CURRENT STATUS AND SCHEDULE (NEWSLETTER)

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

FROM THE 06/30/10 BCDRG NEWSLETTER

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

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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FROM THE 05/27/10 BCDRG NEWSLETTER

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

1. Mission to Quihi
2. Disaster Response as a Church Mission Function
3. Planning and Schedule (Big deal!)
4. Other People's Training

1. MISSION TO QUIHI -- On Friday, 5/14, flash flooding inundated several homes in Quihi, a small community near Hondo in Medina County. On Tuesday, 5/18, we were in New Fountain, the next community down the road, planning a relief effort, and on Saturday, 5/22, we were part of a work-day in Quihi, helping clean up damage and debris, and set survivors on the path to recovery. Medina County is beyond San Antonio...not part of our neighborhood...but the call for help came through our partnership with the United Methodist Church, whose church in New Fountain was taking the lead in relief. Some of our folks went independently and some took the Johnson City First United Methodist Church bus (before dawn!), and joined more than 50 volunteers from the area and elsewhere for the workday. For our volunteers, it was not only a good way to help people who really needed us, but also good exposure to how a well-planned and well-managed relief effort works.

We almost had a call to go to Eagle Pass, too. It's not in our neighborhood, either. They had heavy rains the night of Monday, 5/24, with some homes flooded -- about 40 people put out of their homes. Turned out to be a small incident (unless the water was in your house!) so manpower was not needed, just money, and I've been trying to find some of that for them.

2. DISASTER RESPONSE AS A CHURCH MISSION FUNCTION -- We've been looking at the natural alliance between disaster response (which we do) and mission work (which churches do). Mission work involves assembling a group and going to help people who really need it. Except for the fact that mission trips are planned months in advance, while ours are spur-of-the-moment, almost all of it overlaps. Churches typically have several (or many) people interested in missions, but almost none involved in disaster response. There are exceptions, where volunteers do both, like First United Methodist Church here in JC, and it works well. In Quihi, the New Fountain missions chair was the point person for volunteers and organization. After the tornadoes across the south a month ago, and the Tennessee flooding, many of the response teams were church mission volunteers, trained for disaster response as well as giving medical care or building schools. The jobs are not mutually exclusive. For mission people, it's another way to serve people in need; for disaster responders it's another source of volunteers. Around here, they could join us or form their own group. We can provide the training and support. What do you think? Know a church with a pastor or just a few members who might be interested?

3. PLANNING AND SCHEDULE -- Save the date! Our next training class will be Serving People with Disabilities Following a Disaster, an all-day (9-5) class Saturday, 6/26, from the American Red Cross. It'll be in Johnson City, but specifically where is yet to be determined. Why people with disabilities? Because most of us have no idea how they look at the world, what they need and what they don't want. We already know special needs people make up about 10-15% of a general-population shelter, and that number will rise as more are channeled from medical shelters to general pop...beginning this year. Besides, it's a valuable thing for us to know in normal contact with that segment of the community, in church mission work, and in other community service. This is a rarely offered course, even within the Red Cross; we are most fortunate to have it here. It's free, but we need a headcount to make sure there are enough materials and space for everyone. Please mark the date and call or email if you're interested. We'll be back to you with more details as it gets closer.

We're still inclined to do a fundraiser dinner and a movie in July, setting up disaster-shelter style and serving off-the-shelf heater meals, then watching the Mother of All Disaster films, "2012". (If Blanco County can have a lighthouse, can we have a tsunami?) (You knew we were getting a lighthouse, didn't you?) Money raised will go to stock our shelter supplies. Comments pro or con still being accepted and considered. Whatcha think?

We'll set another training course for August, just before the height of hurricane season. The state says it has a huge need for shelter-trained volunteers, so we'll probably offer that to build up our cadre of trained folks. We're already way beyond most rural counties, but there are never enough.

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.

6/1 6-10:30 -- CPR/AED Adult. ($25)
6/5 9-5 -- Health Services Response Workshop.
6/8 9-12 -- Fulfilling Our Mission. Basic Training for all ARC disaster volunteers.
6/8 6-8 -- New volunteer orientation
6/10 6-9:30 -- First Aid ($20)
6/10 9-5 -- CPR/AED Professional. ($40)
6/17 9-4 -- Mass Care/Shelter Operations. How shelters work and how to work in them.
6/19 8-6 SFA/CPR/AED Adult, Child, Infant. ($45)
6/22 5-10:30 --CPR/AED Child, Infant. ($25)
6/23 1-5 -- SFA/CPR/AED Adult, Child, Infant review (charge)

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.

6/1 7-10 -- Fulfilling Our Mission. Basic Training for all ARC disaster volunteers.
6/5 8-4 -- Disaster Mental Health. Dealing with mental health issues in disasters; for licensed professionals.
6/17 6-9:30 -- Fulfilling Our Mission. Basic Training for all ARC disaster volunteers.
6/21 6-9 -- Disaster Action Team workshop. These are the ARC's first responders to small-scale disasters, such as house fires, to help the victims in the
first hours and connect them to other aid later.
6/23 6-10 -- Psychological First Aid. Stress responses of survivors and responders in disaster, and how to relieve them.

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/.

6/9 6-9 -- Mass Care Overview; introduction to ARC mass care activity in disaster response.
6/12 6-8 -- Logistics Overview and Simulation. How to get the right goods to the right places during disaster.
6/17 6-8 -- Disaster Action Team Orientation. These are the ARC's first responders to small-scale disasters, such as house fires, to help the victims in the
first hours and connect them to other aid later.
6/19 9-12 -- Psychological First Aid. Stress responses of survivors and responders in disaster, and how to relieve them.
6/23 9-12 -- Bulk Distribution Operations. Setting up, running and helping a distribution point for bulk supplies in a disaster.
6/26 9-12 -- ERVs: Ready, Set Roll. How to operate and work in the ARC's Emergency Response Vehicles.

Texas Risk Mitigation Leadership Forum, Hilton Austin, 2 pm 6/28 and 1:30 pm 6/29. Texas disaster vulnerabilities, state and federal laws aimed at reducing hazards, how to prepare now to reduce damage later. This is an invitation-only event, but we have an invitation and if you'd like to go and represent the BCDRG, you're welcome to our seat. Tell me you want it and I'll tell you how to register. None of their promotion materials mention money, so I assume it's free.

Austin Disaster Relief Network (ADRN) training conference. It's structured a little oddly, but it offers a lot of basics. (PART 1) Bannockburn Baptist Church, 7100 Brodie Lane, Austin, 6/7-13. Evacuee care/Primary disaster response ($70). Disaster relief training (shelter preparation, family preparedness, Biblical readiness, business emergency preparedness)(free). (PART 2) Promiseland Church, Raymond Light Bldg, 1504 E 51st St, Austin. 1st Responder and Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training, 6-10 pm 6/7-10 plus 2-6 pm 6/13 ($40). Register online at www.adrntx.org.

Early Response Team Training, Wimberley United Methodist Church, 1200 County Road 1492, Wimberley, 8:30-4, 6/26. This course from the United Methodist Church qualifies you to join a team to go into flood areas as soon as entry is safe, and help clear out water-soaked houses. ($30) Contact Emmett Eary, 512-663-3150 or eary@sbcglobal.net.

Hurricane Readiness for Coastal Communities. Texas Dept of Emergency Management course and exercise over two days. (But we're not on the coast! True, but the principles apply to almost all disasters.) Victoria 6/7-8. Details and registration at https://www.preparingtexas.org/index.aspx?.

The Role of Voluntary Agencies in Emergency Management (that certainly is us). This online course from the Emergency Management Institute is free, but they'll want you to register. Start at http://www.training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/is288.asp.

Aiding Persons with Disabilities in Disaster. This is a series of four half-hour audio presentations originally recorded in 2006 but still applicable and still accessible on line, from the University of North Carolina Center for Public Health Preparedness. Get ahead of our June course, or do this instead if you can't attend ours. Free, but you have to register. Go to http://nccphp.sph.unc.edu/training/training_list/?mode=view_cat_detail&cat_id=169.

Pandemics and Bioterrorism: From Realistic Threats to Effective Policies. 6/26-28. One problem with health-related disasters is that they are managed by local and state agencies with different policies and procedures, unlike natural disasters, where nationally accepted systems make it easy for everyone to know who does what and how. In this online course, experts from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology look at how it works -- and doesn't work -- and how to improve it. To attend online, go to http://web.mit.edu/professional/short-programs/courses/combating_bioterrorism.html.

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

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FROM THE 04/28/10 BCDRG NEWSLETTER

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

1. Events since the last newsletter
2. Conference Report
3. Planning and schedule
4. Other people's training

1. EVENTS SINCE THE LAST NEWSLETTER -- The National Organization for Victim Assistance (NOVA) brought its spiritual/emotional/psychological intervention training to Blanco County and prepared 10 new volunteers. The NOVA course is the basic credential for anyone doing intervention in the San Antonio disaster shelters, regardless of what other training and experience they may have. Our volunteers may now be called on to go to SA to help disaster survivors, or we may find ourselves applying the new skills here at home.

We've mentioned the dengue fever epidemic spreading in tropical countries. Dengue is carried by mosquitoes and can be as mild as a really bad case of flu, or can be fatal. Now it's turning up in relief workers in or returning from Haiti. Further proof that no good deed goes unpunished.

The first cross-border rush into Texas of Mexican citizens fleeing violence on the other side has occurred in West Texas. It was orderly and small. The Department of Homeland Security plans to put an unarmed Predator drone over the Texas-Mexico border, based at the Naval Air Station at Corpus Christi. I saw one at San Antonio six weeks ago, but that may have been a test or training flight.

2. CONFERENCE REPORT -- I went to the National Hurricane Conference at Orlando, not because hurricanes are a major threat here (although they are a significant threat, even this far inland) but because the conference actually covers much more than hurricanes -- it's a good overview of disaster planning, preparedness and response across the spectrum of incidents. It's also a good place to meet people who can help us in Blanco County. They're supposed to make recordings of the sessions available free; I'll let you know when that happens.

Main message I took away from the conference is the same one from the Homeland Security Conference in San Antonio: those of us who operate disaster shelters for the general population are going to see more special needs people coming into them. People who continue to be housed in special shelters will be those with substantial medical needs. Those who can cope if they get some assistance will go to the general shelters. And in both conferences the message from the feds was clear...we will be expected to accept and accommodate those additional special needs people. Failure to do so will run afoul of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Fair Housing Act, although the latter won't be much of an issue with us. As they explained it, the changes won't mean drastic differences in general population shelters, just more help for those who need it.

My favorite hurricane conference story is from the session in which the Justice Department ADA prosecutor and the FEMA mass shelter rep were going over the changes and reasons for them and what it would all mean. They said specifically that if we make oral announcements in a shelter, we have to be sure the deaf get the information in writing; if we post written material, we must make sure the blind have it read to them. Both feds made use of PowerPoint slides, some of them pretty data-heavy, but neither of them thought to read it all aloud DESPITE THE FACT THAT ONE ATTENDEE TOLD THEM AT THE BEGINNING THAT HE WAS BLIND! No, I did not call that to the speakers' attention. I make it a practice to avoid publicly embarrassing Justice Department enforcement lawyers. It does, though, show how easy it is to forget the needs of the handicapped.

I hope to schedule a course on accommodating the disabled in disaster response for this summer, before hurricane season gets serious.

I also "attended" by internet a webinar on Domestic Disaster Ministry, sponsored by Church World Service. One speaker made the case that disasters are as much social catastrophes as physical ones. She said different segments of the community are affected differently, and to different degrees, making their needs and reactions different from one another. She pointed out that the stereotypical responses from the movies -- general panic and looting -- almost never happen. People are more likely to help their neighbors than victimize them. She also pointed out that spontaneous volunteers are going to appear after disasters, and are going to find a way to help, and all the planning to restrict their access to the disaster area will only slow down the help they bring...if it has any effect at all.

3. PLANNING AND SCHEDULE -- Our next event is the American Red Cross CPR and AED training Saturday, 5/1, 9 am, First United Methodist Church, Johnson City. You learn to save my life, I'll learn to save yours. If your clock stops, I'm checking your wallet for a CPR card before I start work on you. You've been warned. Register by calling Veronique at 830-257-4677.

We're trying to arrange a session on dealing with special needs people in disasters (as mentioned above) for June. If we're going to have more of them in our shelters, we ought to know how to better help them. The obvious special needs person is handicapped or physically impaired, but there are lots of ways to become a special needs person and lots of different ways it can manifest itself. If the tornado blows your glasses away or you sprain an ankle, you're a special needs person.

We still want to connect with the Baptist Men, who recruit disaster responders without requiring them to be Baptist or men, but I'm thinking it will need to wait until later in the summer.

We're still thinking about a fundraiser this summer to stock supplies for our shelters. We'd make it a disaster night with dinner (a heater meal, of course), a shelter display for realism, and the movie, "2012". Your thoughts would be most helpful.

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

The Guadalupe County Volunteer Organizations Active in Disasters (VOAD) will have a hurricane preparedness panel discussion at the Silver Center, 510 East Court St, in Seguin Thursday, 5/20. In fact, they'll do it twice, once with lunch (meal costs $6) at 11:30 and then again, without the meal, at 7. Panel includes reps from the National Weather service, Guadalupe Valley Electric Cooperative, and the DPS. Make lunch reservations with Kay Hays at 830-303-9702.

The American Red Cross Hill Country Chapter (our mother chapter) is offering a spring disaster training session over three days at the YMCA's Camp Flaming Arrow at Hunt. Three days at a summer camp free! In addition to learning disaster response skills and qualifying as an ARC disaster volunteer, you get to spend off time hiking, climbing, swimming, loafing, tanning, napping, etc. Details attached. For more information or to sign up, call Mary Haney at 830-792-3296. Also...

ARC Hill Country Chapter -- Courses are at the Chapter House, 333 Earl Garrett at Jefferson, in Kerrville, and are free, unless otherwise noted. To register, call 830-257-4677.

5/4 6-10:30 -- CPR/AED Adult. (Charge)
5/6 6-8 -- New volunteer orientation
5/13 6-9:30 -- First Aid (Charge)
5/13 1-4 -- CPR/AED Professional. (Charge)
5/13 8-6 SFA/CPR/AED Adult, Child, Infant. (Charge)
5/25 5-10:30 --CPR/AED Child, Infant. (Charge)

ARC Centex Chapter -- All training is at the Austin ARC chapter house at 2218 Pershing Drive unless noted. To register, call Melissa Payne at 512-929-1294 or email mpayne@centex.redcross.org.
5/1 8-5 -- Client Casework. How to start the paperwork that gets needed aid to disaster survivors.
5/11 6-9:30 -- Fulfilling Our Mission. Basic Training for all ARC disaster volunteers.
5/15 8:30-4:30 -- Working with Total Diversity; working with and in diverse communities.
5/18 6-9 -- Disaster Action Team workshop. These are the ARC's first responders to small-scale disasters, such as house fires, to help the victims in the first hours and connect them to other aid later.
5/19 6-9 -- Mass Care Overview; introduction to ARC mass care activity in disaster response.
5/25 6-9 -- Mass Care Action Team; how the teams work in major disaster and how to work within them.

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/.

5/8 9-12 -- Fulfilling Our Mission. Basic Training for all ARC disaster volunteers.
5/13 6-8:30 -- Disaster Assessment Basics; overview of the ARC's assessment of disaster damage.
5/15 9-3 -- Shelter Operations/Shelter Simulation; how shelters work and how to work in them.
5/22 9-5 -- Client Casework. How to start the paperwork that gets needed aid to disaster survivors.
5/22 9-5 -- Serving People with Disabilities Following a Disaster; ARC policies and practices for helping people with disabilities, and how to communicate with and help people with disabilities.
Developing and Managing Volunteers -- how to recruit 'em, train 'em, motivate 'em, manage 'em. Free, but you have to register. http://www.training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/is244.asp.

The Community's Role in Preparing and Planning for Animals -- Department of Homeland Security webinar (a workshop you attend over your computer) at 2 pm Monday, 5/3. Preparing your pet and sheltering evacuees' pets. Go to http://www.citizencorps.gov/news/webcasts/animalpreparedness.shtm and follow the instructions.

The Texas Hurricane Conference is an overview of disaster response in the state -- primarily aimed at hurricanes but covering a wider spectrum of disaster types. A good "what's new" in disaster response for veterans and a great introduction to the field for rookies. 5/18-20 in the McAllen Convention Center in McAllen. Start at http://www.txdps.state.tx.us/dem/pages/hurricaneConf.htm.

If any country is perpetually prepared for emergencies and disasters, it is Israel, where terrorism and even war are daily possibilities. Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health offers an online presentation on how the Israeli medical establishment prepares for and responds to incidents...mostly terrorism. It's available on line any time at http://www.ncdp.mailman.columbia.edu/israel/player.html.

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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FROM THE 03/27/10 BCDRG NEWSLETTER

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

1. Planning and schedule
2. Current concerns
3. NOVA training (DO THIS!)
4. Other people's training

1. PLANNING AND SCHEDULE -- Our April training meeting is the NOVA course, described in item #3 below.

Mayday! Mayday! May Day is May first, when we'll next offer the American Red Cross certification in CPR and the use of AEDs -- Automated External Defibrillators -- those devices which can restart a wonky heart. Think of the 10 people you see most often...spouse, parent, child, co-worker, neighbor. If one is vulnerable to a heart attack or stroke, this course can mean the difference between you saving his or her life, and you watching them die while waiting for EMS. You be ready to save my life and I'll be ready to save yours. To register, call JoAnn at 868-0808.

The United Methodist Church is going to be calling on us for volunteers sometime in the next six weeks, to train for registration jobs in the San Antonio Volunteer Operations Center (VOC). The VOC is the central clearinghouse for people who aren't members of a disaster response organization but are moved to help out in an emergency. If a disaster strikes San Antonio, the VOC would register volunteers and match their skills and interests with local needs in the community. If something happens elsewhere, but San Antonio opens its big shelters for evacuees, the VOC would register local folks to help the out-of-towners in the shelters. Either way, they need people already trained to do those registration jobs, and the Methodists have committed to handle it. You don't have to be Methodist...just willing to help register other volunteers when needed.

Not interested in registration? There are lots of other jobs in the VOC that need to be filled. The lowest-level jobs can be done by someone with no training, but someone has to supervise them and those folks need to be signed up and trained in advance. Those jobs may be as high-level as director of medical services in the VOC, or security chief. They may be as mundane as word-processing or picking up meals for the VOC staff. You can volunteer to take charge of a function, or be number two, or just a helper. Whatever you do, you need to be ready to do it before the emergency, because the job will need to start right away without waiting to be told how to do it. If you're interested in a VOC job where you can do something that really matters, let me know and I'll connect you with the right person.

VOC training will happen in the next six weeks because on May 12th and 13th they're doing a major drill. They'll set up the VOC-in-a-box -- an inflatable building with air conditioning and electrical power -- and fill it with people trying to do their VOC jobs to see where the problems are. Guarantee: it won't go smoothly, but it will be one heck of a lot of fun and, in a disaster, immensely important. It would be a good thing to be part of.

We've talked with Texas Baptist Men about them trading us training in response specialties for our support when they need help in a disaster. We're still sorting out details, but it looks like they'll send us a trainer in May or June for the basic orientation to TBM and disaster response, then on September 11th we can go to San Antonio for their specialty training day to learn how they do whatever it is we're interested in helping with. TBM is well-known and well-respected in disaster response. They go in early and stay long and know what they're doing. It takes manhours, which we can provide, and training, which they can provide. Good news: you don't have to be Baptist or male to work with Texas Baptist Men.

Another call for volunteers: The American Red Cross Hill Country Chapter (our mother) plans to show off its Emergency Response Vehicle (ERV) at the Lavender Festival in Blanco June 11-13. It also will impress on Blanco folks that the Red Cross is alive and active in their community. They have some volunteers signed up to staff the display, but need more bodies. If you can spare a few hours that weekend, Martha Mason is keeping the roster at mmason918@msn.com.

We've been trying to find an expert co-sponsor a training workshop here in Johnson City, on the issues rural counties and towns would be likely to face in a natural (i.e.: pandemic) or man-made (i.e: terrorist) health emergency. It is a truism in disasters that in widespread incidents aid goes first to cities...rural areas are on their own until the population centers have been helped. That's a problem after a short-time incident like a hurricane, where the damage stops getting worse after a few hours, but in a medical incident, where the situation could keep getting worse for days or weeks or even months, late-arriving aid could be deadly in rural areas. For example, they're watching a strain of bird flu in Indonesia that's more than 80% fatal; the only thing keeping it from becoming a global catastrophe now is it's hard to pass from human to human. Flu viruses mutate constantly; what if this one mutates to a more contagious form?

Most of our rural communities would be totally helpless; survival would depend almost entirely on luck. We ought to do better than that. We weren't big enough for the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (never hurts to ask) so we're now looking elsewhere. Ideas? Stay tuned.

We're also thinking about a fundraiser to be held this summer...a disaster night with dinner and a movie. The movie would be "2012", which has special-effects disasters galore. Dinner would be a heater- meal, one of the packaged meals that heats itself up when you manipulate the heater device. Several menus to choose from, including vegetarian, at a cost to us of about $5. Rationale is we need to stock some of the meals anyway for our shelter. If the average donation for fundraiser meals is $10, every meal we sell produces double its cost.

The self-heating dinners are interesting to play with, if you don't have to survive on them for any length of time. Since we need to buy some meals anyway, and unsold meals go on the shelf, we can't lose money. Ought to be unusual enough to generate some buzz. What do you think? Comments? Ideas?

2. CURRENT CONCERNS -- I don't suppose you want to hear that the H1N1 flu is spreading again in this country. Not many places...just a few...and not much...yet. May be nothing at all. I don't suppose you want to hear about the mosquito-borne dengue fever epidemic breaking out in Latin America, either.

Nationally, attention is turning now to the spring flood season. One reason is the El Nino upper air currents continue to steer storms across already-soggy land after a wet winter. Another is that the heavy snowfall is only now beginning to run off, raising levels in streams and rivers. And, of course, flooding is more predictable than other disasters. The Red River of the North already has flooded. Our Central Texas flooding and tornadoes are unpredictable because they depend on weather at the moment, but they're still a concern. The increased flood probabilities include the Texas Hill Country because of the continuing rains in our weather pattern. The hurricane prognosticators are warning of a more active season than usual, too. The main reason is the current El Nino pattern, which is expected to keep us wet (and flooding chances higher) this spring, and which tends to hold down hurricanes, is expected to fade by the end of the summer, becoming either a neutral or mild La Nina.

State planning for a possible cross-border rush of Mexican citizens fleeing a sudden burst of violence continues to evolve. They're now thinking that it could happen in smaller, shorter incidents than they were thinking a year ago...citizens of one border town crossing to the sister city on the US side until the bullets stop flying, then returning home. That might not require a massive refugee-lift to big central shelters in San Antonio; they might be sheltered close to home on the US side and then returned after only a day or two. If it happens that way, the American Red Cross in San Antonio would be in charge of mass care, but would need lots of shelter-trained volunteers on extremely short notice. Churches and local governments in the border cities and counties might have to handle the crowds themselves for a short time until the ARC resources arrive. If it looks like a long incident, busing refugees to large shelters farther from the border still is an option...requiring another wave of shelter-trained volunteers.

Meanwhile, Paddy Power, who claims to be Ireland's biggest bookie, has been giving odds on where the next volcanic eruption would be. Sites and odds on his tote board ranged from Mount Untzen, Japan, the most likely at 3 to 1, to the least likely, Yellowstone Park, at 33 to 1. None, happily, was in Texas. Don't know where the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland fell on his list, but it erupted last weekend. Power said coming up with bookable stats was a headache for his oddsmakers, but a lot more fun than calling just another election or football game.

3. NOVA TRAINING -- Our opportunities are getting bigger and heavier. On Sunday afternoon, April 11, the National Organization for Volunteer Assistance (NOVA) will offer its free, four-hour crisis intervention training course through us here in Blanco County. It will provide you with the credentials to respond to the big emergency shelters in San Antonio and provide a sympathetic but educated ear to people under the crushing stress of disaster evacuation and survival. The NOVA course is the basic training for everyone doing spiritual-emotional- psychological care in the shelters, whether clergy or lay, mental health professional or just willing listener. SA estimates it is short at least dozens, perhaps hundreds, of trained volunteers for this function. The state has identified the need as one of Texas' most critical. There's no obligation, however; when the shelters open, you'll get a call asking if you can help. At that time you can say yes, or not today but I'll be there tomorrow, or not this time. You control your availability.

All it'll cost you is four hours on a Sunday afternoon.

If you think you can lend an ear to people who need to tell their stories, and perhaps guide them to professionals who can help, this is your job. Call JoAnn at 868-7414 and register. It's free, but they need to know how many sets of materials to bring.

The course is open to anyone interested in doing the job, so if you know someone else who'd be good at it, please invite them to sign up and come.

NOVA is not, of course, the only spiritual care training available. Many of our volunteers took the Spiritual and Emotional Care course we sponsored with the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) almost two years ago. There is the ARC's Psychological First Aid and Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM). For a similar April offering, see "Other People's Training" below.

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

ARC Hill Country Chapter -- Courses are at the Chapter House, 333 Earl Garrett at Jefferson, in Kerrville, and are free, unless otherwise noted. To register, call 830-257-4677.

4/6 6-8 -- New Volunteer Orientation. How the ARC works and how the volunteer fits into it.
4/7 1 9-4 -- Mass Care/ Shelter Operations. Intro to the Mass Care function of the ARC; what it is and how it works.
4/8 9-12 -- Fulfilling Our Mission. Basic training for all ARC volunteers.
4/13 6-10:30 -- CPR/AED Ault. (Charge)
4/15 6-9:30 -- First Aid (Charge)
4/22 9-5 -- CPR/AED Professional. (Charge)
4/24 8-6 -- SFA/CPR/AED Adult, Child, CPR Infant. (Charge)
4/24 9-1 -- SFA/CPR Adult. (Charge)
4/27 5-10:30 --CPR/AED Child, Infant. (Charge)

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.

4/12 6-9:30 -- Fulfilling Our Mission. Basic Training for all ARC disaster volunteers.
4/17 8-5 -- Client Casework. How to start the paperwork that gets needed aid to disaster survivors.
4/19 6-9 -- Disaster Action Team workshop. These are the ARC's first responders to small-scale disasters, such as house fires, to help the victims in the first hours and connect them to other aid later.
4/21 6-9 -- Disaster Assessment Basics. How to do a quick assessment of damage in an area so responders know how serious it is and where what kind of assistance is needed.

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/.

(Solution to the mystery of the missing San Antonio Red Cross classes: they weren't posted on the disaster classes page. They actually had a Disaster Institute collection of courses this week, but it was hard to find unless you already knew what to look for and where to find it. They said they might get a class schedule for April posted...sometime. We'll check again for May.)

TIDES, Texas Interfaith Disaster Education and Services, is sponsoring the National Disaster Interfaiths Network's two-day Disaster Chaplain training course at First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), 3105 RR 12, San Marcos, April 26 and 27, from 9 to 5 both days. Cost is $195. Participants must be a professional chaplain, credentialed religious leader, emergency manager or disaster mental health professional. There is a free pre-requisite you can take on line. To register, go to http://www.n-din.org/ndin_trainings/Scheduled_Training_11.php.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) offers a free week-long Disease Detective day-camp for teenagers this summer, one session in June and another in July. Students must be 16 on the first day of camp. Because it's a day-camp, students are on their own for meals (including lunch), transportation and living accommodations. No pre-requisite classes or training but kids should expect to use math, science and language arts in an intense problem-solving environment. Because there are more applicants than slots, admission is competitive. Start at the CDC camp webpage at http://www.cdc.gov/gcc/exhibit/camp.htm.

ONLINE LEARNING -- From the comfort of your own computer, at your own speed, on your own schedule. Free unless otherwise noted, although most require registration.

It's not a course but it's educational...an article from New England Journal of Medicine advises on what you need to know before deploying to a disaster response. It's aimed at medical professionals going to Haiti, but the general lessons are good for anyone going anywhere following a major disaster. Read it at http://content.nejm.org/cgi/reprint/362/10/872.pdf.

This isn't a course, either: The Natural Hazards Observer is a newsletter from the Natural Hazards Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder, and the current issue has a couple of articles on animals in and after disasters. The cover article is titled, "A Thousand Dogs Barking". The pieces include why chickens had to fend for themselves after Hurricane Katrina, why dogs are more likely to get aid than cats, and what training veterinarians should have to be effective in a post-disaster environment. Find them at http://www.colorado.edu/hazards/o/archives/2010/mar_observerweb.pdf.

Train yourself on this one. You've seen trucks and railcars with diamond-shaped placards in several colors, bearing icons and numbers...obviously important but telling you nothing you can understand. They tell you what's in the container, and Transport Canada has put online the handbook that tells you what it all means, plus descriptions of the chemicals, how to fight fires involving them, and what other hazards they present. http://wwwapps.tc.gc.ca/saf-sec-sur/3/erg-gmu/erg/ergmenu.aspx.

So you deploy on a response and notice the water looks odd, or the air smells funny, or...what's THAT stuff? The National Environmental Health Association (NEHA) has a video presentation on Katrina responder issues, "Environmental Health in Emergency Response and Preparedness--The Louisiana Experience". You can download the PowerPoint slides and watch the video, even take a quiz to see how much you learned (it's not required). Start at http://nehacert.org/moodle/course/view.php?id=51 and follow the instructions.

A terrorist captured in Afghanistan claims he was involved in developing an anthrax bomb. How realistic is that threat? What would an anthrax bomb do? What other bioterror threats are there and how would they work? The Texas A&M School of Rural Public Health has a free online course that will answer those questions and more. Start at http://www.rural-preparedness.org/campus/showCourseDescription.aspx?CourseID=a7dc4cd3-4823-4cbd-8a4d-c835c32196e9

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

---

FROM THE 03/01/10 BCDRG NEWSLETTER

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

1. Flu thank-you
2. Homeland Security Conference
3. Planning for 2010
4. Other people's training

1. FLU THANK-YOU -- You'll recall some of us went north to Burnet and Marble Falls in January to help with flu shot clinics there. Last Tuesday, in the worst snowstorm in 20 years, we slogged back north to the county courthouse where County Judge Donna Klaeger started the Commissioners Court session by thanking us and their local volunteers for the shot clinic support. The delegation from Blanco County stood out in our new orange vests. Burnet County is putting its own volunteer group together, starting with a lot more organizational structure than we have, but we're ahead on training and experience...so far. We hope to work together cooperatively with them.

2. HOMELAND SECURITY CONFERENCE -- This was a multi-day series of classes and discussions in San Antonio on disaster subjects, some practical and some esoteric, some pertinent to our interests and some not. Learned enough to make it well worth spending the time, even if it did mean commuting in SA's rush hour traffic. Ran into some old friends and made some new ones, especially some who can help our Blanco group. Some things I learned:
-- Texas counties' attitudes toward disaster preparedness range from taking it very seriously to giving it token interest. Consensus was counties which have had disasters all are in the former category; the latter category is made up of those who haven't had one...but will...at which time they'll join the former category.
-- State planners are focusing on psychological effects of disaster: fear, uncertainty, even terror. We'll address that in Planning for 2010, below.
-- Biggest volunteer need in Texas right now is for shelter-trained volunteers who can deploy when needed through the Red Cross. We have some, but need more, and will address that this year, too.
-- More Special Needs people are going to be housed in general-population shelters beginning this year. They don't plan to send us those needing serious medical care, but we can expect some with less-intense needs. We're not ready for that and need to be by hurricane season.
-- The county will be responsible for Point of Distribution sites, the lines of cars receiving food, water, ice, and other aid. The state will provide supplies, but everything else...including staffing...is up to the local county.

With the H1N1 swine flu last year, we saw the value in identifying needs in advance and getting out ahead of them, so when the needs arise, we're ready to meet them. Now Special Needs, counselors and shelter volunteers are on our radar coming over the horizon, so we'll get out ahead of them, too.

3. PLANNING FOR 2010 -- Thanks for the input on 2010 planning. Based on what we already knew about our needs, and what we've learned about what others need from us, and the interests you've expressed, here's what we hope to accomplish this year:
-- NOVA counseling training. This free four-hour course in April will credential us to go into the big evacuation shelters in San Antonio (and perhaps elsewhere) to do one-on-one psychological intervention with people trying to cope with a disaster.
-- CPR/AED/First Aid. We'll continue to offer these to the general community about every 90 days. The more folks in the county who can save my life, the better.
-- Shelter Operations. The American Red Cross course that prepares a volunteer to work in a shelter when disaster strikes. You can choose to work only in our own shelters in Blanco County, or elsewhere in the Hill Country, or statewide, or wherever.
-- Special Needs. We're not going to run a medical shelter, but we do need to prepare for marginal special needs cases among our general population. It doesn't take much to qualify...lose your glasses, evacuate without your meds, or turn an ankle...and you're Special Needs.
-- Point of Distribution. These are the food, water and ice distribution sites the Guard has been running but are now being turned over to the counties. We ought to know how to step in just in case some county in our area fails to do so.
-- Volunteer registration. The South West Conference of the United Methodist Church has committed to manage the registration function at San Antonio's disaster volunteer center. We expect they're going to need to train some folks to come help with that before hurricane season.
-- Rural Search and Rescue. Last summer, we were set for a training class and a field exercise when we got hijacked by the swine flu. We'll try it again this year.

We also have connected with two other mainstream disaster response organizations which are interested in providing us training in return for being able to call on us for volunteers when needed. Both the Salvation Army and Texas Baptist Men represent church denominations, but neither is picky about the religious affiliation of reliable, hard-working their volunteers. My feeling is, the more we learn, the more able we are to do whatever's needed; the more organizations we connect with, the more likely we are to get a call. More on these as discussions progress.

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

ARC Hill Country Chapter -- Courses are at the Chapter House, 333 Earl Garrett at Jefferson, in Kerrville, and are free, unless otherwise noted. To register, call 830-257-4677.

3/2 6-10 -- CPR/AED Adult. (Charge)
3/6 8-9 -- New Volunteer Orientation. How the ARC works and how the volunteer fits into it.
3/11 9-12 -- Fulfilling Our Mission. Basic training for all ARC volunteers.
3/11 1-4 -- Mass Care Overview. Intro to the Mass Care function of the ARC; what it is and how it works.
3/11 9-5 -- CPR/AED Professional. (Charge)
3/11 6-9:30 -- First Aid (Charge)
3/23 9-12 -- Shelter Operations. Basic course in setting up, opening, running and shutting down emergency shelters.
3/23 1-4 -- Shelter Simulation. Exercise to apply what you just learned in Shelter Operations.
3/24 1-5 -- SFA/CPR/AED Adult, Child, CPR Infant. (Charge)
3/30 5-10:30 -- CPR/AED Child Infant. (Charge)

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.

3/2 6-9 -- Shelter Simulation. Exercise to apply what you learned in Shelter Operations.
3/9 6-10 -- Psychological First Aid. How to recognize and intervene to reduce stress and anxiety in disaster survivors and the responders helping them. Good companion to our NOVA counseling class.
3/10 6-9:30 -- Fulfilling Our Mission. Basic Training for all ARC disaster volunteers.
3/16 6-9 -- MCAT Workshop. Intro to the Mass Care Action Team concept and how to support disasters in this area with distribution and logistics.
3/20 8:30-4:30 -- Disaster Frontline Supervision and Simulation. For experienced ARC responders; how to lead response teams, and an exercise to apply the skills learned in class.
3/24 6-9 -- Disaster Action Team workshop. These are the ARC’s first responders to small-scale disasters, such as house fires, to help the victims in the first hours and connect them to other aid later.

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.

It may just be a website aberration, but the SA chapter shows no training scheduled for March.

Austin-Travis County Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) is starting its basic training class for new members at 6 pm 3/2...required for membership...and a good opportunity to join the group (both membership and the training are free). The basic series of classes is a general overview of disaster response and roles individuals may play. Good opportunity to see what parts you'd like to get involved in, and even if you don't connect with a particular response specialty, you'll know what they're doing when you encounter them in the field. Plus you get to take the classes in the emergency operations center and play with the high-tech toys. Contact Linda.Haynie@ci.austin.tx.us.

ONLINE LEARNING -- From the comfort of your own computer, at your own speed, on your own schedule. Free unless otherwise noted, although most require registration.

FLOOD PREPAREDNESS -- FEMA's flood experts will talk flood preparedness for an hour from 1-2 pm (Texas time) Wednesday, 3/3, in a free video session transmitted over the internet. No registration required, no special equipment...point your computer web browser toward http://www.citizencorps.gov/news/webcasts/floodwebinar.shtm and drop in. It would be wise to go to the website a little early to make sure you're working when it starts. You do know the Texas hill country is flash-flood capitol of the world, don't you?

NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON COMMUNITY PREPAREDNESS -- It actually was held last August, but lots of presentation texts, handouts and PowerPoint presentations are posted on line. The conference was a catch-all of preparedness topics, from the special needs of children after disasters to cooperation between local government and volunteers to decontaminating hospitals. Go to the conference website at http://www.citizencorps.gov/nccp/ and browse the topics.

POD POINT OF DISTRIBUTION -- If you'd like to get ahead of our training schedule, FEMA's Emergency Management Institute offers an online course to introduce you to PODs and how to set up, staff and run one. We may find ourselves doing that one of these days. It's free, but they'll want you to register. http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/is26.asp

SPECIAL NEEDS SHELTERING -- Another way to get ahead of us is through this 3-hour, online course from The New York Center for Public Health Preparedness. Go to http://www.ualbanycphp.org/learning/default.cfm and click on the "Register" button for the course. It's free, but they'll want you to register.

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

---

FROM THE 02/01/10 BCDRG NEWSLETTER

This issue of the Blanco County Disaster Response Group newsletter includes:
1. Flu shot clinics
2. Haiti relief
3. CPR training
4. Planning for 2010
5. Vested interest
6. Other people's training

1. FLU SHOT CLINICS -- I don't know about you, but I'm glad to see this one end. It has been a dead run through January. Back in December, the H1N1 vaccine was coming in so slowly there was talk we might not have a Department of State Health Services clinic to support before the holidays. Then the dam broke. We did one in December in Johnson City that vaccinated 402 people, which may be a 50-year record here. (The polio vaccinations of the late 50s and early 60s may have topped that number, but nobody seems to know that count.) Then in January we provided volunteers for two in Blanco and another one in JC, plus Lampasas, Burnet and Marble Falls, and helped DSHS set up one in Llano. We have one to go, Feb 9 in Blanco, and our scheduled clinics will be done.

Your work definitely was noticed. DSHS staff have been delighted with your performance, both the quantity and quality of volunteers. You made their lives a lot easier. They thank you very much. As one said, if a health emergency pops in Central Texas, we're the first call for volunteer support.

2. HAITI RELIEF -- As if the shot clinics weren't enough, the earthquake in Haiti provided a fulltime job in itself, and you came through like champs again. Our role was to acquire and pack the contents of personal health kits to help head off disease that everyone knew would follow. We partnered with the Kerrville District of the United Methodist Church (which brought several area churches to the table) and opened the campaign area-wide, which drew other churches and organizations. Together, we've already delivered almost 500 kits to the San Antonio end of the pipeline, and have almost 250 more packed to go, and enough parts for one last assembly that should take us over 900 by the end of this week. If you're thinking that's a lot, it is. The Kerrville District superintendent's reaction just to the first batch was "Wow!". He said you guys move mountains routinely, and especially so with this project, and he's right. Some big organizations in much bigger cities were proud to have done a fraction of what you did. You are definitely on the radar.

3. PLANNING FOR 2010 -- Our next event is a planning meeting at 10 Saturday morning, Feb 27, at the First United Methodist Church in Johnson City. We'll be in one of the classrooms in the back of the building. We've talked about learning to deal with special needs people, both in shelters and out. Last summer we had planned training in rural search and rescue, but got diverted by flu stuff, and we've discussed returning to that plan. We have a course semi-scheduled for April in counseling people after disasters, especially in shelters, which will qualify us to go to the big shelters in San Antonio and do one-on-one counseling. There are a couple more possibilities in the works, too.

What else? Got an idea? Something you think you'd like to do? Some capability missing in the community? 10 am Saturday, 2/27.

4. CPR TRAINING -- In the middle of all of the above came the long- scheduled American Red Cross CPR and First Aid training class. We've committed to do four CPR classes this year, two with First Aid attached and two with Infants and Children's CPR and the use of AEDs attached. The next class will be in April, and will be CPR, Infants and Children's CPR, and AEDs. We'll do First Aid again in the summer. If you need to get your CPR ticket punched, plan ahead.

5. VESTED INTEREST -- Have you noticed our bright orange vests around? You certainly have seen them -- worn them -- if you've volunteered with us this month, and you can't have missed them if you've been reading the local papers. They pop out for safety both in sunlight and after dark. They also identify us by organization with inserts front and back, and the inserts can be changed when we are representing someone else. Thanks to Hochheim Prairie Farm Mutual Insurance and the JC Lions Club for the funding that bought them.

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

ARC Hill Country Chapter -- Courses are at the Chapter House, 333 Earl Garrett at Jefferson, in Kerrville, and are free, unless otherwise noted. To register, call 830-257-4677.
2/2 6-10:30 -- CPR and AEDs. (Fee)
2/11 9-5 -- CPR and AEDs for professional responders. (Fee)
2/11 6-10:30 -- First Aid. (Fee)
2/23 5-10:30 -- Adult and Children's CPR plus AEDs. (Fee)
*2/24 9-12 -- Mass Care. Intro to the Mass Care function of the ARC; what it is and how it works.
2/24 9-5 -- In-Kind Donation Workshop. How the ARC solicits, accepts and uses in-kind donations in disaster response and day-to-day operations.
*2/25 9-12 -- Shelter Operations. Basic course in setting up, opening, running and shutting down emergency shelters.
*2/25 1-4 -- Shelter Simulation. Putting into practice what you learned in the morning course.
2/26 9-4 -- Fundamentals of Disaster Public Affairs. How to get the ARC story and information out through public media in a local disaster.
2/26 8-11:30 -- Weapons of Mass Destruction/Terrorism. What a WMD or terrorist incident might look like (yes, even in the Hill Country) and how we and others might respond to the various situations.
2/27 9-5 -- Adult, Children's and Infants CPR plus AEDs. (Fee)

*This set of courses is assembled to get you from rookie volunteer to disaster-ready in two days.

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.
2/10 6-9:30 -- Fulfilling Our Mission. Basic Training for all ARC disaster volunteers.
2/16 6-9 -- Mass Care Overview. Intro to the Mass Care function of the ARC; what it is and how it works.
2/17 6-9 -- Disaster Action Team workshop. These are the ARC’s first responders to small-scale disasters, such as house fires, to help the victims in the first hours and connect them to other aid later.
2/20 8:30-12 -- Fulfilling Our Mission. Basic Training for all ARC disaster volunteers.
2/20 9-3 -- ERVs; Ready, Set, Roll. How to drive and operate the ARC's Emergency Response Vehicles, those ambulance-looking trucks that carry personnel and supplies, or set up to feed people.
2/20 1-4 -- Disaster Action Team workshop. These are the ARC’s first responders to small-scale disasters, such as house fires, to help the victims in the first hours and connect them to other aid later.
2/23 6-9 -- Shelter Operations. Basic course in setting up, opening, running and shutting down emergency 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/.
2/4 6-9 -- Mass Care Overview. Intro to the Mass Care function of the ARC; what it is and how it works.
2/11 6-8 -- Disaster Action Team (DAT) Orientation – these are the ARC’s first responders to small-scale disasters, such as house fires, to help the victims in the first hours and connect them to other aid later.
2/20 9-5 -- Logistics Overview. How to get needed supplies from here to there correctly and on time in a disaster environment.
2/25 6-8:30 -- Disaster Assessment Basics. How to assess the amount and nature of damage in an incident as a first-glance guide to planning what and how much assistance the community will need.
2/26 9-4:30 -- Fundamentals of Disaster Public Affairs. How to get the ARC story and information out through public media in a local disaster.
2/27 9-1 -- ERVs; Ready, Set, Roll. How to drive and operate the ARC's Emergency Response Vehicles, those ambulance-looking trucks that carry personnel and supplies, or set up to feed people.

HELICOPTERS -- There's a free helicopter landing zone class in Austin Saturday, 2/13. Granted, it's a skill you probably will never need, but you get to play with the big toys. They'll fly in several emergency-response choppers between 7:45 and 8:15. From 8:30 'til 12:30 they'll run an indoor class on how search, rescue, and ambulance helicopters operate and what they can do, and how to set up a safe landing zone for them out in the middle of nowhere. They'll build in plenty of time for guided tours of all the toys, plus mobile command post, search dogs, etc. It's on the big parking lot of the Shoreline Christian Center, which is waaay up MoPac at 15201 Burnet Rd. If you want to go, or might go, pre-register (they need a headcount, plus it puts your name in the drawing for door prizes) by going to www.mset-tx.org and clicking on the LZ Class Registration link.

SPIRITUAL AND EMOTIONAL CARE -- When disasters strike and the big shelters in San Antonio open, there is a need for spiritual and emotional care counselors to work with survivors one-on-one. Many of us know how from the fill-day UMCOR course, but it is this half-day version that gets us credentialed to work in the shelter. The training is free, but if you want a box lunch at the start it is (I believe) $5. This class will be at 1 pm at the first Presbyterian Church in downtown San Antonio. It will be offered again in March, also in San Antonio (date not yet set) and it is semi-confirmed for April for us in Johnson City, which should be the most convenient for you. I plan to take the class this month, just to get ahead of the schedule. If you want to do so, you're welcome to ride down with me, but I have to be there for a regional disaster responders' meeting in the morning (which you're welcome to attend) so it'll be a long day. It's free but they want a headcount (especially for lunches); call Patricia at 210-525-9954. Or let me know if you want to go, either with me or independently.

TEXAS HOMELAND SECURITY CONFERENCE -- Weeklong conference in San Antonio on homeland security and disaster response. There's a registration fee: $35 for members of a volunteer agency, which ought to include us. It's from 1 pm Monday to 11:30 Thursday in the Henry B Gonzalez Convention Center. Monday is formalities and the keynote speaker. The rest of the week is workshops on lots of topics. For details, go to https://www.preparingtexas.org/viewConferenceWorkshop.aspx?instanceid=1684459c-445b-41c5-8634-f864e603dd55&home=1 and get the word directly. You can pre-register online, too. From Blanco County we can commute in, but if you want to avoid the traffic, there are special hotel rates.

ONLINE LEARNING -- From the comfort of your own computer, at your own speed, on your own schedule. Free unless otherwise noted, although most require registration.

How prepared were we for the H1N1 pandemic? Now that the danger appears to be past, 20-20 hindsight kicks in and questions and accusations arise and fly. This knowledgeable assessment says we actually did pretty well, with the bad luck mostly hitting where it didn't matter much, and the good luck coming where it was most critical, and sound decisions in between. Read the details for yourself at www.nwcphp.org/training/hot-topics.

A year ago, the county extension office took over the job of setting up an emergency animal shelter in conjunction with any disaster shelter we might open. If you have an interest there, the School of Public Health at the State University of New York at Albany has an online course for you: Emergency Animal Sheltering. Go to http://www.ualbanycphp.org/learning/default.cfm.

Want to work with children and youth after a disaster? This isn't intended to be an online course, but the Community Arise disaster ministry has its instructor guide, participant's workbook and PowerPoint slides available on line at http://www.communityarise.com/CMChildYouthDisaster.htm . Download and educate yourself.

Food Safety -- If you're one who suffered through the norovirus from hell this past month or so and are wondering whether you might have picked it up from a food handler, here's your answer: maybe. For more details on how food processing and food-borne diseases are changing, drop in on this one-hour internet presentation from the State University of New York at Albany, School of Public Health, from 8 to 9 am NEXT Thursday, 2/18. Free but allow time to register at http://www.informz.net/ualbany-sph/event.asp?eid=3523&uid=189354592&minst=938362.

Management of Epidemic Disease -- Curious about how the swine flu response stacks up? Or how the lessons learned in that pandemic will affect future responses? The Alabama Department of Public Health will do a 90-minute webcast on the subject which you can watch on your computer at 12 noon NEXT Thursday, 2/18. It's free but you have to register, so don't wait 'til the last minute. You can register any time at http://adph.org/ALPHTN/Default.asp?id=4019. Thanks to Jacque Hagerty at DSHS for the tip on this one.

Early Response Team -- These are the teams the United Methodist Church sends into disaster areas to help people clean up and patch up their homes so they can start serious repairs. This day-long course will teach you how to do that and credential you to go with a team when disaster strikes. It's at Dripping Springs UMC, 28900 Ranch Road 12 in Dripping Springs, Saturday, 2/13, at 8:30 am. Contact is Eugene Hileman at aehileman@umcswtx.org.

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

---

FROM THE 01/03/10 BCDRG NEWSLETTER

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

1. Flu shot clinics
2. Close call for Christmas
3. World famous!
4. January class
5. February meeting
6. Other people's training

1. FLU SHOT CLINICS -- The Texas Department of State Health Services has been saying very nice things about you behind your back again.

In December, we supported DSHS with two H1N1 swine flu shot clinics, one for Lampasas County in Lampasas and one in Johnson City for Blanco County. We had fewer of our volunteers who could go to Lampasas on short notice, but enough, and we worked through the First United Methodist Church there to add some local volunteers, who did a very good job. A few days later, we were doing another one on our home turf with our own volunteers. Both clinics went very well from our perspective, and we learned a lot in both cases. In addition to providing a first pass at vaccinating the populations against flu, the clinics were learning opportunities for DSHS, too. They know what their plans said would work, but this was the chance to see how that would play out in reality. Even in the few days between Lampasas on Monday and JC on Friday, both they and we made adjustments in our plans. One result was that in the second shot clinic, we helped DSHS vaccinate 402 of our neighbors, which may have been a record for Blanco County. One important lesson learned: it really helps to have a well-organized, enthusiastic, trained volunteer group for support. You should have received the list of lessons-learned our volunteers sent forward to DSHS based on these first clinics.

Notice I said "these first" clinics. There are more coming for Blanco County, and DSHS wants our help again. The tentative schedule is:
1/12 -- Students at Blanco Elementary
1/20 -- Open to all, Trinity Lutheran Church, Blanco
1/28 -- Open to all, First United Methodist Church, JC
2/2 -- Students in Johnson City schools, held in First United Methodist Church, JC
2/9 -- Students at Blanco Middle and High We are not sure yet what support will be needed from us in the Blanco schools. The rules on background checks for all volunteers in the schools may or may not get in the way, and we don't know from DSHS what they'll need from us. The clinic on the 20th will be a repeat of the ones we we've already done, just in a different place and probably with fewer people coming through. The one on the 2nd will be in the church in JC again, but with smaller patients. On the 9th we're back in Blanco schools, also with unknown needs and issues.

All that means you're needed again. If you can help us on one or more of these dates, your help will be valuable and appreciated. I'll get another memo out when we know more about the needs.

2. CLOSE CALL FOR CHRISTMAS -- You almost got called to duty over Christmas. The Christmas storm in the Panhandle was fiercer than expected and surprised some communities with blocked highways, lost power, and frozen water pipes. Then there were the nine tornadoes that went through a residential part of Lufkin Christmas Eve. We were asked to "stand by to stand by", but it never got to the point of even a real alert. In the Panhandle, the shelters and warming stations opened and closed before the roads cleared, and in Lufkin the Red Cross was able to close its shelter quickly, too.

3. WORLD FAMOUS! -- You already know that we work closely with the United Methodist Church. One thing we do with them is maintain an H1N1 flu information section on the UMC's Kerrville District website, which we started building last summer and continue to expand today. The webmaster tells me we get 500-600 hits a month on the pages, most of them from the Hill Country (as you'd expect), but others from all over the world...China, India, Germany, the Netherlands, Canada, etc. Not bad for us hicks in the sticks of Central Texas! If you haven't taken a look, you'll find it at http://home.ktc.com/kdumc/DisasterPlan/flunew.htm.

You may get a warning that the website contains malware or computer virus (ironic for a flu information site) but go ahead anyway. The webmaster has been tearing his hair out trying to figure out what's causing it...multiple scans of the website find no such toxic material...Google, which posts the warning, can't find out what's tripping its alarms...and nobody's reported any infection problem from the site.

4. JANUARY CLASS -- This month we'll do the American Red Cross First Aid and Adult CPR classes at 9 am Saturday, January 23, in the Activity Building of the First United Methodist Church in Johnson City. This is a health-and-safety class, not a disaster class, so the ARC charges for it: $20 for Adult CPR and $10 for First Aid. You can take one or both. CPR is from 9 to 12:30, then we'll send out for sandwiches, and resume with First Aid from 1 to 3. This is part of the plan to do shorter ARC training sessions and more frequent, rather than trying to do CPR, First Aid, AEDs, etc all on the same day, once a year. Plan now is to offer CPR again in April, so if you know someone who needs to renew their certification, it's now or then.

5. FEBRUARY MEETING -- This probably will be a planning meeting, perhaps with some outside expertise imported to help us figure out what we want to be when we grow up and how to get there. On the table for this year are special needs people, emotional care in disasters and rural search and rescue. Your thoughts on those or any other topic welcome. Deets in the next newsletter.

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

ARC Hill Country Chapter -- Courses are at the Chapter House, 333 Earl Garrett at Jefferson, in Kerrville unless otherwise noted. Charges apply unless otherwise noted. To register, call 830-257-4677.
1/12 6-10:30 -- Adult CPR, AED
1/14 6-9:30 -- First Aid
1/21 9-5 -- Professional CPR/AED
1/23 9-3 -- Adult CPR ($20) with First Aid ($10) First UMC, Johnson City
1/23 9-5 -- Adult/Child/Infant CPR, SFA, AED
1/26 5-10:30 -- Adult/Child CPR, AED
1/29 1-5 -- Child/Infant CPR Review
1/29 6-10:30 -- FIT
1/30-31 9-5 -- Lay Responder Instructor

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.
1/20 6-9:30 -- Fulfilling Our Mission. Basic Training for all ARC disaster volunteers.
1/21 6-9 -- Mass Care Action Teams. Introduction to MCATs and how they respond to disasters in Central Texas.
1/23 9-5 -- Foundations of Disaster Mental Health. Basic course on applying theory to real-world disaster response situations.
1/26 6-9 -- Bulk Distribution Operations. Getting the goods from here to there in disaster relief.
1/28 6-9 -- Disaster Action Team (DAT) Workshop. How to deliver immediate aid to survivors of personal disasters, 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/.

(It may just be an internet glitch, but the SA ARC shows no disaster classes offered in January.)

Online training -- free unless otherwise noted, although you may have to register.

American Red Cross online courses are available through the Centex Chapter in Austin. Send your name, address, email address and phone to Melissa Payne (mpayne@centex.redcross.org) to create a student registration. Courses include Introduction to Disaster Services (the basic disaster response course) and Logistics During a Weapons of Mass Destruction/Terrorism Event (which is pretty much as it says).

Want to get your church or church group involved in disaster ministry? Step one takes about an hour and a half, and it doesn't have to be all at once. Community Arise offers an online course in Basic Disaster Ministry, including who plays what roles in disaster response and how faith-based organizations fit in. Works for a civic club or church committee, too. Go to http://www.communityarise.com/online.htm and click "Launch Course".

Winter and spring make for exciting weather in the Hill Country (summer and fall can be stimulating, too) so it's timely that a course on Anticipating Hazardous Weather and Community Risk is being offered by the Cooperative Program for Operational Meteorology, Education and Training (COMET). Online course covers how to interpret and use weather forecasts for hazard preparation, recognizing potentially hazardous weather and it includes a basic introduction to meteorology. Go to http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/is271.asp and follow the instructions.

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

---

FROM THE 12/05/09 BCDRG NEWSLETTER

This issue of the Blanco County Disaster Response Group includes:

1. Flu shot clinics
2. What else we're doing
3. Planning for 2010
4. Other people's training

1. FLU SHOT CLINICS -- Saddle up, flu fighters! We're going to work. The Department of State Health Services has scheduled the county's first H1N1 flu shot clinic for Friday, December 18, from 11 to 7 and they're counting on us to provide volunteer support. We'll need at least seven people at all times, but nobody needs to be there all the time. You can sign up for as much or as little of the day as you can give. The early shift needs to plan to come early...about 10...to open up and set up for the clinic; the late shift needs to plan to stay late because they expect to run late to shoot everyone who's in line by 7. It's at the First United Methodist Church in JC. There will be a second shot clinic in Blanco, but not until after the first of the year. We'll be asked to help there, too.

To sign up for the 18th, please email me with the time you expect to be available. If you have to change that between now and the 18th, that's fine, but I need to be making up the schedule to make sure we're covered. I'll be out of town for a few days, so if you need to ask a question, please do it by email r call my cell: 713-252-2288.

There's also a possibility we'll be asked to help with shot clinics elsewhere. Not many places have the pool of POD-trained volunteers we do, so we look like a good resource. San Antonio, for example, plans to run shot clinics through the city-county health department, the Metropolitan Health District. Problem is, they have no POD trained volunteers, and when their rep talked to me, they didn't know when they might be able to train some. Lampasas also is concerned about finding enough volunteers there. Once we get into January, there will be lots more shot clinics around the Hill Country. They'd rather use local folks, of course, but we're on their speed-dial if they can't recruit 'em.

2. WHAT ELSE WE'RE DOING -- Gretchen Sanders, the Texas AgriLife Extension Service's county agent for Family and Consumer Services, did a session on foods to feed a flu patient, including some things you already knew and some that were news to us. A DVD of the presentation has gone to each of the county's two libraries as a resource for whoever's interested, and two copies are in the office of the First United Methodist Church in Johnson City for the same purpose.

The fall wave of H1N1 flu appears to have peaked and is declining, but don't let mere numbers fool you. The peak in numbers of cases means half the people who are going to catch it have done so, but the other half are yet to come. Another fact is that numbers of serious flu cases and flu deaths tend to lag behind case numbers, because it may take a week or two for a case to turn bad. So the peak in hospitalizations comes along a couple of weeks behind the case peak, and the peak in deaths is another week or so behind that. Today, for example, the CDC announced the number of flu cases is down again, but the number of deaths continues to rise. An American child dies of flu- related illness every 4.8 hours.

And although we're in a lull for the moment, there's more to come. Regular seasonal flu starts its climb in mid-December, and we've seen very little of that yet. Will swine flu continue at a low level while seasonal flu peaks in February? Will H1N1 ride the favorable winter weather to another peak then, too? Will there be another swine flu wave this spring? Nobody knows. On that last question, CDC queried the world's leading flu experts. Half said yes, half said no, and one honest soul said he had no idea...and recommended flipping a coin.

3. PLANNING FOR 2010 -- We'll have more details in the next newsletter, but we plan to offer the American Red Cross certification courses in CPR and First Aid on Saturday, 1/24.

Also details to come, but a group in San Antonio will offer training there in disaster psychological and emotional intervention and support. The main course, to come later in the spring, is 40 hours long and will be broken up into five consecutive Thursdays. A shorter, 5-hour version, though, will be offered once each in January, February and March in SA...and they've agreed to bring the course to you in Blanco County, too. Don't know when yet. Stay tuned.

The other things we've talked about are still cooking, too: special needs sheltering, rural search-and-rescue...what else? Something you'd like to see us do? Let us know.

4. OTHER PEOPLE'S TRAINING -- Actually, there isn't a lot of classroom training in December because of holiday conflicts, but you're welcome to attend what there is. Free unless otherwise noted.

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

12/16 6-9:30 -- Fulfilling Our Mission. 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.

12/12 9-2 -- Disaster Casework: Providing Emergency Assistance. How to connect disaster survivors with the support they need for immediate needs.

12/15 9-12 -- Weapons of Mass Destruction: Terrorism Overview. Real- world planning and response for terrorist attack.

Children are not just short adults...they're different...and so is the way we help them following disasters. The Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health offers a free online course in how they're different and what we need to do to help children in disaster. You'll need to register, but the course is free. Start at http://www.ncdp.mailman.columbia.edu/childrentrauma/index.html and go from there.

At the other end of the age spectrum is another group with special needs in disasters: the elderly. Yale University's New Haven Center for Emergency Preparedness and Disaster Response has a short course on line titled Geriatric Preparedness, Triage and Treatment in Disasters, and it includes how the elderly are physically different from the rest of the population and what we as responders need to do differently to help them better. Free, but you'll need to register. http://ynhhs.emergencyeducation.org/flyers/EM260_CourseFlyer.pdf

In the Hill Country, agriculture is our big industry (after selling antiques to tourists). FEMA's Emergency Management Institute will teach you about responding to disaster involving agriculture and natural resources, how ag disaster response works, how and where to get help. It's free on line, although they'll want you to register. Go to http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/IS811.asp.


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

---

FROM THE 10/06/09 BCDRG NEWSLETTER

This issue of the Blanco County Disaster Response Group includes:

Yeah, I know it's late. Mea culpa.

This issue of the Blanco County Disaster Response Group newsletter includes:
1. Current weather
2. Swine flu: It's here
3. Other people's training

1. BAD WEATHER FORECAST FOR TONIGHT -- A warm front passed over our area today, moving south to north, dragging in a lot of warm, moist air. Overnight, a cool front is supposed to cross northwest to southeast, bringing cool air behind it. When they meet over Blanco and surrounding counties, the weather bureau says there could be severe thunderstorms, heavy rains, and flooding. Could make for an eventful Wednesday for us. Stay tuned.

2. SWINE FLU: IT'S HERE -- If you don't know anyone who's had the swine flu yet, you're one of the few. It's a bit worse in the south end of the county than in the north, but it's present in both places. Some nearby communities have been hit hard. Here's what we're doing:

The Department of State Health Services trained almost 40 of us to help in DSHS shot clinics. We'll put that training to work from 9 to noon Wednesday, Oct 21, in a shot clinic at the 1st United Methodist Church in Johnson City. It will offer regular seasonal flu vaccine for $10 and pneumonia shots for $20. Medicare covers both. If you can't afford the fees, the shots are free. DSHS tells us they'll call on us for volunteers again when they do swine flu shot clinics, beginning later this month or early next.

We trained more than a dozen people to be call-takers at a flu information phone bank, then dropped the idea. The state has beefed up its 2-1-1 system and the amount of additional benefit we could offer just isn't worth the man-hours. To access the state system, just dial 2-1-1 from any phone in Texas, 24-7, in English or Spanish. Option 6 gets you swine flu, so to speak.

We sponsored a presentation on H1N1 prevention and treatment by Mark Rogers, from the Hill Country Memorial Hospital System in Fredericksburg. We made a video recording and burned it to disk to lend out, and will offer a copy to the libraries in Blanco and JC.

We continue to provide the county's two weekly papers with local stories on swine flu. Other area papers have picked up stories occasionally. We've also had a couple of pieces on Austin TV and have one working with the Wall Street Journal. Meanwhile, the flu website we built and maintain through the Kerrville District of the United Methodist Church continues to draw hits by the hundreds. It's at http://home.ktc.com/kdumc/DisasterPlan/flunew.htm .

We're ready to start taking calls to run errands for people home-bound with flu, such as runs to the grocery or pharmacy. Need more volunteers on the list who may be able to make some of those runs for us.

We also are collecting names and numbers for people who live alone or for other reasons need a call now and then through the flu season to check on them. They might be widows or widowers, sole caregivers to a chronically ill relative, or a single parent. If you know someone who ought to get a call, or are willing to take a couple of names yourself, let us know.

Yet to come: classes in medicating the flu with over-the-counter products, home remedies and prescription meds, and a non- denominational class on doing pastoral care by telephone.

As should be obvious, swine flu is pretty well filling our plate for the foreseeable future.

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

ARC Hill Country Chapter -- Courses are at the Chapter House, 333 Earl Garrett at Jefferson, in Kerrville, and are free, unless otherwise noted. To register, call 830-257-4677.

10/7 6-10 -- CPR and Managing Your Stress. $25

10/14 9-10 -- H1N1 Swine Flu Overview, Prevention and Treatment. Yours truly stars in this one. Come get a front-row seat and heckle. Free and worth every penny.

10/15 1-5 -- First Aid and Slips, Trips and Falls. $25

10/24 9-5 -- First Aid with Adult, Child and Infant CPR. This is the full course. $40 10/30 1-5:30 -- CPR/AED Professional Renewal. For healthcare pros who need the certification. $35

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 .  

10/13 6-9 -- Psychological First Aid. Why stress happens in clients and disaster workers, and what to do about it.

10/15 6-9 Disaster Action Team (DAT) -- these are the ARC’s first responders to small-scale disasters, such as house fires, to help the victims in the first hours and connect them to other aid later.

10/17 9-2 -- Client Casework. Forms and paperwork and the work that goes behind them to connect those in need with the help available.

10/19 6-9:30 -- Fulfilling Our Mission. Basic Training for all ARC disaster volunteers.

10/24 9-4 -- Fundamentals of Disaster Public Affairs. Overview of the media relations job and how ARC volunteers respond to media contacts.

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/ .  

10/7 9-5 -- Logistics Overview and Logistics Simulation. How the Material Support Group gets disaster supplies and equipment from Point A to Point B, followed by a practical exercise.

10/8 6-8 -- Disaster Action Team (DAT) Orientation – these are the ARC’s first responders to small-scale disasters, such as house fires, to help the victims in the first hours and connect them to other aid later.

10/9 6-9 -- Mass Care Overview. Intro to the Mass Care function of the ARC; what it is and how it works.

10/10 9-12:30 Disaster Frontline Supervisor and Simulation -- how to guide the work of disaster response teams so they and the clients are better served.

10/14-15 9-5 -- Mass Care II. How to be a Mass Care supervisor or manager on a major disaster. Must attend both days for credit.

10/17 1-4 -- Fulfilling Our Mission – Basic Training for all ARC disaster volunteers.

10/21 6-10 -- Psychological First Aid. Why stress happens in clients and disaster workers, and what to do about it.

10/24 9-3 -- Shelter Operations and Shelter Simulation. How to serve clients in a disaster shelter, how shelters work, how to set them up and take them down.

Now that the flu vaccines are coming out, getting people to come get them is the next challenge. Many people refuse to get the shots for reasons that are, for the most part, bogus. An online presentation titled "Vaccine Acceptance" will explore why, and what to do to boost acceptance of the shots. It's sponsored by the State University of New York, University at Albany, School of Public Health. To register, go to http://www.ualbanycphp.org/learning/registration/tab.cfm and follow the leads. It's free but you'll need to register.

You often hear disaster response professionals urge audiences to take the Incident Command System (ICS) courses, which teach you how disaster response is organized and who's in charge of what. A knowledge of ICS lets you go anywhere in the country and work at any level of disaster response, and know where you fit in the organization the first minute you walk in the door. It also tells you where to go to get what help. The basic course is ICS-100, Introduction to the ICS, available as an online course from FEMA's Emergency Management Institute at http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/IS100A.asp .  It's free but you have to register.

I think we've mentioned it before, but many of the seminars and discussions and speeches from the 2009 National Hurricane Conference are available online. Why is an inland county interested in a hurricane conference? Because it's not just about hurricanes...its a good overview of lots of aspects of disaster response through dozens of presentations. Go to http://content.041072.com/viewer.php?tid=177483< /A> and pick a category. You'll have to watch the sponsoring company's video to get in, but after that, many hours of classes are all free.

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

---

FROM THE 08/28/09 BCDRG NEWSLETTER

This issue of the Blanco County Disaster Response Group includes:
1. August ARC Shelter operations class
2. Swine flu: It's here
3. Swine flu: Local
4. Our training schedule
5. Other people's training

1. AUGUST ARC SHELTER OPERATIONS CLASS -- We had 14 people in the class in Blanco, some new to the subject and some re-taking it for the refresher. Always glad to have both, especially with the hurricane season getting active after a slow start.

Everything else has sort of gone on hold until we finish with the swine flu.

2. SWINE FLU: IT'S HERE -- A presidential panel says half of all Americans may get swine flu this season; the World Health Organization says it'll only be a third. That's so much quibbling over fractions. The consensus is everyone is vulnerable to the disease...millions will get it....and as many as 100,000 will die. The optimists think it won't really hit until cool weather. The pessimists think we lit a short fuse when school started. What all the experts agree on is it's coming soon. The fear is not that the swine flu is so bad, because it's not, it's no worse than a regular flu. The fear is because nobody's immune, so a huge number will get it. Although the death rate is a small number (less than 1% of all flu cases), a small percent of a huge number of cases means a big number of dead, and a bigger number that come close. And no one can stop it. It takes six months to produce a flu vaccine, so starting from the April appearance of this one, the vaccine would be due in October, which is when the first deliveries are expected. But not for any of us. Top priorities for the small supply will be pregnant women, children under five, children through post-adolescence with chronic risk factors (like asthma), medical workers, etc. Healthy older adults are at the end of the line, probably getting our shots after the first of the year. The reason is that it hits pregnant women hardest, then children, and older folks are affected least.

MEANWHILE, the regular flu DOES hit us old folks hardest, and all the swine flu concern comes on top of the regular flu, which kills 36,000 Americans in an average year, almost all of them retirees. We're at the front of the line for that shot.

SHORT VERSION: don't panic about the swine flu, but do take it seriously, and don't forget the regular flu, and help us take care of those who get sick.

3. SWINE FLU: LOCAL -- We can't stop the flu, but we still can do something about it, and we are. You can help. A Blanco County coalition of churches, non-profits, government agencies and individuals are building a support net for residents who have to cope with the flu -- either as patients or caregivers -- without much outside medical help. We're starting with information -- you may have read the stories we've had in the two weekly papers in the county -- making people more aware. We're starting a series of training classes on flu topics, beginning this weekend and running through September and maybe beyond (schedule below).

There are projects where you can play a direct role, too. We're setting up a telephone call center with flu information, and need volunteer calltakers (we'll provide the information). We'll also make calls out to people living alone to keep up with their well-being, and need callers. We'll run simple errands, such as picking up groceries or prescriptions, for those who can't get out to do it themselves, and need runners. We need people to train to help in shot clinics when there is enough vaccine available to hold them (training classes will be this Saturday and the following Wednesday).

We created a database of guidance for churches, businesses and families and the Kerrville District of the United Methodist Church posted it on its website at http://home.ktc.com/kdumc/DisasterPlan/flunew.htm. The information is not exclusively for Methodists. We continue adding to the section on how to care for a swine flu patient at home.

4. OUR TRAINING SCHEDULE: still flexible, with some classes moving as needs and problems arise. At this moment, here's how it looks...

Saturday, 8/29 -- Shot clinic volunteer training at the New Hope Lutheran Church, in the All Faiths Chapel building, 9th and Elm, in Blanco -- 9 am to 12 noon. (You only need to attend one of these classes to be certified; we're doing three to make it more convenient for you.)

Saturday, 8/29 -- Shot clinic volunteer training at First United Methodist Church Activity Building, 105 North LBJ at Pecan, in Johnson City -- 2 to 5 pm.

Wednesday, 9/2 -- Shot clinic volunteer training at St Luke's Episcopal Church, 263 Spur 962 in Cypress Mill -- 6:30 to 9:30 pm.

Saturday, 9/19 -- Call center volunteering; how to be a telephone question-answerer on swine flu and related topics. We provide the information, you provide a few hours of time. 10 am. Fellowship Hall, First United Methodist Church, Johnson City.

Saturday, 9/26 -- How to care for a swine flu patient at home without much outside assistance. This will be taught by Mark Rogers from Hill Country Memorial Hospital System in Fredericksburg. Location to come.

Monday, 10/5 -- Pastoral care, emotional support, spiritual support by telephone to flu patients and their caretakers. This is one of the topics you can use in a variety of situations for the rest of your life. 7 pm, location to be determined.

Topics yet to be scheduled: How to make phone calls to check on people and ease the stress of the afflicted; how to medicate a flu case with over-the-counter products (and what NOT to take); and more as we find topics and presenters.

All training and classes will be free. For more information, watch the local papers. I'll try to get email notes out on all of them. And you can always call or email me.

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

Austin/Travis County Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) -- Most training is in the Emergency Operations Center. Free.

9/8 6-9 -- Flu Clinic support training. Similar to the training we're doing in Blanco County this weekend and next Wednesday, but specific to Travis County, where the county health department does the shot clinics. Enables one to volunteer in a shot clinic, which earns the volunteer a free flu shot.

9/12 1-5 -- Austin Amateur Radio Club HAM technician license class; first of four classes. Class is free, manual costs $25. St David's Medical Center, 1025 E 32nd St, Austin. Free parking in the garage. (General HAM license class coming when they get enough takers to fill a class. To get on the waiting list, contact AARC at n5mnw@arrl.net.

9/22 6-9 -- CERT class kickoff. Series of weekly classes qualifies graduates as CERT members.

ARC Hill Country Chapter -- Courses are at the Chapter House, 333 Earl Garrett at Jefferson, in Kerrville, and are free, unless otherwise noted. To register, call 830-257-4677.

9/3 9-5 -- First Aid with Adult, Child and Infant CPR. This is the full course. ($40)

9/10-12 9-6 -- First Aid/CPR/AED Instructor. Qualifies you to teach the courses. Three days; second and third days are shorter. ($130)

9/17 9-4 -- Adult/child CPR with First Aid ($35)

9/25 1-5:30 -- CPR/AED Professional Renewal. For healthcare pros who need the certification. ($35)

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.

8/1 9-12:30 Disaster Frontline Supervision -- how to guide the work of disaster response teams so they and the clients are better served.

8/5 8:30-3:30 Capital Area Shelter Hub Plan: Shelter Manager Training -- how to manage a shelter in Austin's regional shelter program. Requires FEMA's ICS-100 online basic Incident Command course. Fire Station 2, 1570 Cypress Creek Rd, Cedar Park.

8/6 6-9 Disaster Action Team (DAT) -- these are the ARC’s first responders to small-scale disasters, such as house fires, to help the victims in the first hours and connect them to other aid later.

9/12 9-4:30 -- Logistics Overview and Logistics Simulation. How the Material Support Group gets disaster supplies and equipment from Point A to Point B, followed by a practical exercise.

9/16 6-9:30 -- Fulfilling Our Mission. Basic Training for all ARC disaster volunteers.

9/22 6-9 -- Mass Care Overview. Intro to the Mass Care function of the ARC; what it is and how it works.

9/26 9-2 -- Emergency Response Vehicle (ERV). How to drive, maintain and work out of one of those ambulance-looking vehicles the ARC uses to distribute food and other supplies in a disaster area.

9/29 6-9 -- Mass Care Action Team (MCAT) Workshop. How to support the ARC response to moderate and large disasters.

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/.

9/4 9-5 -- Disaster Fundraising. What if they gave a disaster and there was no money? These are the folks who keep that from happening. It's also a skill you can transfer to other organizations.

9/10 6-8 -- Disaster Action Team (DAT) Orientation – these are the ARC’s first responders to small-scale disasters, such as house fires, to help the victims in the first hours and connect them to other aid later.

9/11 9-5 -- Client Casework. Forms and paperwork and the work that goes behind them to connect those in need with the help available.

9/17 6-9 -- Mass Care Overview. Intro to the Mass Care function of the ARC; what it is and how it works.

9/19 1-4 -- Fulfilling Our Mission – Basic Training for all ARC disaster volunteers.

9/23 6-10 -- Fundamentals of Disaster Assessment. How to gather and assemble data that tells who needs what assistance in which area.

Lloyd Madison, who obviously needs more to do, found a promo for a computer game called "The Great Flu", in which players go up against a new flu virus and try to use modern epidemiological tools to prevent a global pandemic. The demo is at http://www.thegreatflu.com/. It also links to a TV show demonstration, but it's all in Dutch.

It wasn't specifically prepared for swine flu, but the National Emergency Response and Rescue Training Center (NERRTC) offers an online course called "Introduction to SNS and Mass Prophylaxis". SNS is the Strategic National Stockpile of medications that can be immediately dispatched to an area threatened by disease, whether from pandemic or terrorism. Mass Prophylaxis means getting those medications into enough arms or mouths to halt or prevent the spread of the disease. Takes the process from identification of the disease up to the shot clinic training we'll be doing this weekend and Wednesday. Does that fit together or what? Free, but you have to register.

Can't make it to one of our three shot clinic training sessions? FEMA offers a generic course covering the material, although it isn't specific to Texas and the Department of State Health Services, as our live classes are. A good second-best, though. Don't be put off by the POD Training title; POD means Point of Distribution to FEMA and Point of Dispensing to DSHS; both translate to shot clinic in English. Start at http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/is26.asp and follow the connections. Free, but you have to register.

For more than you ever wanted to know about swine flu, go to the United Methodist Church's website at http://home.ktc.com/kdumc/DisasterPlan/flunew.htm  and read up on the background and history of flu pandemics and guidance on how to treat swine flu at home. The "Hot Links" section will connect you with scads of authoritative websites for more details. In our humble opinion, it's the best site on the web for the audiences it serves. The weekly "Flu News" roundup is as good as anything in the media and better than most.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has a free course called "Disease and Society in America" covering the history of diseases and epidemics in this country, from before Columbus right into the 21st Century. It was put together in 2005, so it covers bird flu but not swine flu. Start at http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Science--Technology--and-Society/STS-005Fall-2005/CourseHome/index.htm and go to all the links on the left to get all the materials, including downloading the lectures. Free.

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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