Disaster response practiced

Tragic events have the sometimes-unfortunate consequence of bringing out the best in people. Those people often turn out to volunteer in staggering numbers, swamping agencies with their good intentions.

One solution to this problem, a volunteer reception center, was tested in Columbia on Wednesday morning. A volunteer reception center places volunteers in roles that would maximize their skills and abilities in response to a natural disaster, disease outbreak or other crisis.

The exercise at Fairview United Methodist Church tested how such a center would work.

“This process helps match the needs of the community with the desires and abilities of the citizens who are willing to volunteer,” said Frank Barfield, project coordinator with the Medical Reserve Corps.

About 30 people attended the training exercise to allow staff with the Columbia/Boone County Health Department, the Voluntary Action Center, the Medical Reserve Corps and other area agencies to see how a reception center works and smooth out the process before an emergency strikes.

“It’s very exciting for me as a planner to have this part of the plan getting flushed out,” said Chris Smith, regional bioterrorism response planner at the health department. “In an event, people want to help and we need to have a process. And now is the time to come up with it, not when it happens.”

Barfield was pleased with the outcome of the practice scenario.

“We were not expecting everything to go smoothly,” Barfield said. “We were hoping to make some mistakes. We wanted some things to improve upon, and we found some of the those things.”

Some volunteers were taken out of the group to run the mock reception center itself, while others played the role of a person wanting to help in an emergency.

In one scenario, a person playing the role of a local restaurant owner who wanted to provide food for volunteers was guided through the registration process and told to bring breakfast to medication dispensing sites.

Shirley Marshall, a participant from the Retired Senior Volunteer Program, went through the mock scenario first as a volunteer and was assigned as a counselor crisis support leader. She said her organizational skills and experiences as a dental and pharmacy assistant could be used in a real-life disaster.

“I know there needs to be some sort of organization, and you’ve got to start somewhere,” Marshall said. “I think this is a good start.”