Festival VIP Treatment and Protection

The Kadayawan Festival was made even more special with all the VIP treatment we received. Thank you to all of the people we have met during the time we spent in the region.

It was great for groups of people to come up to us, while doing their role at the festival and thanking us for the training, knowledge, and friendship we provided.

But was even better was to know that in the event of a major emergency or disaster that many of the people that were there protecting us, are all well trained in the Incident Command System (ICS) and can all answer the question "Who's In Charge".

From the volunteers, to the response teams, to the NGOs, to the University students, to the government folks. It was great to see everyone come together for such a great celebration. You are a team! And a role model for others around the world.

The following is a list of SOME of the many organizations we worked with.

• Central 911
• Davao City Disaster Coordinating Council
• Region XI Disaster Coordinating Council
• Office of Civil Defense
• Philippine Army
• Philippine National Police
• Task Force Davao
• Philippines Coast Guard
• Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP)
• Barangay Fire and Rescue
• Department of Health
• Filipino Chinese Firefighters Foundation
• Davao Volunteer Fire Brigade
• Barangay Captains
• Silver Needles
• Davao City Police
• Davao City Traffic Division
• Davao City Jail
• Davao City Bomb Squad
• Davao City Special Anti-Terrorism Unit
• United Nations
• Panabo City
• Island Garden City of Samal
• Tribal Community
• Davao City Government
• Davao Light and Power Company
• Davao City Water District
• Office of the President, Mindanao Economic Development Council (MEDCo)
• Department of Trade and Industry (DTI)
• Davao City Council, City Administrator, and Legislators
• Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Industry
• Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry
• Davao Tourism
• DabaweGNU
• Davao International Airport
• Port of Davao
• Toril International Fish Port
• Davao Doctors Hospital
• Davao Medical Center Hospital
• Philippines National Red Cross
• University of Mindanao
• Ateneo de Davao University
• University of the Immaculate Conception
• University of Southeastern Philippines
• Holly Cross University
• Council of Deans for IT Education
• Philippine Society of Information Technology Educators Foundation
• Davao Technopreneurship
  
  and last but not least, all the VOLUNTEERS and all the people of the region.

One Person and Two Sheets of Paper Can Make a Huge Difference

The first full day my team was here, we had the opportunity to enjoy the pleasures of Samal Island. However, today was different, we had a full scale disaster (exercise).


In a recent water search and rescue tabletop exercise, while we identified there was an incident commander (IC), safety officer, public information officer, logistics, administration and individual sections.

I pointed out there was no 1 person responsible for operations. For other exercises, it was the IC who took this role.

However, if we look at span of control, where it is mentioned that only 3 to 5 people report to any one person, the IC can quickly get overwhelmed.

So, it was recommended that someone take the role of Operations Section Chief. This person was the "man on the scene" working with the IC and the teams.

The exercise and communications was much improved as a result of changing one persons role.

It is amazing the difference one person can make.

The IC and operations chief were both able to identify how many resources they had and were. The leaders at all levels knew how many people they had and accountability was not an issue with the responders.

For larger incidents, as mentioned in the debrief, consider two big sheets of paper, one with the ICS organizational chart along with who is in what role. And another that is a map of the location, you can see where the staging area is, where the incident is, traffic flows, etc. This is a very simple no cost tip that can have a big impact.

The only potential issue with accountability was with medical, when asked of medical, how many patients were arriving on the boat, they may have said 3. However, 5 patients got off the boat. It appears the potential breakdown in communication was there were 3 red patients, 1 green and 1 black. So, the 3 were the red victims.

So, while we often say, give only the information someone is asking you, in this case, it might make sense to say, there are 5 victims total, 3 red, 1 green, 1 black and 0 yellow.

Also, in an early posting, we discussed location, location, location, keep the medical area out of the sun. If you have a building and this is a disaster, take over the building as appropriate. As learned in previous drills, the medical area needs to be clearly identified along with sections for red, yellow, and green patients. This was done and has become second nature to these responders.

At the beginning of the drill was a real incident where they need to apprehend an illegal fishing vessel. The drill was delayed, this was taken care of. And then we proceeded.

One other suggestion would be the staging area. Folks here are very eager to respond, get close to the scene and "do the most good for the most number of people" and quickly. However, improved staging and a dedicated staging leader in the staging area will make the response even more effective. In some of the pervious exercises, there was a "roaming IC", this was corrected and did not occur during this drill.

As a recommendation to the National Disaster Coordinating Council, this group did an excellent job using the resources at hand. However, if we look at the number of victims in the exercise and the response time, it will quickly become clear that more assistance would be needed.

Those agreements should be in place and thoroughly understood and exercised before a disaster.

Again team, job well done! They have been very receptive to the recommendations and quick to implement them.

Pictured before are some of the responders who provided safety for the exercise, along with the Regional Coordinating Council.