After a disaster, your environment and access to resources will have changed dramatically. Reassessing what is going on happens by gaining situational awareness.
If in advance of a crisis, it’s worth threat modeling what might happen in your region. If you’re in a small organization, here’s a checklist of what to do to prepare for a crisis.
In the immediate aftermath, you might deal with biohazards (follow the “rule of thumb”), don’t fly a drone when aircraft with humans are also in the air, and mark buildings for structural soundness and what you found inside as you do search and rescue.
While doing all this you’ll want to follow radio etiquette and document what you find.
The types of people who succeed in this cluster are generally physically fit, have good spatial reasoning, sound judgement for risks, and are good at talking to people in the field they’ll meet.
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Small org response checklist
If you have time in your regular meetings to discuss disaster preparedness, here are some things you could consider to be set up for greater success:
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Threat modeling for disasters
Environmental hazards Investigate what sorts of hazards are likely to occur in your region by using available tools. If you can’t trust the tools, talk to people who have been around for a long time about what is likely to happen and how to prepare. Discuss it with neighbors. There are often environmental justice organizations in each…
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Flying drones in disaster zones
On Oct 3rd 202, the FAA reported 30 “near misses” of crewed flights in the Helene disaster area in one 24 hour period. TL;DR for operating aircraft <400ft It is not your god given right as an American to crash into a helicopter. The groups in airspace General guidance Some of this applies to those…
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Proximity to biohazards
The rule of thumb: for a biohazard site, hold your arm out and close one eye. If you can’t cover the whole area with your thumb, you are TOO CLOSE.
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Structure and Search & Rescue Markings