CERT LSAR Table Top Exercise Game Board Concept

Looking West (photo by V.A. McMillan)

 Title: CERT LSAR Table Top Exercise Game Board

 

As mentioned in a recent blog post (https://thegoodplanblog.blogspot.com/2023/01/cert-basics-course-still-time-to.html) I will be instructing the CERT Basics Light Search and Rescue (LSAR) unit for CERT Canada. For other CERT instructors and CERT teams who may be working on setting up or refreshing their LSAR training, I wanted to take this time to share the table top exercise (TTX) game board I have designed. This TTX game board is sized 36” wide x 24” high, and yes, it is laminated. Once seen, I am sure most instructors and team leaders would be able to create a version for themselves that would benefit their students or team. I would expect any renditions would employ a local map in the centre that would be known and of value to the location of the CERT team.

CERT TTX Game Board with Map 1 (Click on image to enlarge)

CERT TTX Game Board with Map 2

This TTX game board can likely be used with almost any TTX scenario used for CERT Basics LSAR or CERT team scenario training. The nine-step SIZE-UP frames the map, so that the team can be talked through the scenario and appropriate comments, decisions, options, resources, etc. can be recorded on the game board. Using fine tipped whiteboard markers the information can be recorded directly to the game board and at the end of the training session a damp cloth can erase the marking and be ready for the next training event.

One benefit, I see of this style of TTX game board is, the CERT student and CERT team members get exposure and repetitive use of the CERT SIZE-UP process. The more this is done, the stronger the understanding of why it is used, and by extension the easier it will be remembered when CERT deploys in response to an actual disaster event.

This is just a quick post to share this training aide and maybe generate some discussion.

Innovation makes training interesting!

VAM

Update: See a generic version of the game board here: https://mtnmanblog.blogspot.com/2023/01/table-top-exercise-ttx-game-board-for.html 

CERT Basics Course, Still Time to Register!

Mountains (photo by V.A. McMillan)

 

Title: CERT Basics Course, Still Time to Register!

 

CERT Canada is running a CERT Basics Course, 27^th – 28^th of January and concludes on the 4^th of February 2023. (See poster below for full details.) Contact CERT Canada to register online (https://www.bridgesoflove.net/events) or by calling the CERT Canada office (403) 649-0087), for more details. (Yes, some content is the same as on Mountainman’s Mantra https://mtnmanblog.blogspot.com/2023/01/not-too-late-to-register-cert-basics.html).

Poster from CERT Canada

Community Emergency Response Training (CERT) is a community level training scheme to ensure prepared citizens are ready to step up during times of emergency or disaster to be neighbours helping neighbours until first responders can arrive and take-over the response. CERT traces its lineage back to the mid-80’s in Southern California. Since then, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has taken the CERT program nationwide in the United States. CERT Canada in endeavouring to spread the program across Canada.

One of the best histories of the development of CERT is written by David M. Simpson (2001) in an article he wrote for the May 2001 issue of the Natural Hazard Review, pages 54 to 63. His article can be found online (https://ascelibrary.org/doi/abs/10.1061/(ASCE)1527-6988(2001)2:2(54)) or by searching with DOI https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)1527-6988(2001)2:2(54). One point that is lamented through this article is the role played by the citizen during the time of disaster from incident start until help arrives. While big governments and little, promote being prepared and self-sufficient for the first 72-hours, the reality is, it could be much longer before help can arrive depending on the nature and extent of the disaster event. The best mitigation for a protracted disaster event has got to be a prepared citizenry. CERT ethos of neighbours helping neighbours, is a great starting point to create a foundational level of training from which to build neighbourhood or community CERT teams on. Equally important in the CERT training scheme is to maintain or enhance training of CERT teams on a regular basis after the initial CERT Basics course. This will be self-directed training from the CERT team, achieved by holding weekly or monthly meetings and training sessions. This can be further enhanced by CERT organizations hosting quarterly, bi-annual, or annual training workshops, exercises, and/or drills. Individuals on the CERT teams may seek to enhance their personal knowledge and skill level by attending targeted training in first aid, the incident command system, or communications. Or individuals may seek training by becoming a member of another organization – volunteer firefighter, volunteer search & rescue, or becoming a member with St. John’s Ambulance. The more skills and knowledge an individual bring to their CERT team, the more resourceful and valuable that CERT team will be to their community.

Speaking of community…community is one aspect of CERT that should be explored a bit more. While traditionally community is seen as the location you live, it can also be the location where you work or where you pray. FEMA has CERT team training focused on workplace CERT teams and for congregations at the respective houses of worship. Community is where you feel a sense of belonging. And an individual can be a member of multiple communities. Be extension then, CERT teams can be in multiple locations and have members specific to one community but not another. And this is okay. In fact, the better the network of CERT teams with shared members, will help ensure success wherever you are when disaster strikes. It would wonderful if every neighbourhood could produce one seven-member CERT team. It would be wonderful if every workplace with more than 50 employees per shift could produce one seven-member CERT team. And it would be wonderful if every house of worship could also produce a seven-member CERT team. To achieve a seven-member CERT team, would mean that citizen responders caught in the disaster event could begin helping their neighbours immediately, not in an hour, not in a day, not in a week. But right now. To achieve this, more folks need to become involved in their community/communities. Community is coming together, working together, learning together.

To this end, CERT Canada is hosting a CERT Basics course and you still have time to register, so you can become trained and help form a CERT team in your community – where you live, where you work, where you pray. Contact CERT Canada to register online (https://www.bridgesoflove.net/events) or by calling the CERT Canada office (403) 649-0087), for more details.

Yes, the rumours are true, I will be there on the 4^th of February, instructing the CERT Light Search & Rescue unit. I hope to see you there.

Be part of the solution…Get trained! Form a CERT Team!

VAM

Introduction to Emergency Management in Canada - A Book Review

Looking West of Plateau Mountain (photo by V.A. McMillan)

Time to add a new title to your emergency management library. I have just received my copy of Introduction to Emergency Management in Canada (2023) Editors Chris J. Collins and Darren Blackburn, published by Emond (https://emond.ca/Store/Books/ ). I am still reading it at the moment, and without finishing this volume, I highly recommend this book. First, it has a Canadian spin which is nice in textbooks. Second, many of the authors were my instructors at the Justice Institute of British Columbia. Most importantly, this is a well written book that is formatting for easy reading and finding information. The logic of the chapters works well. Inside the chapters, the format works well, at least for me.

Cover of Introduction to Emergency Management in Canada (2023)

I will write a more thorough review once this semester is finished, and I have time for a deeper read of this excellent book.

So, are you still reading this?? Did you order your copy, yet??

What are you waiting for??

https://emond.ca/Store/Books/Introduction-to-Emergency-Management-in-Canada

That was the link to Emond Publishing.

Emergency preparedness begins with knowledge. Knowledge comes from many sources, like excellent books!!

VAM

 

Evacuation Route Evaluation

Approaching the Cardinal River Valley (photo by V.A. McMillan)

Title: Evacuation Route Evaluation

The whole premise of The G.O.O.D. Plan – Get Out Of Dodge (https://thegoodplanblog.blogspot.com/2020/04/the-good-plan-now-available-on-amazon.html)is to evacuate your family and yourself from where you are to a safer location during a crisis or disaster event. In emergency management those responsible for a community try to plan for the mass evacuation of a whole community or portions of the community during disaster events to save the greatest number of people in the shortest amount of time. There are many challenges to effectively achieve a successful evacuation, not the least of which is being at your own home when the event begins. When you are at a familiar starting point, and you have a plan, and you know where you are going, and you have a primary, secondary, & tertiary routes to get there; odds are better that you will arrive at your planned destination. This begins to get murky when more than one variable is new.

For instance, if you are on vacation and are staying in a strange location when a disaster event occurs you will be at a disadvantage if you need to evacuate. As a visitor you are more likely to be at the mercy of the emergency response plan of the community you are staying in, then when you are at home…UNLESS, you do your homework ahead of time and create a GOOD PLAN for when you are on vacation, in addition to your GOOD PLAN you have created when you are at home. In fact, you could create a basic VACATION GOOD PLAN that stays as an appendix to your GOOD PLAN, that only needs to be tweaked for different vacation locations. Then you can take a copy of that appendix with you.

So, let’s talk about evaluating evacuation routes…the process will be the same for your primary GOOD PLAN as it is for any supplemental GOOD PLANS – vacations, business travel, or just going to the city. Today, we will look at four considerations that can impact evacuation route selection – Mode of Transport, Known Hazards, Safe Zone location, and Routes (see mind map).

Evac Route Evaluation - Mind Map

In this discussion we will not address the type of disaster or crisis event that triggers the need to evacuate. I do recognize that certain events will impact evacuation decisions and route selection; however, we will leave that discussion for a different day.

Starting with Mode of Transport will determine which route has the highest probability to get you to your Safe Zone in the available time to ensure a successful evacuation. At the start time if you have a motorized vehicle in good operating condition, adequate fuel, and a competent driver, you have a better than average chance for success to evacuate a rapidly changing disaster event. To increase the chance of success from a pure luck outcome to something more in your own control requires pre-planning. What are the vehicle’s capabilities?? What is the driver’s experience and skill level?? Can the vehicle travel on routes that are not paved?? Can the vehicle ford shallow water?? Does the vehicle contain basic pioneer tools – shovel, axe, saw, and pick?? Does the vehicle have self-recovery ability – spare tire(s), jerry can of fuel, high lift jack, tow straps, winch, and/or come-along?? Does the vehicle have 4x4 or tire chains for driving in snow?? These are just some of the questions one must ask themselves when pre-planning. To be ready to action your GOOD PLAN you need to know the answers. Because those answers help you determine what route options contribute to developing your PRIMARY ROUTE, SECONDARY ROUTE, and your TERTIARY ROUTE. We will return to routes a little later.

Now if you are not expecting to evacuate using a motorized land travel vehicle, things get a bit more complicated. If your Mode of Transport is with an aircraft, you will need access to said craft and the required licensing & skills to operate it safely. Unless the crisis event devolves into a state without law and order, you will need to abide by licensing rules and regulations. Aircraft also add a secondary challenge in that they are quite picky on where they land. So, if air travel is your Mode of Transport you need to know how to operate your craft, where you are going, and the safest route to get there. Unlike a land vehicle, it is unlikely that an aircraft can be refueled in flight from jerry cans, so your route needs to know how far your aircraft can travel on a given load of fuel and where you can refuel enroute to your Safe Zone. I assume that if air travel is your chosen method, you have a safe place to land when you reach your Safe Zone. The obvious advantage to air travel is that few other folks will be using that Mode of Transport. And location that can be reached ONLY by air will be less populated than ones that can be reached via roads or rails. Therefore, depending on the trigger event, isolation could be a life saver!!

If escape is via water using some sort of vessel, you do not have the same challenges as evacuating by air…namely, you do not have to contend with falling out of the sky. That however does not mean that there are no challenges. Vessels need to be appropriate for the body of water they are planned to traverse – inland water ways (rivers, or lakes), coastal waters, or open ocean (blue water). Furthermore, what means of locomotion does the vessel require?? Fueled engines? Wind? Human power – rowing, paddling, or peddling? Motor vessels will require an adequate supply of fuel to move from one location to the next. Wind vessels require sails. And people powered vessels require humans fit enough to row, paddle, or peddle. Of course, you can drift with the currents, but you might not make it to your destination, unless you know ahead of time where the currents will take you. Again, this requires pre-planning and testing your Mode of Transport along your chosen route. While floating vessels do not need to worry about falling from the sky, they do need to be concerned with staying afloat, which means you need at least a primary and secondary method of evacuating unwanted water from inside your vessel. You would also be wise to have a couple methods for patching your hull in the event your vessel bumped into something that can poke a hole in your hull. Those residing in coastal communities may what to consider using a water evacuation instead of trying to go overland with the crowds. Or at the very least become skilled enough to safely operate a vessel in local waters in case overland routes become non-passable.

Next let’s look at Known Hazards, which are locations or conditions that are expected to cause challenges in times of disaster or crisis. For the purpose of this discussion, we will see Known Hazards through Seasons, Obstacles, & Choke Points. Seasons – winter, spring, summer, autumn, can change the traveling conditions of your planned evacuation route. In Northern climates winter is a noticeable challenge – freezing temperatures, frozen water, slippery ice, and deep snow. So, while a route in the summer or early autumn may be passable with a normal passenger vehicle, in winter that same route may require a 4x4 offroad vehicle with chains, winch, and traction devices or it might only be passable with a snowmobile or tracked vehicle. It is incumbent on you to know your local conditions on your routes in all four seasons. Because this in knowable, it is plannable.

While Seasons are mostly consistent, Obstacles can change as the Mode of Transport changes. A mountain pass, which is usually the lowest location to get between mountains in a range can be crossed on foot in most seasons, with minimal extraneous effort. On the other hand, if there is no road over the mountain pass it will be an extreme effort to move a small convoy of vehicles. And winter will not be an option. If you have offroad vehicles like side-by-side quads on tracks or snowmobiles crossing a mountain pass without a road in the winter becomes a possibility. Success being more likely if there are a group of offroad vehicles traveling together to help each other.

Other Obstacles include lakes, rivers, swamps, cliffs, and forests. Thankfully, these Obstacles are mapped and known. If it is known, it can be planned for.

Finally, we have Choke Points, which coincidentally show up at Obstacles. Cliffs that endanger the roads will likely have tunnels or snow sheds to protect them and improve safe passage of vehicles. Rivers and creeks will have bridges over them. Brooks and small streams will pass under roads through culverts. Mountain passes will have snow removal equipment to keep the roads open through the winter. Bridges, tunnels, passes – are all Choke Points!! A Choke Point is a location that has no alternate or bypass route. Choke Points make excellent Control Points, because all traffic on that route is funnelled into the Choke Point and avoiding the Choke Point is not a likely option. Whether the reasons are legitimate or nefarious, those who control a Choke Point hold the power to control the fate of those trying to evacuate. The lone road to a Safe Zone can also be a Choke Point. So, when you are planning your PRIMARY ROUTE, SECONDARY ROUTE, & TERTIARY ROUTE, you need to conduct, at the very least, a map recce to identify ALL the Choke Points and find alternate routes that bypass them. If it is known, it can be planned for.

The Safe Zone is where you plan to go if you must evacuate your primary residence. The Safe Zone can be a bugout location (BOL), a secondary residence, a vacation home or RV lot, or staying with friends and/or family. No matter how well designed and constructed your primary residence may be, there may come a time when you need to evacuate, even for a short duration and in that event, you need to have a destination to evacuate to or you will become just another refugee at an emergency shelter. Thus, the primary purpose of evacuation is to move from a location with unacceptable danger(s) to a location that provides a level of safety.

For our purpose, the Safe Zone is used to give a fixed final location to establish a PRIMARY ROUTE, SECONDARY ROUTE, & TERTIARY ROUTE to, from our primary residence. Primary residence can also include our temporary location we stay at when on vacation or traveling on business trips. I want to also suggest that you can have multiple Safe Zones to be contingencies in the event that your primary Safe Zone gets destroyed by a disaster event or the routes to it become impassable. If you live in a city, it would be wise to determine four Safe Zones outside the city one to the north, east, south, and west. So that no matter where you were in the city when you had to evacuate, you would have a Safe Zone option available to you.

Depending on your needs and available resources, your Safe Zone(s) will be either temporary or permanent. Staying with friends or family, will be a temporary location. An RV lot, vacation home, or secondary residence can be a permanent solution if need be.

Now that we have discussed Mode of Transport, Known Hazards, and Safe Zones, lets move on to Routes. In keeping with a preparedness mindset (https://mtnmanblog.blogspot.com/2014/01/adapt-improvise-overcome-survival.html), to achieve success during a disaster or crisis you need to have options. Options come from pre-planning and rehearsing your plan (followed by a review of successes and areas that need improvements before re-writing and updating your plan.) Just remember planning never ends, it is a process of continuous improvement.

Route options come from conducting a map recce, followed by driving each and every proposed route. Take notes along the Route to identify Known Hazards, Obstacles, and Choke Points. Modify your Route(s) as is appropriate. Create fuel caches along your Route if needed as a contingency. Map your Routes and protect your marked maps. Keep a set of marked maps with your GOOD PLAN.

Determine your PRIMARY, SECONDARY, & TERTIARY ROUTES.

PRIMARY ROUTE: Will usually be the shortest or fastest or simplest Route to your Safe Zone. If you evacuate before the crowds, this is the Route you will most likely use to successfully arrive at your Safe Zone as planned.

SECONDARY ROUTE: In the event you evacuate too late or learn that your PRIMARY ROUTE is not passable, you will elect to use your SECONDARY ROUTE. The SECONDARY ROUTE will not be as fast as the PRIMARY ROUTE; however, the SECONDARY will travel different routes that are more likely to be passable and have less traffic than other routes. Decisions to take the SECONDARY may need to be made while on the fly. In rapidly changing situations staying flexible to using alternate routes may be what saves you and your family.

TERTIARY ROUTE: Either conditions or trigger event or timings may make it necessary to resort to using your TERTIARY ROUTE. The TERTIARY ROUTE is likely the longest, slowest, and most complicated route you have mapped out. This route also will have the highest likelihood of getting you to your Safe Zone in the safest condition.

Be prepared. There is no reason to stop at only mapping three routes to your Safe Zone. The more options you know, the higher the likelihood of successfully reaching your Safe Zone during a disaster or crisis evacuation. Options come from pre-planning and training. Options equal survival.

Whether you are working on your primary GOOD PLAN (https://thegoodplanblog.blogspot.com/2020/04/the-good-plan-now-available-on-amazon.html) or creating a specific annex GOOD PLAN because you are going on vacation or traveling to a new worksite or going to visit Grandma, I hope this discussion helps you create better route plans and consider viable alternates.

Remember, if it can be known, it can be planned for!!

 

VAM

Neighbourhood Defence - Tabletop Exercise Planning Ideas

 

Big Rocks (photo by V.A. McMillan)

Neighbourhood Defence Tabletop Exercise Idea

 

Living in interesting times, encourages pondering interesting ideas. Our world is a mess. A cacophony of well orchestrated crises and conflict. Interesting times, indeed, …

Knowledge is the best defence to fear, and to this end we will explore how-to defend our own neighbourhood. Let’s work through planning a tabletop exercise for creating a neighbourhood defence plan. Sounds like fun…right?

We need a scenario, a dystopian event to create challenges and context…

For this we will turn to Eric Walters, the author of The Rule of Three trilogy (2014, 2015, 2016):

Here is a trailer I found on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrjvkYqFq9c

THE RULE of THRE3 COVER ART

The trilogy is based on an event that impacts a community in Southern Ontario, Canada, and the challenges the members of the community face. These books are aimed at a young adult audience, however, the scenario presented works for all audiences looking to create a tabletop exercise. So, before going any further go read The RULE of THRE3 (2014), the first book in the trilogy, … we will wait.

Amazon link: https://www.amazon.ca/s?k=the+rule+of+three+eric+walters&crid=2L6494ZUHCBMH&sprefix=the+rule+of+three%2Caps%2C171&ref=nb_sb_ss_ts-doa-p_5_17

Now, that you have read the scenario let’s use a generic map to create a visual of a neighbourhood we will defend in this tabletop exercise:

BASIC MAP

Now in the book, the members of the neighbourhood had a few challenges the first night and many nights there after. This is primarily due to the lack of a neighbourhood plan and the time it took for organic leadership to step up into leadership roles. Suffice to say that in a grid down scenario, those who step up quickest will ensure they will be in a better position to control their immediate area. Organizing a ready block emergency preparedness group in your neighbourhood before any disaster or crisis event will go a very long way in being ahead of the learning curve compared to unprepared neighbourhoods or communities. Think of ready block as a neighbourhood watch with an emergency management focus instead of a crime prevention focus. In fact, it would not be unreasonable to blend both to protect your neighbourhood.

So, night one you want to control access into your neighbourhood, this will require working with your neighbours. The first night will have lots of confusion and more questions than answers. If folks don’t belong in your neighbourhood, have them move along and go somewhere else. Rest assured the local law enforcement detachment will have their hands full with the problem areas. If landlines and/or cellular phone services are offline, contacting law enforcement will be reduced to sending a runner to request service. As members of your neighbourhood, you can band together and protect your collective property until more information becomes available to make a different decision.

What would be helpful, would be a quick guide to aid in planning to defend your neighbourhood…and today is your lucky day!! Here is a very basic guide (front):

NEIGHBOURHOOD DEFENCE PLAN - Page 1

Back:

NEIGHBOURHOOD DEFENCE PLAN - Page 2

This basic plan gives suggestions on what to evaluate and what defensive measures can be employed to improve the security of your neighbourhood. Notice that when each image is printed on a single piece of paper, it can be folded into a mini booklet to fit in your pocket.

If the power has not returned by the third day, then by the third night you will want to have checkpoints setup leading into your neighbourhood or community. In the beginning, a checkpoint can be constructed by parking three vehicles to create the necessary obstruction to slow traffic and allow members of your neighbourhood staffing the checkpoints to inquire the purpose and destination of the vehicle. If the occupants have nefarious objectives, they will avoid neighbourhoods and communities that use checkpoints and go look for easier prey in unorganized neighbourhoods.

Checkpoint Barricade Design

This is a basic checkpoint diagram (above) and the design features to be aware of are:

·       The barricades want to extend over the centre line of the roadway

·       You need three barricades

·       The spacing between barricades is just wide enough for a vehicle to slowly manoeuvre through an “S” turn

·       The side of the highest threat gets the tightest spacing, thus requiring traffic to slowdown the most

·       If the event last longer than a few nights, prepare to create permanent barricades with extra coverage and obstacles in front of the barricades to deter anyone ramming your barricades

·       Also, for semi-permanent checkpoints consider having moveable barricades to block the lane until you allow traffic to enter the checkpoint

By the fourth day, it will be becoming clear the event will take longer than hoped to be resolved. Therefore, more attention will be needed to be organized for the long haul to protect your neighbourhood. If you have not already begun to organize gate guards and foot patrols, now is a great time to start. Here is a link for setting up shift schedules: https://mtnmanblog.blogspot.com/2017/07/bugout-location-fire-piquetsecurity.html

And here is the link to readiness fatigue: https://thegoodplanblog.blogspot.com/emergency-readiness-readiness-endurance.html 

Defending your neighbourhood will take a group effort, both in staff and materials – flashlights, walkie-talkies, whistles, and batteries.

If no end is evident by the fifth day, a community meeting needs to be held to come to a consensus to define the area that is your neighbourhood. This is best achieved with some sort of perimeter fence. At the early stage, just having a fence, checkpoints, and foot patrols will be adequate. As time moves on and depending on the nature of the event and the behaviour of those outside your neighbourhood and any official response will decide how quickly and to what level your neighbourhood wants to maintain its independence and fortify the perimeter fence.

If resources are limited – labour, tools, materials, fortifying the entire perimeter fence may be a task beyond your neighbourhood. In that case, you must select a structure within your neighbourhood that would be the best to fortify and use as a safe harbour in the event that everyone in the neighbourhood requires a secure place to shelter for a short time. A school, library, hospital, community hall, church, or motel; could all be potential structures worth the effort to fortify.

For this exercise, the secure area will have a perimeter fence that is 8’ to 10’ tall. Immediately inside this fence will be a turf and gravel barrier (see diagram):

Turf & Gravel Wall Design

Because many neighbourhoods have copious quantities of lawn, a turf structure is readily available by cutting and rolling lawn into 2’ wide strips. As seen in the diagram above, this design has a 2’ strip on the inside and the outside, with a centre core filled with gravel. If gravel is not available, dirt will work, but will not have the drainage characteristic of gravel. On every third or so layer of turf, you will want to have 2’ x 6’ strips of turf to tie the inside and outside layers of turf together. To create a Stage One turf and gravel reinforcement, the structure will be six feet wide and four feet tall. Planks or plywood strips can be placed on the top for walking on.

When extending this to a Stage Two structure the turf and gravel will be raised another two feet: resulting in a six-foot wide by six-foot-tall barrier behind the perimeter fence. Immediately behind the Stage Two you will want to back fill compacted dirt to a height of five feet (5’). This can be a single slope or terraced until the height is achieved. The Stage Two will also want ladders or steps constructed from Turf & Gravel at regular intervals to access the top of the wall, for foot patrols or wall guards.  

To enhance perimeter security as the event protracts, you will want early warning of any trouble that is headed your way. Therefore, on each flank of your neighbourhood and any approaches through dead ground will need to be watched day and night with well constructed and camouflaged observation posts (OP). The OP’s will need some method of communication to the neighbourhood security force or foot patrols. Walkie-talkies could work if you have enough. Having a runner to take written or verbal messages, is another option. Field phones would be best if you have them. OP’s want to be far enough away to spot trouble before it arrives at your community, but close enough for communication to be practical. For silent night-time communication, a code using flashlight blinks back to the neighbourhood, could work. Just do not have the receiver send messages to the OPs as this would give away their positions to anyone who is scouting your neighbourhood for nefarious purposes.

One last consideration to share…once you find yourself in a situation as described here, you will want to map your neighbourhood and keep a copy in your neighbourhood command post. This map will want to know which homes are occupied and which ones are not. Also map what areas outside or inside your perimeter can be exploited by invaders. You need to know where the weak areas are so reinforcement strategies can be developed to not be taken by surprise.

One other Blog post that may be helpful here is the one on Rural Security:  https://thegoodplanblog.blogspot.com/2018/03/rural-crime-in-alberta-layered-security.html

Well, that is a good start. Read Eric Walters' trilogy and maybe we can do another post on specific incidents beyond the initial sixty days of the story.

Keep your head in the game!

Stay prepared!

VAM

P.S. - A PDF copy of the Neighbourhood Defence Plan is available on the SATAS Co website: 

SATAS Co - Resources 

Challenging the Four Pillars of Emergency Management Paradigm

Victor Lake Skyline (photo by V.A. McMillan, 2021)

 It has been too long since I posted here...so, let me correct that.

In school I have been bumping into a re-occurring paradigm - the emergency management pillars. Most agencies have adopted and seem comfortable with four pillars supporting emergency management and if presented graphically, would look something like this:

The Four Pillars of Emergency Management

Now, this is my blog and not an academic paper and this affords me the privilege to present my ideas in a manner not accepted by academia. So, whether this post is construed as an editorial or an opinion piece, I do not much care what label it wears, I just want to share my idea and maybe it will generate some discussion to build upon.

As a thinker and hopefully a future emergency planner, I see the emergency management planning function to be its own separate pillar, not some function contained within the preparedness function. The preparedness function has its own purpose and focus, which goes beyond planning, I will explain that shortly. So, let me rock the boat and shake up the emergency management community by suggesting the need for a paradigm shift away from the four pillars of emergency management and join me to embrace the five pillars of emergency management:

The Five Pillars of Emergency Management

This post will capture a high-level overview of the Five Pillars of Emergency Management and the emergency management cycle. I am trying to determine whether this is important enough to be the focus of my capstone project for school or whether exploring this topic on my blog will address this topic adequately. 

The five pillars:

• Prevention / Mitigation
• Planning
• Preparedness
• Response
• Recovery 

 These pillars support the successful application of emergency management to minimize the impacts of natural disasters or manmade crises on a community and speed the recovery of the community to return to a state as good as or better than the condition before the disaster event. If the emergency management process is embraced by the members of the community, in theory, in time the community will become resilient to future disaster events. 

The five pillars are applied in an ever-improving cycle:

The Five Pillar Emergency Management Cycle

The starting point for community emergency management planning is the PREVENTION stage. The prevention stage is based on a theoretical foundation. This foundation is built using research of similar communities - what disasters events have they endured? Could they occur here? If they did occur here, what would we need to plan for before they occurred to protect our residents, our structures, and infrastructure? What about the local environment? Can our plans protect the environment, too? One tool to assist during the prevention stage is to conduct a community threat hazard identification risk vulnerability assessment (THRVA). This captures the current conditions in the community and help prioritize which events would be more likely to occur and which events, if they did occur would be most harmful. With this specific information in hand, it is time to move to the next stage - planning.

The PLANNING stage is where you take all the information and research gathered in the previous stage and you work to develop the various plans for your community - emergency response plans, business continuity plans, and appropriate contingency plans in the event the other plans fail. Planning takes an entire team collaborating together to produce useful finished documents. However, plans that are not exercised or worse just sit on a shelf will never benefit the community. 

PREPAREDNESS is the stage where plans get exercised, staff and community members get trained, gaps are discovered, and needed resources are identified and replacements are stockpiled, if necessary. After training personnel, and then exercising the plans, a formal debriefing occurs to capture lessons learned, gaps in the plans or resources required, as well as, what worked well. The feedback from debrief begins a new cycle of planning, followed by exercising. This is a continuous process of improvement to ensure the community survives a disaster event with the least number of injuries or destruction. 

The RESPONSE stage is when an actual event triggers to use of the plans - emergency response plans, business continuity plans, or contingency plans. This is where plans meet the real test, this is where failure means people get hurt or killed, structures get damaged or destroyed, and your infrastructure that connects your community together and with others is rendered inoperative, at least for a short while. The response stage concludes with at least one major debriefing for responding personnel. In communities that value a robust emergency management program, will want to follow these responder debriefings with community debriefings to get feedback from residents of the community on what worked well, what did not work well, and areas where things could have worked better if...

There will be a shift in focus as the response stage is concluding, and operations transition to the RECOVERY stage. The recovery stage generally begins with cleaning up debris, making assessments of damages, and modifying recovery plans to meet the needs of the actual event that has impacted the community. The recovery stage can have three sub-stages to address the needs in the short-term/immediate, the midterm, and the long-term. Infrastructure usually takes until the long-term to be fully restored to pre-disaster capacity. Like the response stage, the recovery stage will host a number of debriefings to capture valuable feedback about what worked, what didn't, and what could work better if... 

Now, we start a new cycle with the MITIGATION stage. Now that a disaster event has actually occurred and the response and recovery stages have been debriefed, now you have the material to work with to develop mitigations to prevent or at least minimize future impacts to the community.  Once this mitigation information has been captured and written out it is time to begin a new period of planning, followed by preparedness - where the new plans are trained and exercised. 

In a nutshell, that captures the high-level ideas of the Five Pillars of Emergency Management and the Emergency Management Cycle. If this is chosen as my capstone project, this position will be researched to an academic level with a literature review to determine if this concept has already been suggested - successfully or not by others; as well as, what support the Four Pillars of Emergency Management is actually built upon. 

I will post an update in September 2022, once my capstone project has been submitted and graded. No matter what topic I select, it will be of interest to at least some of the visitors of this blog. 

Thank you for reading.

V.A.M.

Update: 14 March 2025 - Tardy, but here is that link to my capstone project:

https://mtnmanblog.blogspot.com/2023/11/capstone-research-project-houses-of.html

Thank you to those from the EM Community who spoke with me to leave the Four Pillars alone, and focus on encouraging those interested in Emergency Management, to pursue formal education and employment or volunteer opportunities to gain first-hand EM experience. 

V.A.M.

 

 

 

The Rule of 3's

 

Alberta Rockies near Willow Valley (Photo by V.A. McMillan)

Poster created by V.A. McMillan using a PowerPoint background stock image

The Rule of 3’s has been with me for so long I forget where I first learned them, and I forget not everyone has ever heard of them. So, to help correct this latter issue, I will post my understanding and significance of The Rule of 3’s.

If you have heard of the WILL TO SURVIVE, then you will understand the first Rule of 3’s – You can survive 3-seconds without HOPE. If you are existing in a place, time, or headspace where you cannot see a positive outcome your likelihood of survival drops radically. You can get bummed out or suffer a moment of despair and that is normal. However, if you descend into a pit or well of negative energy getting back out will take your self-determination, your WILL TO SURVIVE, and possibly the help from others.

The next critical 3 is OXYGEN, if we cannot breathe, we will die in short order. Yes, some folks who train for it, can survive longer than the average human. Pearl Divers can stay underwater longer than 3-minutes, but they spend their lives building up their lung capacity and endurance. They practice their skills everyday. Even with the best training survival from the loss of OXYGEN is still measured in minutes.

The third rule – You can survive 3-hours without SHELTER is sometimes not fully appreciated in our modern society. Shelter can include clothing, buildings, structures, or even vehicles. If you are healthy, have adequate hydration and nutrition, and live in a location that has temperatures from +25C to +30C without dropping below +20C after the sun goes down, you could survive a lot longer than 3-hours without clothes, structures, or vehicles to protect you from the environment. On the other hand, submerged in the North Atlantic, or wandering the Tundra of the Canadian Arctic, or stumbling through the Mohave Desert or the Sahara; you are going to need shelter from the harsh environment that is around you…for some folks 3-hours survival would be too generous under those conditions mentioned above.

If you have survived this far, your next priority is WATER, you can survive 3-days without WATER. The human body is composed of a large percentage of fluids and when they are not replaced on a regular basis you start to dehydrate. It is said the average North American lives in a state of mild dehydration throughout most of their lives. Being properly hydrated allows the body’s organs to function properly – digesting food, thinking, seeing, smelling, tasting, and excreting wastes and toxins from the body. When you reduce fluid intake your body uses a triage method to restrict functions not critical to survival. So, after 3-days you might still be alive, however, all your organs are shutting down and you may not have enough time to rehydrate quick enough to turn those organs back on. So, in a survival situation once have treated medical conditions that impact breathing, and you have found or built shelter; your next priority is finding a supply of clean drinking water.

The first item on the list of survival items for most folks with no survival training is FOOD. You can survive 3-weeks without FOOD!! Not exactly a high priority item in the big picture. Important, yes, for extended survival on planet Earth, however not a critical item in the first few hours of a survival or crisis situation. In situations where rescue from outside sources is highly probable the pattern of food resource management usually sounds like this:

Get to a safe location.

Treat medical issues.

Build a shelter & fire.

Have a source of fresh water close to the shelter.

Eat as required to achieve these priority tasks.

Then, fast for three-days drinking only fluids.

Then, eat minimally to maintain your health.

Keep the fire going day & night and await rescue.

If you become injured or lost in a National Park, that plan may work. If you survive a plane crash in an unknown location, you may have to self rescue which will require moving to a location that you can be located and rescued from, before building shelters. The point being the situation you are in will dictate which strategy to use for food management. Just remember you can survive longer without food than you have likely ever experienced before. Knowing this should provide you with HOPE!

Finally, without MEANINGFUL COMPANIONSHIP, life loses it purpose. Humans are social animals, and they need to be around others…at least most humans. So, you can survive 3-months without MEANINGFUL COMPANIONSHIP. I remember as my Grandmother progressed through her 90’s she would comment that all her friends had passed, and she missed them [She lived to be 99 ½ years old, a full life]. So, whether stranded on a deserted island with only a volleyball for a companion or living a long life beyond your friends or family, at some point without MEANINGFUL COMPANIONSHIP you finally give-up on living, you lose HOPE, and life ends.

If you are still reading, I thank you, this long-winded diatribe is to share The Rules of 3’s as I understand them. With this knowledge you can prioritize your survival planning starting with the items that are most likely to kill you if you ignore them.

Keep your head about you, breathe, clear your head, and think – seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months...a lifetime. Stay focused on WHY you want to survive, courage up the WILL TO SURVIVE, and do it!!

Until next time…Know your RULES of 3’s and Survive another day!!

V.A.M.

Another post that may interest you: https://mtnmanblog.blogspot.com/2014/01/adapt-improvise-overcome-survival.html or this one https://thegoodplanblog.blogspot.com/2018/02/sip-good-inch-three-parts-of-family.html