We’re All First Responders

by Bob Buddemeier

As Hurricane IDA  bore down on Southern Louisiana, the mayor of New  Orleans warned that residents would have to look after themselves for a while.

“Look, this is our time, your time, to prepare yourselves. Now. This is it. Check on your neighbours, check on your friends, of course your family. What we learned, particularly during Katrina, we are first responders, all of us, our neighbours, we’re all first responders.”

The recently issued RVM Campus Evacuation Guidelines for Fire  focuses on the role of RVM in evacuating cottage residents to shelter in the towers in the event of a wildfire threat, and the role of residents — specifically, the Resident Preparedness Group (RPG) — in supporting that activity.  Given those specific plans and objectives, what does it mean to say that we are all first responders?

It does not mean that we can function as policemen, firefighters, or paramedics.  Set aside the technical aspects of emergency response  — what it does mean is that your neighborhood or floor coordinator will be at your door sooner than RVM staff, and that in many cases your next-door neighbor can be there sooner still.  Does somebody need an explanation of what’s going on, or what to do?  Help with crating a pet?  Assistance  getting a walker and go-bag out to the driveway for pickup?

These needs for assistance will not be limited to the cottages.  Tower residents will require clear information and instructions and will have to deal with major life disruptions when a hundred or more cottage residents are quartered in their building.  In both types of residences, there will be confusion and traffic problems as some residents choose to self-evacuate, and others to shelter in place.

The mayor’s statement had one other key element — “to prepare yourselves.”  Initially RPG focused heavily on preparations for the Cascadia earthquake.  The 2020 wildfire evacuation experience refocused attention on emergency response, but now that the shelter-in-place policy has been put forward, it’s time to revisit preparation.  There are more different kinds to consider — short-distance and short-time shelter, as well as the long haul following an earthquake.

What doesn’t change is the importance of “first response” — whether it’s in preparation or in response, neighbors helping neighbors is the key to getting everybody through it.