emergency Assistance. How to open a case for a person in need and follow through to see the system provides the help they need. Case workers are always in need after a disaster.

1/28-29 9-5 -- Mass Care II. Supervisor and manager-level training for major disaster relief for those who are -- or want to become -- disaster managers.

1/10 6-9:30 -- Disaster Services Overview. Introduction to ARC disaster response; basic for all volunteers.

1/18 6-9 -- Mas Care Action Team Workshop. Training in how to care for large numbers of people in major incidents.

1/20 6:30-10 -- Disaster Services Overview. Introduction to ARC disaster response; basic for all volunteers.

1/26 6-9:30 -- Bulk Distribution. How to get quantities of relief supplies from point A to point B amid chaos.

1/29 8:30-12 -- Disaster Services Overview. Introduction to ARC disaster response; basic for all volunteers.

1/29 1-4:30 -- DAT Workshop. Disaster Action Teams provide immediate assistance to survivors of small local incidents, such as housefires. More frequent than major disasters, but smaller and closer to home. =

The Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) in Austin has schedule its spring basic training course for new members (you're welcome to join them) one night a week, March 1 through April 12. In it you'll get an overview of what kinds of disasters we're vulnerable to and how the professionals deal with them...and how you can help. It's free and the classes are in Austin's emergency operations center, which is a really cool class venue. It's all free -- apply online at http://www.austinhsem.com/go/survey/2333/2022/ .

A major concern in Texas is staffing Special Medical Needs Shelters. A lot of survivors with medical needs or disabilities will be able to get along in general population shelters, but some will need more specialized care, and those shelters will need volunteers, too. Especially volunteers who already have some idea of how those shelters work and how to be helpful in them. You can become one of those knowledgeable people through a 3-hour online course on Special Medical Needs Shelters from the Center for Public Health Preparedness, School of Public Health, State University of New York at Albany. You'll need to register but it's free. Information is at http://www.ualbanycphp.org/learning/registration/tab.cfm?course=smns&s=Overview .

You can't predict weather hazards very far out or very precisely, but that doesn't mean we have to just wait for them to hit us. FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Administration, offers an online course in Anticipating Hazardous Weather & Community Risk; in other words, what might happen and what it would do to us. Go to http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/is271.asp , register, and take the free course through the internet.

Speaking of weather threats, the National Weather Service has a program called StormReady to help cities, counties and local agencies cut the potential for storm-related disasters. Don't live where local government is trying to do that? There's nothing against you doing it for yourself. Start at http://www.nws.noaa.gov/stormready/index.htm and go from there.

You're invited to sit in on a 90-minute webinar 1/12 from 2-3:30 on Lessons learned from Haiti, beginning with the earthquake a year ago and carrying all the way through the current cholera outbreak. It's sponsored by the American Medical Association, the National Institutes of Health, National Disaster Life Support Foundation, and the AMA's Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness journal. You'll have to register at https://cc.readytalk.com/cc/schedule/display.do?udc=g9df4utvg0bg but the webinar is free.

Disasters stress all of us, but even more so those with disabilities, who are less able to care for themselves and cope when things are going wrong. A new website from the University of Kansas' Research and Training Center for Independent Living is helping get such people sharing information and ideas -- through a website, a blog, Twitter and Facebook -- about things they've done or have seen done to better prepare themselves for emergencies. Good ideas for the rest of us, too. It's at http://www.disabilityprepared.ku.edu/ .

We mentioned above that we could be vulnerable as a site for terrorists trying to disrupt the US food chain and economy. There's a website, http://www.prep4agthreats.org/ , which discusses the exposure of rural communities to all sorts of man-made disasters, including terrorism, with resources to help us country folk anticipate, prepare for, prevent and recover from such incidents.

With all the revelations from the WikiLeaks releases, the biggest surprise for the disaster folks has been the absence of interest among diplomats and official agencies in disasters in the countries where they were working and reporting. Sure, there were some, and some were detailed, but they were few and there were many more instance where major disasters were known to be happening in the countries and no mention was made in the official reports. The chief exception was anything to do with nuclear weapons or parts. Government officials disinterested in local disasters? Good thing we don't have any of that around here.

Ideas, suggestions, comments . . . see our website, www.blancocountydisasterresponsegroup.org,
or contact me at: George Barnette, Res: 830-868-0808, Cell: 713-252-2288, george@bnpr.com

FROM THE 12/07/10 BCDRG NEWSLETTER

This issue of the Blanco County Disaster Response Group newsletter includes:

1. Looking forward

2. Other People's Training

1. LOOKING FORWARD -- We're about to wrap up the free heater distribution in Blanco County with the American Red Cross. They're supposed to go to low-income persons or families which include (1) the elderly, (2) handicapped, (3) chronically ill and/or (4) small children. If you know someone in one of those categories, do them a favor and give us the name and contact information. But not to me, please! In the south end of the county, the names are being collected by the Good Samaritan Center in Blanco, and in the north end by the FIrst United Methodist Church in Johnson City. Don't dawdle...we have less than a week to finish up.

High priority in the new year will be getting our 501(c)3 status. If you know who can help us accomplish that without charging an arm and a leg, please let me know. I'm told it has become so complex we need a lawyer to handle it, and that's a $500 hickey.

Also high priority is establishing a VOAD (Volunteer Organizations Active in Disasters) as an umbrella group for us and the others in the county we'd work with when the whistle blows. And a Long Term Recovery Committee (LTRC)...which we certainly don't need this minute...but as our cousins around the state (and as near as Marble Falls) have discovered, it's a lot easier to establish one in the calm when you don't need it than in the chaos when you do.

In that chaos, a listing of who offers which services in the county and how to contact them would be immensely valuable. It would be a good thing in normal times, too. With luck, that project (finally) will launch next week.

This winter we'll do another shelter training course, this time in Blanco, to refresh veterans and recruit new faces...and beef up our thin participation by Blanco folks. What else should we do and where would you like it done? Is there a disaster-related topic you'd like to know more about? Lemme know.

2. OTHER PEOPLE'S TRAINING (which you're welcome to attend) -- Free unless otherwise indicated.

12/6 6-7:30 -- Veterans History Project Training. Talk to the vets at the VA hospital about their experiences and help compile them into a collection in the Library of Congress.

12/7 6-10:30 -- CPR/AED adult (fee)

12/8 6-8 -- New volunteer orientation.

12/9 6-9:30 -- First Aid ($20)

12/11 9-1 -- Disaster Damage Assessment. How much damage do you suppose that house suffered in the flood or tornado? Getting a handle on damage quickly is important in gauging the size and scope of the disaster response needed...and it's done by volunteers who've taken this course. At the end of February, trained volunteers all over Texas will conduct a giant damage assessment exercise.

12/11 8-6 -- SFA/CPR/AED Adult, Child, Infant ($45)

ARC Centex Chapter -- All training is at the Austin ARC chapter house at 2218 Pershing Drive unless noted. To register, call Stephanie Cosmas at 512-929-1294 or email scosmas@centex.redcross.org .

12/04 8:30-12 -- Fulfilling Our Mission. Basic training for all ARC disaster volunteers.

12/04 1-4:30 -- Disaster Assistance Team (DAT) Workshop. How to delivery aid directly to those in need in and after a disaster, from one family in a housefire to a community-wide incident.

12/07 6-10 -- Psychological First Aid. How stress affects survivors and responders, and how to help them deal with it.

ARC San Antonio Chapter --All training is at the SA ARC chapter at 3642 E. Houston St. unless noted. To register, call 210-224-5151 or go to http://www.saredcross.org/ .

12/3 9-5 -- Shelter Operations and Simulation. How to meet the shelter needs of displaced people effectively and sensitively.

12/4 1-4 -- Disaster Services Overview. Basic volunteer course on how disasters happen, affect people, and are responded to by the ARC and other agencies.

12/4 8-12 -- Logistics: Overview and Simulation. How to get the right relief supplies to the right people at the right time in the midst of chaos.

12/7 6-8 -- DAT Skills Class. Expanding and sharpening DAT skills, especially using the 9901 form.

12/11 9-11 -- Disaster Action Team (DAT) Orientation. How to work as a member of a DAT, which responds locally from single-family incidents such as fires to community-wide floods.

12/11 12-3 -- Disaster Assessment Basics. How to assess disaster damage and fill out the forms to start relief moving toward those who need it.

While we're trying to get a Long-Term Recovery Committee launched, Church World Service will offer an all-day webinar on Long Term Recovery Dec 14, beginning at 9 am. The segments are self-contained, so if you can only catch part of it, you'll get a full one-hour unit on that topic, right through your comptuer. Time for breaks and question-and-answer are built into the schedule. Go to www.cwserp.org to register. It's free.

The Texas Department of Public Safety is offering a Basic Emergency Management course at the DPS Training Academy in Austin 12/14-16. Contact is Lana Johnson-Peters at 512-424-2196 or lana.johnson@txdps.state.tx.us. .

How about an online course on trauma and resiliency in children during and after disasters? The Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health offers one at http://www.ncdp.mailman.columbia.edu/childrentrauma/ . You'll have to register, but it's free.

The US Food and Drug Administration reminds us that winter is contagious virus time -- influenza, colds, pneumonia -- whooping cough is making a big comeback, too. The FDA offers more information about winter viruses and what to do about them at http://www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/ConsumerUpdates/ucm092805.htm .

How ready are you for a disaster? Chances are the answer is "I dunno", but the Colorado Dept of Public Health and the Environment will answer it for you. Go to http://www.cdphe.state.co.us/epr/calculator/index.html and fill in the blanks on the checklist, and they'll tell you what supplies you need to have on hand and how much of each...specifically for you and your family.

You can go to http://www.iema.illinois.gov/iema/EarthquakeGame/Welcome.html and play the Illinois Emergency Management Agency's Earthquake Game. It's designed for kids, but educational for adults, too.

It's designed for state governors -- written by the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices -- the "Governors Guide to Homeland Security", a guide to disaster preparedness, response and recovery. For example: want an explanation of the state-federal interface and how the power flows? Lots of governors don't know. You can find out that and more at http://www.nga.org/portal/site/nga/menuitem.9123e83a1f6786440ddcbeeb501010a0/?vgnextoid=58b4aee432d41110VgnVCM1000001a01010aRCRD

Ideas, suggestions, comments . . . see our website, www.blancocountydisasterresponsegroup.org,
or contact me at: George Barnette, Res: 830-868-0808, Cell: 713-252-2288, george@bnpr.com

FROM THE 11/05/10 BCDRG NEWSLETTER

This issue of the Blanco County Disaster Response Group newsletter includes:

1. Quieting down

2. Structural stuff

3. Other People's Training

1. QUIETING DOWN -- With Tomás passing haiti and heading out to the Atlantic, and the end of hurricane season in sight, it appears the natural disaster season is cooling for the winter. Of course, there are always the possibilities of flooding, high winds and tornadoes with storm fronts, but the climatologists tell us those are likely to pass safely north of us, and this winter should be too mild for an ice storm. That still leaves wildfires, with the forecast of drought returning.

It looks like our activity schedule is winding down, too. The speaker for the October session that never happened, then for November, hasn't been able to free up a date to come to Blanco County to tell us how to make bombs out of common household products, so it looks like that one will drop off our schedule, unfortunately.

One thing we'll do is distribute free heaters to people who need them here in Blanco County, similar to the familiar summer free-fan programs. The Hill Country Chapter of the American Red Cross has been doing heaters in Kerrville in the fall, and this year has promised to cut us in on the deal. We won't have a lot, but some is better than none. When we start the giveaway campaign, we'll also campaign for donations to cover their cost, and if we raise enough money we can get more heaters next year. I'll let you know when our heaters come in.

2. STRUCTURAL STUFF -- While we have a lull we will establish two entities the county ought to have, but doesn't.

One is Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (VOAD), an umbrella entity which brings together churches, social services, government agencies and non-profits that might play an active role in a disaster response. The theory is that the groups meet each other in advance, so when something happens, we already know who does what and how to access them. In practice, I've found that VOADs increase the routine cooperation between groups, making all of them more effective. I go to the San Antonio VOAD meeting every month, and always come away with something of value for Blanco County. A VOAD also connects us to sources of grants and other support, which would bring outside money into Blanco County.

The second entity is a Long-Term Recovery Committee (LTRC), which solicits, receives and manages donations of money, goods and services for recovery after a disaster. Prudent property-owners will have insurance, but that never covers the full amount of the loss. There may be some government money, but less than you'd think, and often none at all. The bulk of the disaster recovery money comes from non-profits, churches, companies and individuals, but they won't give it directly to those in need and they won't give it to local government; they want to see an LTRC up and running before they write the check. Better to have it established and on the shelf than try to put it together in the heat of the emergency, the way most communities do it.

Both of those need formal structures and directors and by-laws and tax IDs, so we'll get that done this winter to be ready in the spring...or whenever they're needed.

On a different subject, we'll be doing more American Red Cross training in the coming year. They still need more shelter-trained people, and the good news is they're revising the shelter training course -- shortening it to three-and-a-half hours, as our August trainees suggested (and you thought nobody ever read those evaluations!). The chance of us needing to open up a shelter in Blanco County is slim; we're much more likely to be asked to go to Fredericksburg or Kerrville or even San Antonio to help. If you're willing to learn how to do that, we'll teach you on February 19th.

There's been talk of changes in the CPR course, too, to eliminate the rescue-breaths and focus solely on chest compressions. The Red Cross position so far is that easier isn't better in this case. Breaths are still needed. The Red Cross thinks you need to learn how to do it right. If you choose to skip the mouth-to-mouth when you're working on a victim, that's your business, but you need to know how to do it right. That said, though, there will be an ARC compression-only CPR training course for people who just can't stand the idea of doing the breaths, but it won't get you a CPR certification.

The Red Cross has just signed a fresh agreement with FEMA, changing some of the mass care processes in disasters. The changes may or may not affect us...we'll see when they trickle down.

3. OTHER PEOPLE'S TRAINING (which you're welcome to attend) -- Free unless otherwise indicated.

11/9 9-12 -- Fulfilling Our Mission. Basic training for all ARC disaster volunteers.

11/9 6-9:30 -- First Aid ($20)

11/13 9-4 -- Introduction to Disaster, Mass Care and Shelter Operations. If you missed our course in August, here's your chance to catch up. (In Fredericksburg)

11/13 8-6 -- SFA/CPR/AED Adult, Child, Infant ($45)

11/16 9-5 -- ERV: Ready, Set Roll -- ERV is an Emergency Response Vehicle, the big ambulance-looking vehicle which can serve as a feeding canteen, supply transporter, or whatever else is needed. Learn how to operate and work in one.

11/18 9-4 -- Introduction to Disaster, Mass Care and Shelter Operations. If you missed our course in August, here's your chance to catch up.

11/23 5-10:30 -- CPR/AED Child/Infant. (fee)

ARC Centex Chapter -- All training is at the Austin ARC chapter house at 2218 Pershing Drive unless noted. To register, call Stephanie Cosmas at 512-929-1294 or email scosmas@centex.redcross.org .

11/9 6-9:30 -- Fulfilling Our Mission. Basic training for all ARC disaster volunteers.

11/13 8-5 -- Client Casework: Providing Emergency Assistance. How do the paperwork needed to open a case file, figure out what aid a client needs, then how to get it for them. In every disaster, caseworkers are always in short supply.

11/15 6-9 -- Disaster Assistance Team (DAT) Workshop. How to delivery aid directly to those in need in and after a disaster, from one family in a housefire to a community-wide incident.

11/18 6-9:30 -- Fulfilling Our Mission. Basic training for all ARC disaster volunteers.

11/22 6-9 -- Mass Care Action Team. How to help with logistics to support ARC shelters.

ARC San Antonio Chapter --All training is at the SA ARC chapter at 3642 E. Houston St. unless noted. To register, call 210-224-5151 or go to http://www.saredcross.org/ .

11/6 9-5 -- Serving People with Disabilities Following a Disaster. One of the best courses you'll ever take. How to identify people with disabilities (it's not always obvious), determine what help they need and how to get it for them.

11/13 9-4 -- Client Casework: Providing Emergency Assistance. How do the paperwork needed to open a case file, figure out what aid a client needs, then how to get it for them. In every disaster, caseworkers are always in short supply.

11/13 9-5 -- Logistics Overview and Logistics Simulation. How to get the right stuff to the right place in the midst of chaos.

11/17 9-12 -- Fulfilling Our Mission. Basic training for all ARC disaster volunteers.

FEMA has changed their online courdse, Animals in Disasters: Community Planning. It will teach those interested in animals care how to make a commujnity-wide plan for that, minimize threats to and from animals, and how to respond effectively to any emergency involving animals. Get online and go to

http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/is11a.asp , then follow directios. You'll have to register, but it's free.

The Texas Department of State Health Services has a TRAIN Texas website with scads of training courses, some free and some cost, some classroom and some on line. "Free" and "on line" are my personal favorites. You can access the site and take courses as you wish; you'll have to set up an account, which is a bit of a process, but once you do, you have access to lots of topics whenever you want them. How about the West Virginia School of Medicine's on-demand webcast on identifying elder abuse? Or the University of Minnesota Center for Public Health Preparedness introduction to the National Incident Management System and Incident Command System? Lots more, too.

Speaking of health issues in disasters, the National Library of Medicine at the National Institutes of Health has revamped its National Disaster Information Management Research Center at

http://disaster.nlm.nih.gov/ . The data ranges from the historical to today's headlines (including more than you want to know about the Haitian cholera outbreak, for example).

Ever wonder why people react to disaster the way they do? How about an on-demand recorded webinar with Dr Matthew Davis on exactly that. It's titled "The Psychology of Disasters" and is presented by Everbridge, a company which sells disaster notification systems. You'll have to register, but it's free.

Eating healthy despite a disaster can be a trick -- heck, eating at all can be tricky -- but an outfit called Everyday Health offers a guide to better disaster eating. It's aimed particularly at hurricanes, but it all works just as well for any situation where your eating habits are forcibly disrupted.

http://www.everydayhealth.com/healthy-home/hurricane-preparedness-guide-to-healthy-eating.aspx

One problem responders often have when they hit the ground is a lack of accurate, current data about what they're going into. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has plugged one such gap with MapAction, an online service of NOAA Coastal Services Center. It's mostly a hurricane-oriented tool (isn't everything these days?) but can apply in other situations in coastal communities, too. Go to

http://www.mapaction.org/ and see what they have.

Speaking of new NOAA hurricane map tools, http://csc-s-maps-q.csc.noaa.gov/hurricanes/ will give you historical hurricane tracks. If you're watching one coming in and wonder about such things as where the last ones went, what effect it had, or where the population is distributed now, this is your source.

You read about the massive floods in Pakistan this year, and the response efforts that never got off the ground, or were slow to happen, or simply didn't work. Pakistanis were even more distressed than outsiders, and have been examining what went wrong and how it could have been done better. Pakistan Information Network has published some online articles that contain good information for all response planners: http://paknet.net/challenges-faced-by-humanitarian-agency-in-emergency-response-in-urban-areas-lessons-from-haiti-and-chile and

and http://paknet.net/plan-pakistan-staff-share-personal-accounts-about-their-experiences-during-the-flood-crisis/ .

One of the consequences of global warming is that diseases we think of as tropical are able to move north into the US, either because the warming extends the range of the bugs themselves or of the bugs that transmit them. Dengue fever is an example...now turning up in Florida...not many cases, but more than in the past. On the other hand, bubonic plague is on the decline. They don't know why, but they suspect that may be somehow climate-related, too. Bottom line is those planning for disease-related disasters have more potential culprits to plan for.

Ideas, suggestions, comments...see our website, www.blancocountydisasterresponsegroup.org , or contact me at:

George Barnette
res 830-868-0808
cell 713-252-2288
george@bnpr.com

FROM THE 10/01/10 BCDRG NEWSLETTER

This issue of the Blanco County Disaster Response Group newsletter includes:

1. Things past
2. October training
3. Things to come
4. Other People's Training

1. THINGS PAST -- Tropical Storm Hermine came and went with a lot of sound and fury but not much significance here. Hermine was a fast-moving storm as it passed over the Hill Country, so it generally dropped a good rain but there were only spots of heavy rain, as in any large storm system. Hermine's speed of movement ruled out general flooding and the resulting damage in and around Blanco County was generally light. If local governments can scrape together enough dollar damage from Hermine, we could get a federal disaster declaration for public works repairs. Less likely is finding enough private-sector damage to qualify for aid to individuals and families. We'll see.

Attended a meeting of the Volunteer Organizations Active in Disaster (VOAD) in Burnet County. They're behind us in local experience and activity, but ahead of us in organization and diversity of participation. They like some of what we do and vice-versa. They're interested in working together with us, and of course we're interested in working with everybody, so it may happen.

2. OCTOBER TRAINING --We'd say save the date, but you'd have to save the whole month. We're still trying to settle a date for an Austin expert to visit with us this month about how terrorists make Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) from common household products and objects. I've already been asked if we ought to be putting this information out, so I ran it by a FEMA bombing-prevention trainer, who endorsed it wholeheartedly. Let you know when our speaker gives us a date. Who else is going to teach you how to blow up your kitchen?

3. THINGS TO COME -- The Texas Department of State Health Services has its big public fall flu shot clinic in Johnson City at the First United Methodist Church from 12-4 on Tuesday, October 5. We'll do our same role shepherding folks through the process. Good chance to get your flu shot, so pass the word to friends, too. They'll ask a $20 donation for the vaccine, but Medicare covers it for us geezers, and those who can't afford it get it free. They'll have pneumonia shots, too.

I mentioned above that the folks in Burnet County have organized a VOAD, something we've talked about here and for which, I think, the time is ripe. A VOAD brings together representatives from other entities which play a role in disaster preparation and response, so we can get to know each other and what we do and can do, before the chaos of an actual incident. You don't want to be standing in knee-deep water exchanging business cards. It also can be a means of bringing in grant money from out-of-county sources. Regular members can be any non-profit with any role in disasters, but there also is a place at the table for ex officio partners, such as government and business. Obvious regular members include our disaster response group, the Red Cross, and interested churches. Obvious ex officio members could include the county emergency management, the VFDs and EMSs. Who else? We need to build a list, so please suggest. We'll also need to set it up as a 501(c)3 entity, so if you know where we can get guidance on that tax status application, please let me know.

Another thing we need to form while we're at it is a Long-Term Recovery Committee (LTRC), not because we need it today, which we don't, but because we would need it following a disaster. An LTRC receives money from outside relief agencies and allocates it for local aid and rebuilding. Government money is smaller than most folks expect, and insurance rarely covers 100% of a loss (assuming the loss is insured). The big relief money and in-kind donations come from non-profits, churches and business. They won't give it to local government, and even denominations are reluctant to give big chunks to their local churches...what they want to see is an LTRC representing the broad community, working together to make sure legitimate needs are met without wasting or diverting donations. Most of the time, LTRCs are formed following a disaster, which is like assembling a fire truck while fighting a fire. Better to have it set up and sitting on the shelf, so it can be turned on and put to work quickly. Now -- before the need -- is the time to do it.

The October training session should be our last for the year, and with luck we won't have another call before the end of the year. If you have ideas/wishes/suggestions for 2011, please advise.

4. OTHER PEOPLE'S TRAINING (which you're welcome to attend) -- Free unless otherwise indicated.

10/5 6-10:30 -- CPR/AED Adult. ($25)

10/8 9-12 -- Fulfilling Our Mission. Basic training for all ARC disaster volunteers.

10/9 9-4 -- Introduction to Disaster, Mass Care and Shelter Operations. If you missed our course in August, here's your chance to catch up.

10/12 9-5 -- ERV: Ready, Set Roll -- ERV is an Emergency Response Vehicle, the big ambulance-looking vehicle which can serve as a feeding canteen, supply transporter, or whatever else is needed. Learn how to operate and work in one.

10/12 6-9:30 -- First Aid ($20)

10/16 8-6 -- SFA/CPR/AED Adult, Child, Infant ($45)

10/19 5-10:30 -- CPR/AED Child/Infant. (fee)

10/26 9-11 -- New volunteer orientation.

10/26-27 9-5 -- Service to Military Families. How the Red Cross helps support families of members of the armed forces, and how you can help do it, too.

ARC Centex Chapter -- All training is at the Austin ARC chapter house at 2218 Pershing Drive unless noted. To register, call Stephanie Cosmas at 5112-929-1294 or email scosmas@centex.redcross.org .

10/06 6-9:30 -- Fulfilling Our Mission. Basic training for all ARC disaster volunteers.

10/11 6-9 -- Mass Care Overview. Introduction to the care of large numbers of people in disaster.

10/12 6-9:30 -- Shelter Operations Overview. Learn to manage shelter operations.

10/16 8-12 -- Disaster Frontline Supervisor. How to lead a team of disaster workers on the front lines of an incident.

10/16 1-4 -- Disaster Frontline Supervision Simulation. See how well you paid attention through the morning.

10/23 1-4:30 -- Disaster Assistance Team (DAT) Workshop. How to delivery aid directly to those in need in and after a disaster, from one family in a housefire to a community-wide incident.

10/30 8:30-4:30 -- Working with Total Diversity. Conversational skills needed to work in diverse communities without putting your foot in your mouth.

ARC San Antonio Chapter --All training is at the SA ARC chapter at 3642 E. Houston St. unless noted. To register, call 210-224-5151 or go to http://www.saredcross.org/ .

10/2 9-11 -- Disaster Action Team Orientation. Assisting survivors of "small" disasters such as housefires with immediate aid.

10/2 12-4 -- Bulk Distribution Operations. How to get quantities of the right stuff to the right place in the midst of chaos.

10/8 1-3 -- Disaster Incident Response Trailer (DIRT) Training. What equipment is in the trailers and how to use it.

10/8 9-1 -- ERV: Ready, Set Roll -- ERV is an Emergency Response Vehicle, the big ambulance-looking vehicle which can serve as a feeding canteen, supply transporter, or whatever else is needed. Learn how to operate and work in one.

10/15 6-10 -- Fundamentals of Disaster Assessment. Estimating the extent and severity of damage so appropriate types and amounts of aid can begin to flow. Part two of the course; take part one online.

10/16 9-5 -- Collaborating to Ensure Effective Service Delivery. Being liaison with internal and external groups to make ARC service delivery more effective. A two-day course; day two is 10/23.

10/22 9-12 -- Fulfilling Our Mission. Basic training for all ARC disaster volunteers.

10/22 1-5 -- Financial and Statistical Information Management. Maintaining computerized financial data during disasters.

10/23 9-5 -- Collaborating to Ensure Effective Service Delivery. Day two of the course which began 1-/16.

If you want to expand on the American Red Cross course we took on assisting the disabled after disasters, Church World Service offers in a webinar on line at 1 pm Tuesday, 10/5. Go to www.cwserp.org to register for the free session, then just tune in on your home computer Tuesday afternoon and get educated.

A course you can take online anytime from the American Medical Association is Recognizing Mental and Behavioral Health Issues. It's 90 minutes long, free, and reachable by computer at http://eo2.commpartners.com/users/ama/session.php?id=5104 . It's aimed at MDs, especially those with patients who may suffer psychological effects from the BP oil spill, but you should be able to follow most of it and it applies to other incidents, too. There's also a state-level guide to mental health referral resources you can download.

Mass Care is what we might do to shelter local residents after a disaster here; Catastrophic Mass Care is what might be done in major metro areas or at the state level to care for huge numbers of people in major disasters. The State of Florida is one of the most prepared with a nationally-acclaimed statewide plan. This audio-only session from the 2009 National Hurricane Conference, describes how it works and how it was developed. It's a level far above us, but the basics apply to us, too. http://content.041072.com/viewer.php?tid=177483

It's National Cyber Security Month, so the San Antonio Office of Emergency Management offers a pair of free training courses on computer security. The first is "Essentials of Community Cyber Security" from 8:30 to noon on 10/22. Second is "Promoting Community Cyber Security" from 8:30 to 3:30 pm on 10/27. Both courses will be in SA's whizzy Emergency Operations Center at 8130 Inner Circle Drive. More information from mark.chadwick@sanantonio.gov or 210-206-8688. If you want to go, you might get directions from him or me; it's tricky to find, even with a GPS.

Also appropriate to the calendar, the folks at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have some new thoughts on flu and how we spread it to each other. They've posted some new guidance on it at http://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/disease/spread.htm . Good news: it's short and written in simple language.

Need a quick intro to disaster response? FEMA's Emergency Management Institute offers an online course called "A Citizen's Guide to Disaster Assistance" which provides that. You can download the course materials and work through it as you have time. Takes 10 hours or less to complete. Go to http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/is7.asp and follow the instructions.

Here's a primo internet time-waster: http://www.radioreference.com/ . This website has scanner radios all over the country, so you can listen in on first-responder calls while doing other things on your computer. Most of it is the usual stuff, but you also can follow the development of high-profile events as they happen. Like what? Austin PD during the UT shooting, county-by-county progress of TS Hermine across the state, and the fire-fighting aircraft water-bombing forest fires near Boulder, Colo.

Another time-waster is courtesy of the Dartmouth Flood Observatory, which offers maps of where in the world flooding is occurring right now (you'll be surprised at how many). You also can zero in on smaller areas to find local high water. It's at http://floodobservatory.colorado.edu/ .

Not predicting anything here, but just noting: Geologists have reported an increase in seismic activity (that's little earthquakes to us non-professionals) lately in the area of the fault zone expected to produce the most devastating quake on the North American continent. And where in California is that? It isn't...it's in southeast Missouri...centered near the town of New Madrid. The New Madrid fault zone runs along the Mississippi River from Arkansas to Illinois, and from the Appalachians to the Great Plains. Oklahoma and Ohio are both in it. The biggest New Madrid quake in history was 7.0 on the Richter scale in 1811, with strong aftershocks over another three months and smaller ones over more than a year. How powerful was it? The shake rang bells in church steeples as far away as Boston! Since then, there's been a significant earthquake in the zone about every 10 years. The last big one was a 5.0 in 1976. A swarm of little quakes over the past few weeks has included a 4.0 in Oklahoma and a pretty good rocker in Nebraska. Oklahoma County, Okla, has had more than 400 little ones this year. An Oklahoma state seismologist says it could be a fault unzipping slowly under stress...or a precursor to a big one. What might "a big one" look like? Disaster professionals say it could be the single most devastating event ever to hit the US, with enough damage to bankrupt the entire insurance industry, and response agencies have focused for years on preparing for it.

Ideas, suggestions, comments...see our website, www.blancocountydisasterresponsegroup.org , or contact me at:

George Barnette
res 830-868-0808
cell 713-252-2288
george@bnpr.com

FROM THE 08/30/10 BCDRG NEWSLETTER

This issue of the Blanco County Disaster Response Group newsletter includes:

1. Shelter training

2. Planning and Schedule

3. Other People's Training

1. SHELTER TRAINING -- We did the three-part American Red Cross shelter training last Saturday, with 11 students, some of whom already had been through the course, and some who were new additions to the roster.

The likelihood of a Blanco County shelter being opened to house evacuees from a distant disaster is slim. We're way out at the end of the Red Cross' chain of shelters. For a major evacuation from a coastal hurricane, for example, the major metro shelters would open first; their overflow and some special populations might go to Kerrville; if Kerrville fills, their overflow would go to Fredericksburg; only if Fredericksburg fills and they're still coming would we be asked to open. More likely, our pool of shelter-trained volunteers would be asked to go help with shelters elsewhere.

We'd be the first line of response for a local disaster, or might be asked to house responders to a nearby incident, but our shelter sizes and lack of support resources limits our ability to do longer-term sheltering for a large population.

2. PLANNING -- August is behind us and the hurricane season is waning, right? Wrong. Statistically, the peak of hurricane season is September 10, with as much activity after as before it. The weather mega-phenomena that held hurricane numbers down through the summer have shifted, so the predicted active season actually is only a few weeks old.

We're hoping to get an Austin expert for October on how terrorists make Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) from common household products and objects. I've already been asked if we ought to be putting this information out, so I ran it by a FEMA bombing-prevention trainer, who endorsed it wholeheartedly. If the teenager in line ahead of you at the grocery could be sacking up bomb ingredients, it would be good if you could recognize what was going on and blow the whistle on him before he or someone else got hurt.

Also in October: We're on alert that the Texas Department of State Health Services is scheduling the big public fall flu shot clinic in Johnson City at the First United Methodist Church from 9-5 on Tuesday, October 5. We'll do our same role shepherding folks through the process. Good news: the lines should be shorter this year. We may do Blanco, too, but they want to try to get local volunteers there first.

4. OTHER PEOPLE'S TRAINING (which you're welcome to attend) -- Free unless otherwise indicated.

9/7 6-10:30 -- CPR/AED Adult. ($25)

9/7 9-11 -- New volunteer orientation.

9/7 1-4 -- Fulfilling Our Mission. Basic training for all ARC disaster volunteers.

9/9 6-9:30 -- First Aid ($20)

9/18 8-6 -- SFA/CPR/AED Adult, Child, Infant ($45)

ARC Centex Chapter -- All training is at the Austin ARC chapter house at 2218 Pershing Drive unless noted. To register, call Stephanie Cosmas at 5112-929-1294 or email scosmas@centex.redcross.org .

9/9 6-9:30 -- Fulfilling Our Mission. Basic training for all ARC disaster volunteers.

9/13 6-9 -- Mass Care Overview. Introduction to the care of large numbers of people in disaster.

9/14 6-9 -- Mass Care Action Teams. How to work as part of a response team to provide care for large numbers of people.

9/16 6-9 -- Bulk Distribution Operations. How to get quantities of relief supplies from one place to another, and to people who need them.

9/20 6-9:30 -- Fulfilling Our Mission. Basic training for all ARC disaster volunteers.

9/21 6-9 -- Disaster Assistance Team (DAT) Workshop. How to delivery aid directly to those in need in and after a disaster, from one family in a housefire to a community-wide incident.

9/25 9-4:30 -- Fundamentals of Disaster Public Affairs. Getting the ARC message out through the news media during a disaster.

9/25 6-9 ERV: Ready, Set, Roll. An ERV is an Emergency Response Vehicle, part truck, part bus, and part rolling restaurant. Learn how to operate and work in one after a disaster.

ARC San Antonio Chapter --All training is at the SA ARC chapter at 3642 E. Houston St. unless noted. To register, call 210-224-5151 or go to http://www.saredcross.org/ .

9/2 6-9 -- Fulfilling Our Mission. Basic training for all ARC disaster volunteers.

9/10 9-5 -- In-Kind Donation Workshop. How to get the right kind of in-kind donations when you need them, and what to do about the kind of thing you don't need but get anyway.

9/15 6-9 -- Shelter Operations Overview. Learn to manage shelter operations.

9/16 6-9:30 -- Shelter Simulation. Actually do what you learned in yesterday's class.

9/17 9-12 -- Disaster Assessment Basics. Estimating the extent and severity of damage so appropriate types and amounts of aid can begin to flow.

9/18 1-4 -- Mass Care Overview. Introduction to the care of large numbers of people in disaster.

9/18 9-12 -- Weapons of Mass Destruction/Terrorism Overview. What WMD and terrorist incidents are, how they work, how disaster workers respond to them.

9/22 6-9 -- Disaster Frontline Supervisor. How to lead a team of disaster workers on the front lines of an incident.

9/24 9-5 -- Serving People with Disabilities Following a Disaster. One of the best the ARC offers. Helps anyone in any kind of public contact, disaster or not. Take it while you can.

9/29 6-9 -- Disaster Frontline Simulation. Find out whether you were paying attention in the classroom on the 22nd.

The Austin Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) starts its basic training series for new members and folks who just want to be prepared. It's free either way, and the training is every Tuesday, 6-9 pm, in the really cool Emergency Operations Center. Classes include personal preparedness, disaster psychology, storm spotting, firefighting, terrorism, search and rescue, and medical operations. Yeah, you have to drive into Austin at evening rush hour every week, but there's a lot of good stuff in the training. To sign up, just show up (I'll tell you how to get there; it's tricky), or contact Linda Haynie at 512-974-0471, or linda.haynie@ci.austin.tx.us , or go to the CERT website at www.austinhsem.com/go/site/2333 .

The City of San Antonio offers a pair of free courses in September, both taught at the Emergency Operations Center at Brooks City-Base on the south side. Get detailed directions when you sign up or ask me...it's tricky to get to. Details from Mark Chadwick, 210-206-8688, mark.chadwick@sanantonio.gov . Register through www.preparingtexas.org .

9/7 -- Incident Response to Terrorist Bombings - Awareness

9/28 -- All-Hazards Community Awareness and Partnership Training

Saturday, 9/11, 10-3 -- Texas Baptist Men Disaster Relief training for people (Baptist or not, men or not) interested in being trained to help in a disaster. TBM goes all over Texas and does a variety of things, from running a shower truck to feeding the multitudes. Free. Pre-registration requested; required by 9/9 if you want to order a box lunch. It's at the 1st Baptist Church in San Antonio, 515 McCullough. You get an overview of the program in the morning, then you choose a specialty training in the afternoon. For directions and more information, contact Patricia Ward at 210-525-9954 or patriciaw@sanantoniobaptist.org .

The New York-New Jersey Public Health Training Center offers an online training course for disaster communication between people of different cultures, which certainly is appropriate for us in Texas. The situation in this course is a flood, also appropriate for Texans. How to listen to people who talk and act different, how to recognize and deal with cultural differences, how to get your message across under stress. Free, but you have to register and create an account. http://www.nynj-phtc.org/pages/catalog/cc2-flood/

Ideas, suggestions, comments . . . see our website, www.blancocountydisasterresponsegroup.org,
or contact me at: George Barnette, 830-868-0808, george@bnpr.com

FROM THE 06/30/10 BCDRG NEWSLETTER

This issue of the Blanco County Disaster Response Group newsletter includes:

1. Hurricane Alex
2. Serving People with Disabilities Following a Disaster
3. Planning and Schedule
4. Other People's Training

1. HURRICANE ALEX -- Alex is ashore and forecast to rain itself out over the mountains of northern Mexico over the next few days. Effects in Texas will mostly be from rain-flooding in the Rio Grande Valley, although some stream and river flooding is possible in south Texas through Saturday. Effects in Blanco County may include some rain Thursday but not much more.

More than a dozen shelters have opened in the valley; how long they remain open will depend on the amount of flooding in the area. South Texans don't like to evacuate unless they have to, so the big regional shelters in San Antonio have been pretty quiet. The responders in SA have used this storm as a drill to test their ability to register volunteers, and they've had some, and to check how many folks would be ready and available if they were needed. If you took the National Organization for Victim Assistance (NOVA) spiritual-emotional-psychological training we offered this spring and would be willing to assist survivors in the SA shelters in a real emergency, please email Jeanne Goodlin at and let her know.

Chance of our group being called on to go to SA or elsewhere for Alex is about zero. I'll advise if it changes.

2. SERVING PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES FOLLOWING A DISASTER -- If you missed this American Red Cross course, you missed a good one. We had 21 people at the Liberty Lighthouse Fellowship for the day. Some of the content was what you'd expect, but there were some curves thrown at us...a half dozen men with real disabilities, and our job was to figure out what they needed beyond the usual survivor assistance, and how we could provide it to them -- IF we could provide it at all. The curve was that most of the men's disabilities were mental, so they weren't as obvious as Tommy Levitt's wheelchair, nor as familiar to us. For many, just the chance to talk face-to-face with people with genuine cognitive disabilities was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Bottom line was they want to succeed and want us to succeed in helping them, and the best way to discover how we can do that is simply to ask.

This course is not offered often, nor in many places, so getting it brought to us in Blanco County was a rare opportunity. It will be offered again next month in San Antonio (see the SA ARC course listings below) so if you missed it here, you have another chance. It's worth the trip to SA.

3. PLANNING AND SCHEDULE -- The state's top need in disaster response volunteers is for those trained in spiritual-emotional-psychological intervention and care. We put almost three dozen the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) Spiritual and Emotional Care training a couple of years ago, and 10 more took the NOVA short course from the National Organization for Victim Assistance this spring. Now we're on to the state's second priority: shelter training. We've done the American Red Cross course twice, and have almost 50 trained, but it's never enough and we have new members who didn't get the training earlier. Besides, sheltering is a living field and changes from time to time, so refresher training is a good idea. We'll probably do the day-long course Saturday, August 28, at the First United Methodist Church in Johnson City. We'll advise in the next newsletter if any of that changes; meanwhile, SAVE THE DATE.

Apparently our students at the class last weekend made a big impression on the instructor. She has offered to come back from San Antonio to teach the ARC's Psychological First Aid course for us. I've told her we'll take her up on it, perhaps this fall, perhaps after the first of the year.

We'd tentatively set a CPR/First Aid class for July, and still hope to offer it. Several local groups want to set up the training, and we may be able to open one or more of those classes to everyone. If so, we'll let you know.

We've been in touch with some folks trying to send volunteers for spiritual, emotional and psychological intervention into some of the Louisiana coastal communities affected by the oil spill. Residents there are going through what amounts to a slow disaster, with all the same feelings as with a fire or tornado, only there's no end in sight. They prefer pre-trained volunteers, such as those who've had the NOVA or UMCOR spiritual and emotional care courses we've offered, or the ARC's psychological first aid, but they are prepared to do some training for willing volunteers. No idea yet when or where, or even if, but but we'll let you know if they decide they want us.

4. OTHER PEOPLE'S TRAINING (which you're welcome to attend) -- Free unless otherwise indicated.

The American Red Cross Hill Country Chapter (our mother chapter). Courses are at the Chapter House, 333 Earl Garrett at Jefferson, in Kerrville, and are free, unless otherwise noted. To register, call 830-792-3296.

7/6 6-10:30 -- CPR/AED Adult. ($25)
7/8 6-9:30 -- First Aid ($20)
7/10 9-5 -- Disaster Assessment. How to estimate the amount of damage from a disaster, and what response effort and assistance will be needed.
7/17 8-6 -- SFA/CPR/AED Adult, Child, Infant (45)
7/20 5-10:30 --CPR/AED Child, Infant. ($25)

ARC Centex Chapter -- All training is at the Austin ARC chapter house at 2218 Pershing Drive unless noted. To register, call Melissa Payne at 5112-929-1294 or email mpayne@centex.redcross.org.

The training schedule has nothing after June. I suspect that's just a failure to update the online schedule, and with folks distracted by Hurricane Alex, it may be some time before the website is made current.

ARC San Antonio Chapter --All training is at the SA ARC chapter at 3642 E. Houston St. unless noted. To register, call 210-224-5151 or go to http://www.saredcross.org.

7/10 9-1 -- Fundamentals of Disaster Assessment. How to estimate the amount of damage from a disaster, and what response effort and assistance will be needed.
7/14 6-9 -- Fulfilling Our Mission. Basic training for all ARC disaster volunteers.
7/17 9-4 -- Client Casework: Providing Emergency Assistance. How to open cases, begin the paperwork, and connect people in need to resources to help them. Held in New Braunfels.
7/24 9-5 -- Serving People with Disabilities Following a Disaster. How to recognize people with disabilities and find ways to meet their needs, in a disaster or any other time. This is the class we just had, and it's excellent. If you missed it, go to SA and take it.
7/24 9-3 -- Shelter Operations/Shelter Simulation. How to open, close, operate, and work in a disaster shelter.

July is typically a slow month for ARC training. Expect the schedule to pick up again in August.

Austin/Travis County Community Emergency Response Team will have a presentation from the Austin PD bomb squad (a 4th of July fireworks special?) at 6:30 pm 7/22. Free and open to visitors. It's in the emergency operations center near the old airport...let me know if you want to go, and I'll give you directions.

There'll be a two-day Cave Rescue class at the city hall in Sunset Valley (off 290/71 in SW Austin). Day one is 6-10 pm 7/9, and day two is 8-12 noon. Free but you have to register in advance. Contact vdevine@austin.rr.com for more details and to sign up.

Not overly educational, but fun: a college course requires students to make a map showing how a national epidemic might spread and how it could be plotted on a map. One group of students selected the spread of zombies as their epidemic. (For a class, it is the preparation of a map that's important, not the reality of the disease.) See the resulting zombie epidemic map posted at http://www.classesandcareers.com/collegelife/zombie-epidemic-infographic/. What other newsletter gives you this kind of vital information?

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention does continuing education for medical professionals through conference calls and online presentations, some of which we alert you to here. One popped up a month ago after the newsletter was distributed, about dengue fever and malaria, which we think of as foreign tropical diseases, but which are popping up more frequently in the US. The CDC's title for the session was, "It's A Small World After All". If you're interested in what American mosquitoes are carrying this summer, find the transcript, audio and slides on line at http://emergency.cdc.gov/coca/confcall_archive.asp.

FEMA's Emergency Management Institute has two online courses you may be interested in. Hurricane Alex forcibly reminds us of the need for communities to be prepared for tropical activity -- yes, even as far inland as Blanco County. It's an old course but updated with new material. You'll have to register but it's free. Go to http://www.training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/is324a.asp.

The second is an often overlooked aspect of disaster response: Planning for the Needs of Children in Disasters. It will explain how children are not just small adults, but have unique needs in disaster situations, and how to address those needs. http://www.training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/is366.asp

Ideas, suggestions, comments . . . see our website, www.blancocountydisasterresponsegroup.org,
or contact me at: George Barnette, 830-868-0808, george@bnpr.com

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