Summer is no vacation for RHHD’s Emergency Preparedness and Response (EP & R) team. During the summer, these experts are huddling up with colleagues in agencies across the commonwealth to review shelter plans and check on equipment like CHEMPACKs. They also run tabletop exercises to rehearse responses to unexpected events.
EP & R Coordinator Ed Porner explains that RRHD is part of the team of Emergency Support Functions that leap to action in Richmond and Henrico during an emergency. These organizations work together if there’s an immediate nearby event—weather-related or otherwise—that requires evacuation. Ed says the recent South Hill fertilizer warehouse fire is exactly the type of event these teams train to respond to quickly and safely. The organizations also plan for mass dispensing events that would get vaccines or other supplies to residents quickly.
Organizations responsible for emergency response run a series of drills and exercises throughout the summer to rehearse their planning. CDC Public Health Associates Program Fellow Amanda Tedesco says these drills can be a tabletop exercise, where everyone gathers to talk through a plan; a functional exercise, where experts practice using specific tools and equipment; or a full-scale exercise. Full-scale exercises this year will focus on dispensing vaccines so that the skills responders learned during mass COVID-19 vaccination stay up to date. With the support of RHHD’s capable crew of Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) volunteers, emergency response organizations will administer more than 500 flu immunizations in the coming months, helping to keep our communities healthy and our emergency response skills sharp.
Emergency response experts in Richmond and Henrico know their work will impact Virginians beyond these two communities. VCU’s Siegel Center is listed as a statewide shelter in the event that coastal Virginians need to evacuate from a hurricane, for example. “Siegel can accommodate anywhere from 800-1000 people if needed, but the logistics and the set up for that, as you can imagine, is tremendously big. So there’s a lot of planning and exercising that has to happen with that,” Ed explains.
For Ed and Amanda, part of this work involves training the brain to think ahead about the kinds of events we don’t always like to consider. “There’s a lot going on under the surface that people don’t see until they need to care about it,” Ed says. “They need to think about what they need to be successful in an emergency. We tend not to have a lot of those conversations until it becomes an impact. But the person who has low mobility who is going to need to get out of the house, those are the kinds of things we all need to prepare for.”
All of us are important partners in the work Ed and Amanda do, and they encourage us all to take simple steps to get ready for emergencies. “I try to share the urgency,” Amanda explains. “Climate change is affecting vector borne diseases, the strength of hurricanes, extreme heat. We have to be more prepared, and people can see those impacts.”
Ed and Amanda share some strategies for building your own emergency preparedness plans:
- Think of emergency response as a muscle. Amanda grew up in a military family—she was taught from a young age to locate a good meeting point at baseball games and other big events in case her family was ever separated. “You can build off practices like that,” she says, and scale up to larger preparedness strategies.
- Identify the questions that will be most important to you. Ed says that “The enormous lists of preparedness get kind of gargantuan, but there are lots of things you can do to extend your resilience.” Preparedness questions most relevant to you will depend on where you live, who you live with, and what things you’ll need most in case of an emergency. As your list of questions grow, Ed suggests “just nibbling at it little by little” so it doesn’t feel too overwhelming.
- Take a small step today to boost your emergency preparedness. Two actions that feel especially important to Amanda are keeping some cash on hand in case outages impact credit card usage and having a well-stocked emergency kit in her car. You can buy or build your own kit with a few simple items—and there are also suggestions for planning on a budget!
With people like Ed and Amanda focused on the big picture of our communities’ emergency response, we are in safe hands. We can all take steps to make their jobs easier and our loved ones safer during a crisis! And if you want to get even more involved, learn how to connect, train, and volunteer with the Medical Reserve Corps. Ed says, “we couldn’t do half of what we do without them!”
Stay tuned here for more preparedness tips throughout the summer.
