Lessons learned; Helping in Joplin will bolster emergency planning here

Traveling to aid in relief efforts following Sunday's devastating tornado in Joplin, Mo., has proven beneficial to Bourbon County emergency responders.

Along with more than 70 other emergency responders from various local agencies, Bourbon County Emergency Manager Keith Jeffers helped search for victims and survivors and clean up damage. Jeffers said that in helping with Joplin's disaster relief this week, he realized there were some changes that could be made to Bourbon County's emergency preparedness plan.

"Several of us from Bourbon County have had discussions as to what was needed that we had not considered before," Jeffers said in an email. "The Jasper County Emergency Management Teams and Joplin, Missouri Responders were all very professional and organized for the situation. We know that in the same situation, we are not as ready to respond as we observed."

Some of the areas Jeffers is looking to fix include communication, preparation and tools. He said he noticed that not everybody had the same essential items in their "Go Kit" -- a bag that contains items such as food, water, clothes, medicine and first aid equipment. He said many responders did not have a clipboard or anything to take notes on.

With land-line telephone service compromised, Jeffers said communication was difficult in the damaged area. He said cell phones were only useful for text messaging as calling was not available. In addition, he said radio traffic was bogged down with more than 1,000 people using it. Due to all the traffic, Jeffers said it difficult to tell who was speaking to whom and for whom the message was intended.

One thing Jeffers said he considered is a pager system similar to what restaurants and hospitals use where responders can report they have arrived and then get their equipment ready while waiting for notification that a task had been assigned to them.

Currently, Jeffers is working on job aids -- documents that help describe what is expected for each job -- that he can hand to responders to cut down on explanation time.

"There was a lot of explaining as someone new came into the room," Jeffers told The Tribune. "It slowed the process down."

One of the most important changes Jeffers would like to incorporate is the use of an Incident Management Team to assist in the immediate needs of the area. He said in an email that "most of the responders that were from the affected area were working while exhibiting stress indicators." He said use of an Incident Management Team would allow the responders in the area to take care of their own situation before helping others.

In addition, Jeffers said he is working on getting local landmarks, schools and daycare centers mapped and made available to responders. While in Joplin on Tuesday, he helped someone from Arkansas who was told to go to Joplin High School, but had no idea how to get there.

"We need out big items, big landmarks, mapped out," he said.

Jeffers said seeing how things are being done in Joplin makes clear the importance of emergency response and proper planning.

"Response times in many cases determines how many survivors (are) helped," Jeffers said. "All that we can do is to prepare for the worst, practice those preparations and hope that when the time comes, the situation is manageable by us until a larger response team is on scene to assist."