It gave them a chance to give back to the community and a
better understanding of disaster preparedness.
Village resident Caroline Arnold along with four other
residents recently participated in the Missouri Show-Me National Mass Care Exercise
held in Independence. They acted as disaster survivors to help Jackson County
officials practice responding to a disaster, in particular to an earthquake
along the New Madrid fault line.
“I wanted to do it to
be involved and help the community as well as knowledgeable about what is
happening as far as preparing for disasters,” Caroline said. “I had worked as a
nurse at a hospital, and we would often undergo training for these types of
situations. This really was a good experience to practice and know what to do
if there were a disaster.”
As a “survivor” they had lost everything and needed clothes,
medications, shelter and food. The Exercise walked them through getting
vouchers, how to get medications, the process of finding other family members
who may be in different locations and more.
Resident Marilyn Lanpher grew up in New Madrid County also
attended the training. She said she had always thought it would be important to
be prepared should a disaster occur.
“Through this I realized the amount of preparation and
organization that is needed to respond to a major disaster,” Marilyn said. “They
handled it all well, directing people where to go. It was a good experience. I realized how relevant it was shortly after the
training, seeing the news about the earthquakes in Italy. I couldn’t imagine
going through that, not knowing what has happened to loved ones and the
devastation.”
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