CPNA CERT Drill 6-20-09

Here are some pictures of the Cuesta Park Neighborhood Association (CPNA) Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) drill on June 20, 2009. This was a drill to test using Block Volunteers to cover all of the CPNA territory in two hours between 9:00 and 11:00 am.

We had a total of 20 participants, with 6 at the Command Post and 14 in the field. We covered about 90% of the nieghborhood, and logged close to 50 incidents on the map.

Here is Hugo's summary of the day:

Hi,

Thanks to everyone that took some time out of their Saturday and participated in our quarterly neighborhood exercise on June 20! :-)

Everyone enjoyed the fruit that "magically" appeared (Laura brought them a little before the end of our exercise) from Edible Arrangements because there were only a couple pieces of fruit leftover. :-) I made an "executive decision" to change the the type of post drill treats this time around.

We were able to cover about 90% of our neighborhood during the 2 hours that we allocated for the drill. We also learned that we could still improve how quickly we could cover our area with better utilization of our volunteers. The important item is that we learned a lot about what we can do better! Comments and suggestions are listed below the pictures.

I've included the list of volunteers that participated below.

Thanks again to everyone!

Hugo

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The volunteers (6) that helped at the trailer are listed below:
17 - Hugo (Planning & Radio Op)
26 - Rick (IC & Ham Radio)
28 - Russ (Map & Planning)
34 - Eric (Radio Ops & Packet Radio)
36 - Dee (Mapping)
45 - Gard (Ham Radio)

The volunteers (14 total) that helped with block surveys are listed below:
2 - Aurora
4 - Bill
6 - David
7 - Gail
8 - David
10 - Margaret (also helped with mapping)
18 - Jean
19 - Jill
23 - Jan
33 - Vera
43 - Patty
48 - Tom (helped with taking pictures)
56 - Tom
59 - Jennie

Command Post ...	ready to open ...	Gard arrives	Side door open ...
Eric gets ...	back doors.	Table out	Hugo arrives
Jon arrives	Jon, Bill, Russ Eric & Hugo	Getting started	Taking calls
Gard sends ...	ham message.	Lots of traffic ...	map filling up
Sarah & Dee	Ready for assignment	Final coverage	Russ wraps up
Eric tries ham packet	Hugo on Net Control	Well earned! Thanks Hugo

Drill Appraisal CPNA-CERT drill on June 20, 2009

Drill Appraisal

CPNA-CERT drill on June 20, 2009

Radio Operator

1. It would be useful to have a headset with a PTT foot switch for the radio operator and one external speaker for the other team members at the command post. This may be our next purchase request!
2. Have a form or sheet available to track queued calls in order to minimize queries from volunteers waiting for a response; Next time we can try using T-cards for checking on volunteer health & welfare.
3. Need to review radio script so that the RO could request Priority 2 & 3 messages even while there are pending Priority 1's.
4. Radio operator may use streets to help with directions. For example, "Move to Bonita Ave toward El Camino" or "Move to Hans Ave toward Miramonte Ave".
5. When radio ops runs out of forms, we need to make sure that we have the latest forms available.
6. Any plain language discussion of a serious incident can be followed by "this is drill traffic".

Block Volunteer
1. Improve volunteer training regarding examples of life threatening (priority 1) situations. Any hazard that is growing/expanding and cannot be contained should be considered a priority 1. Here are several examples: A house that is engulfed in flames is a priority 1; A creek that has flooded and the water level is continuing to rise and spilling into our streets could be considered a priority 1; A large gas leak from a pipe near the street that cannot be closed could be considered a priority 1 (similar to a real incident that happened to a house on Barbara Ave towards Montalto Dr. on Oct 3, 2008).
2. You may assess another block only after confirmation and authorization by the command post. Authorization is required so that the Incident Commander can track all volunteers in order to form an effective response during a drill or a real incident. We had some great volunteer communication this past drill!
3. For drills only: Remind volunteers to avoid reading the incident tags verbatim to the radio operator.

Command Post / Trailer

1. Make the handling of volunteers that are available for re-assignment a high priority at the command post (Incident Commander/Operations/Planning leaders).
2. Improve workload distribution at command post to the extent possible with the available personnel.
3. Mapping (new procedure): When a block volunteer begins a block assessment, color the block one color and when they report that they are finished, color the block a different color. Leave the numbered tag on the map until they leave or have moved to a different location.
4. Consider adding a volunteer roster that could be located on the opposite door of the map to help CP staff determine availability of volunteers along with skill set.
5 The Incident Commander needs to keep track of the health of the command post staff (breaks, shift changes). The main issue is that our 2 hour drills are usually insufficient to practice this effectively.
6. Create a scenario where we can test and practice the Logistics role more thoroughly.
7. Need to update the name tags in the trailer and distribute them to our volunteers.