 "Photo: Jake Pawlowski/Collegian")
Thanks to funding from an $11,500 grant from the Western Massachusetts Regional Homeland Security Advisory Council, University of Massachusetts Amherst Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) and Emergency Management office conducted an emergency drill on Thursday to simulate a disaster on campus.
Over 300 community volunteers played out roles depicting what would happen if an accidental ammonia discharge from the Central Heating Plant were to occur on campus; although the drill was located both inside and outside the Mullins Center Stadium, the treatment of victims was to be imagined as having taken place in Totman Gymnasium.
The drill was held to reinforce community skills in decontamination, sheltering and readiness for mass care, including emotional support as well as physical injury treatment.
At approximately 9 a.m., volunteers began congregating inside and outside the
Those volunteers gathered outside to greet the victims were several members of the UMass student MRC, members from the
“My MRC group worked really well to get all the victim volunteers into the decontamination unit,” said Chiavetta. “We also worked well with ROTC and AFD. It was just a really exciting day because we’re a new RSO, and we’ve been working towards this event for the last three months with many, many meetings. It’s great to see it in action.”
Volunteers explained that they had been instructed not to touch the contaminated victims –even though they were equipped with white DuPont Proshield Nex Gen jumpsuits and doctors’ face masks to protect the volunteers from contamination.
Each victim then received a plastic package containing specially-made plastic poncho-like outfits that they had to put on upon entering the decontamination tent – a big, yellow tent divided into three sections to wash, dry and allow the victims to change into another plastic outfit complete with special sandals.
Each victim had a sign suspended around their neck displaying basic information about that victim including their age, health issues and other background important in helping the volunteer medical teams assess the priority that needs to be given to that particular victim.
“I’m in the UMass Army ROTC,” said junior sociology and criminal justice major Nikki Silva. “We were to expect that it would be hectic [at the decontamination unit] because it is a disaster, but basically we were to also be evaluated to see where any bottlenecking in the process occurs in case there is an actual live mass casualty. They gave us instructions about how we had to give priority to victims in a wheelchair or pregnant women.”
Before the event began, Public Information Officer Karen Dunbar-Scully explained that training was given to each of the volunteer staff and each area of emergency care. There were exercise evaluators timing the volunteers’ ability to treat the victims at each unit.
The first unit was the decontamination unit, then the triage unit in which nurses quickly evaluated the medical needs of each patient.
“Everyone has specific responsibilities,” said Dunbar-Scully. “The triage training system involved the volunteers being able to quickly assess victims in case of an emergency. Anyone in a mass accident would need to be seen and the severity of the injuries assessed.”
Many elements were considered in preparation for dealing with victims’ individual needs. For example, one victim’s card instructed her to pretend she was an elderly woman with Alzheimer’s disease who was incredibly confused and had lost her granddaughter.
Also, several bilingual victims pretending to be suffering from distress also pretended they could not speak English.
One volunteer student nurse said that she had to think back to high school French to try to calm down one of the victims. And one victim kept screaming “help me!” in Spanish, but she was immediately moved to one of the several emotional support rooms headed by mental health service staff after a medical evaluation.
“All of the emotional supporters did really well,” said the drill’s emotional support controller, Kerry Morrison, a psychologist and coordinator of the suicide prevention grant from UMass mental health services. “I’m impressed. They all did great in terms of people skills and communicating with the victims.”
During the drill, victims with the most severe injuries in need of immediate treatment were given red bracelets, while less severe injuries were given yellow bracelets. Victims who did not need immediate treatment or had minor injuries were given green bracelets.
Based on the color of his or her bracelet, the victim was instructed to follow their color’s line of tape extending from the triage assessment station to the treatment unit within the
Once given medical care, victims were sent to the sheltering unit to register after answering a series of medical health history questions. Victims in need of medication were sent to discuss needs with the pharmacy booth after registering.
After reaching the sheltering zone, victims could fill out evaluation forms about how they felt their treatment went. The sheltering zone provided victims with coffee, water bottles, granola bars and beds. Some of the beds had been brought over by Amherst College officials, who did not know the drill was to take place but managed to get the resources needed by the drill over to UMass within a half hour.
Volunteers from the University consisted of members from MRC, University Health Services, medical and mental health staff, representatives from the campus’ Environmental Health and Safety, transit and police departments, student emergency medical technicians and members of the ROTC. All of the volunteer victims were students from all years within the
“I thought it was a great opportunity to get experience for an emergency of this size,” said freshman and member of the Amherst Fire Student Force Katie Eaton.
The planning was headed by UMass MRC unit coordinator Ann Becker and UMass emergency manager Brian Olsen.
“This is the third really large scale exercise that I have been a part of,” said Becker. “Overall each time we’ve done this, [everyone] learns more about how to be prepared. The cooperation between the town and the University was unbelievable. Everyone was really incredibly engaged, on board and helpful. I believe we all learned from each other a tremendous amount. Today’s event just shows why we do this, and that there is a lot of teamwork involved. I think this [drill] was the best one yet so far. I’m thrilled with how it went.”
The majority of volunteers and coordinators at the event agreed that the drill was a success.
Now that the drill is over, Becker also realizes improvements do not stop at the drill itself.
“It’s an on-going process. There are some assistance issues we identified between different triage sections; one of the next steps will be to coordinate with more partners within the Emergency operation center and the incident command center,” said Becker. “Although I think in general we really wanted to look at these capabilities, especially in the realm of psychological first aid and emotional support, I really want us to work further on that. Everyone was fantastic today.”
Alyssa Creamer can be reached at acreamer@student.umass.edu.
