Thank You For Making A Difference

Prior to returning to the United States, we had the opportunity to receive several Certificates of Recognition. But also present certificates to the several hundreds of people we trained.



But the real recognition was knowing that our time here will have an impact on the other side of the world, in a developing region, with people who are truly amazing.



Pictured above with Mario Verner Monsanto Executive Officer of the Davao City Disaster Coordinating Council (DCDCC) and Central 911. Receiving a Certificate of Appreciation from Col. Monsanto and Rodrigo Duterte, City Mayor and Chairman of the DCDCC.


Picture above at the University of Mindanao, with representatives from the Council of Deans for IT Education and Philippine Society of Information Technology Educators Foundation.

Thank you again for all the gifts and also the official uniforms provided by Central 911, Davao City Disaster Coordinating Council, and official Office of Civil Defense/National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) hat.

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.

So little time, so little funding. Big interest in learning.

When asked to present the Incident Command System (ICS) to multiple groups in Asia Pacific, it was important to think of the best way to deliver a course that would have the greatest long term impact. However there is limited time and so it needed to be done without providing 2 weeks or a month worth of classes, but present a 4 hour session. While at the same time share experiences and best practices from other parts of the world.

Earlier this week, I had the opportunity to present the G402 Incident Command System (ICS) Overview for Executives/Senior Officials course. The course can be found at: http://training.fema.gov/STCourses/crsdesc_spec.asp?courseid=G402

It is became clear very fast that even in different parts of the world, ICS is effective.

At the end of the Disaster Coordinating Council Executive Team session, several questions were raised. Some of them include:

- What are some examples of NGOs working with government agencies under ICS and the associated challenges.

- Where can we get more information and other best practices.

In the next few days, "Neighbors Helping Neighbors" will provide some additional resources around these topics. Several other courses will be taught in the next few weeks, along with tabletop and full scale exercises. Lessons from those sessions will be shared as well.