A devastating hurricane swept through Hilo, causing several marketplace buildings to collapse. Approximately 30 people, most of them children, were trapped inside with injuries of varying severity. Fires threatened to consume the buildings’ remains, hazardous material spilled and a barge carrying emergency supplies sank off of Maui.
So went a mock disaster exercise for the island’s Community Emergency Response Team on Saturday. Approximately 180 volunteers from around the Big Island gathered for a conference to train and apply for recertification, with the event culminating in a two-hour simulation at the Keaukaha Military Reservation.
Community Emergency Response Teams, or CERTs, are trained through a FEMA program to teach volunteers how to respond to disaster situations, providing additional support to professional emergency responders. County Civil Defense spokeswoman Kanani Aton said nearly 70 CERT volunteers on the Big Island trained for 32 hours the past four weeks to become certified members after Saturday’s simulation.
Exercise director Joe Farias said the simulation tested volunteers’ communication most of all, as coordination between various groups — from logistics and command to triage and treatment — was imperative to complete the various missions within the allotted time.
Aton said the exercise was carried out with support from Civil Defense, the National Guard, Hawaii Fire Department and mayor’s office.
“The training here is really to familiarize CERT members with the structures of how these systems work,” Aton said.
The “Market Exercise,” as Farias called the simulation, featured casualties at two sites on a field in the military reservation. At both sites, actors playing the roles of wounded victims — in reality, mostly members of a Boy Scout troop and children of volunteers — awaited rescue, while mannequins were pinned beneath heavy “air conditioning equipment.”
The exercise began with fire suppression units extinguishing flames that prevented access to one of the sites.
After that, rescue and triage teams entered the sites and extracted victims, transporting them by vehicle to a medical tent elsewhere on the field.
Throughout these tasks, CERT members remained in contact with each other via radio, informing each other about updating situations and requesting resources as needed.
Farias said the scope of the scenario was expanded from its initial vision, as it was originally designed for only about 50 participants.
“Interest has really taken off,” Farias said. “I guess we’ll really have to go big next time.”
The last simulation was two years ago, Farias said, while the first took place in 2013.
In addition to the primary task of rescuing and treating the victims, Farias prepared several of what he referred to as “injects,” additional scenarios to complicate the main mission.
One inject required volunteers to form a search party to find a missing 4-year-old boy — in reality, a brown paper bag labeled “baby boy.”
Another featured additional victims from elsewhere on the island seeking help, while a third required the evacuation of all personnel from one of the disaster sites after a spill of hazardous materials.
Farias was aided by a team of observers who confirmed whether tasks were performed correctly and also ensured that neither volunteers nor victims became dehydrated in the afternoon sun.
“We don’t want anyone to get hurt,” Farias said. “And we want participants to learn something.”
Despite some communication errors and confusion, volunteers successfully completed all of the simulation’s tasks.
A post-exercise evaluation highlighted the volunteers’ strengths and weaknesses, the latter of which primarily included unclear or unresponsive communication.
“You have to consider that these are not professional emergency responders,” Farias said.
“You have to give them credit, this is not their regular job. But it’s great to watch them all come together.”
Email Michael Brestovansky at mbrestovansky@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
