North SLO Co. CERT Quake Drill

This morning from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. the North San Luis Obispo County CERT conducted its first team drill at the Atascadero Municipal Yard. This was an earthquake response drill and it was conducted under the auspices and management of the Atascadero Fire Department. Below are images I captured of this event in which I did also participate as a team member.

Atascadero Fire Department personnel figured prominently in this morning's training exercise.

It took a while to get everybody on-site.

I met a lot of new CERT members as most of them had not graduated in my class last year but were newer or older members.

Basic map-reading and directional orientation were addressed today. 

It was a bit ominous seeing my old town with references to various disasters marked on the map such as the cinema being collapsed.

An aerial view of the municipal yard in which this drill was conducted was shown us so we could find the fictitious streets on the maps we were given for the drill.

Triage center with green tarp for the green-tagged "patients" with minor "injuries" brought in from the various drills. 

I attended high school with these two guys and had not idea they would be here today which made it a pleasant surprise.

There were over 30 of us and so it took some waiting until all arrived.

This one our team's new trailers.

We used it as our communication center for this drill.

This was our yellow triage tarp for the yellow-tagged "moderately" injured patience brought to it from the various drills.

Break time between drill station for each team within the overall team.

A rescue drill with a rattlesnake complication.

This drill utilized a dummy.

We learned how to use the backboard properly.

This was a downed live wire with victim (a genuine dummy) exercise.

The ominous black tag tarp for the dead or soon-to-be dead.

The red tarp for our red-tagged "patients" with "critical" injuries.

I found the triage exercise the most stimulating and rewarding and featured the most new information for me of any of the drills. .

Even CERT activity in a disaster does require bureaucratic paperwork but in this case it is rather important so important details are not forgotten or lost.

I found the brick rubble rescue exercise nearly as stimulating as working triage.

It was also the most ominous of any of the drill stations. Note the dummy with the crushed head.

We learned how to load and lift the Stokes Basket.

Another team in this drill bringing back to triage one dummy of a victim.

During my stint directing the triage center the dead piled up but I was not to be blamed.

The red-tagged victims could not be left attended as readily as the green and yellow tags.

Some yellow-tagged "victims" can be left alone or left with another yellow tag or green tag for comfort.

Each team drill station was assigned one or more Atascadero Firefighter.

Some drills featured non-dummy "victims" who could ambulate or had to be loaded on a Stokes Basket.

This dummy was bleeding from all head orifices and his legs were compound fractured.

Moulage is the art of fake injuries.

We were gifted with excellent volunteer "victims" many sporting moulage injuries.

Another shot of our CERT trailer turned communication center.

This backboard work with a live "patient" was very instructive for all of us. There is more to it than the uninitiated would imagine.... at least to do it correctly.

Moving victims with open fractures is a delicate process.

My team had their hands full of red-tagged "immediates".

Peter Boonisar preparing to capture the image below which features me and my CERT people.
All above photos by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved). 

Image courtesy of Peter Boonisar and the North San Luis Obispo County CERT (all rights reserved).