[meteorite-list] Mock Meteorite Strike to Help Train Volunteers for Disaster Recovery

[Ron Baalke]

http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/mock-meteorite-strike-to-help-train-high-river-volunteers-for-disaster-recovery-1.2583285

Mock meteorite strike to help train High River volunteers for disaster recovery
Bill Graveland
The Canadian Press 
Septemer 27, 2015

HIGH RIVER, Alta. -- Hasn't High River suffered enough?

After surviving one of the worst flood in Canadian history a couple of 
years ago, the Alberta town of 12,000, 70 kilometres south of Calgary 
is preparing for a meteorite to hit this week.

The scenario -- hypothetical, of course -- is part of a emergency training 
exercise that focuses on the days following and disaster and aims to prepare 
volunteers to help rather than first responders.

"We're beyond the first responder, pulling-people-out-of-the-rubble stage 
when this exercise takes place but it's the same principle -- we know 
people want to help and rather than push them away we want to figure out 
how to work with them and make our community safe," says Carly Benson, 
interim director of emergency management for High River.

"We took a look at the exercises we've done in the past couple of years. 
We've done two flood exercises and an ice storm-animal rescue and we thought 
we wanted to do something a little more fun to try and engage our community 
in emergency management."

The workshop will involve about 30 volunteers who will be assigned different 
roles during the simulation to better understand the complexities of the 
issue and develop creative ways to incorporate volunteers into an effective 
response.

The town is working with the Field Innovation Team, a disaster response 
group experienced in creating interactive workshops aimed at improving 
crisis response.

"We are looking forward to working with residents and first responders 
in High River to help them achieve a positive, beneficial working relationship 
between volunteers and official agencies in responding to a crisis," says 
Desiree Matel-Anderson, a spokesman for the group.

Flooding in parts of southern Alberta in June 2013 resulted in billions 
of dollars in damage. Hardest hit was High River where entire neighbourhoods 
were under water for weeks.

"We had over 10,000 volunteers come to High River and a lot of them weren't 
associated with a formal organization. A lot of them just came because 
they wanted to help -- they saw the devastation on the news," Benson says.

"We did find that we really struggled to connect them with the people 
who needed help. There isn't a really great process out there and that's 
what we're hoping to address with this workshop."

There likely won't be any more "mock" flood disasters, says Benson.

"We feel if we continually focus on things like floods there's going to 
be a barrier for people getting involved because they don't want to relive 
memories of past disasters."