Disaster Response Challenge
Alison Crooks-Bilé is raising money for The British Red Cross Society
“Disaster Response Challenge”
on 9 August 2006
Story
The money that you donate to the British Red Cross will really make a difference to the lives of people who find themselves in real disasters of the type I encountered in the (simulated) Disaster Response Challenge described below. Thank you very much for your support.
Alison
On Friday 15th September I was deployed to Bukustan* by the British Red Cross in response to the earthquake that hit its capital, Dan, and the Patan province earlier that day. The earthquake measured 7.9 on the Richter scale and caused 43,200 fatalities and left more than 45,000 people displaced. I was one of a four-strong Emergency Response Unit (ERU) responsible for logistics. Our role was to liaise with the International Federation of the Red Cross and the Red Crescent (IFRC) in Geneva and to work with Bukustani's Red Crescent team and other IFRC societies worldwide in order to put in place a relief infrastructure as quickly and efficiently as possible. By the time we handed over to a replacement ERU on the Sunday afternoon, a mortuary, 12 hospitals and a refugee camp offering shelter, food and a search/tracing service had been set up in Dan.
The site from which we operated in Dan and our accommodation was basic but it was adequate for us to set up the necessary I.T. and communications systems and a large warehouse to handle the incoming provisions. It was a busy 48 hours and we were hindered by severe flood damage to the roads, freezing temperatures overnight, over-zealous officials at checkpoints and some distracting media interviews, such as the women's magazine that was more interested in lost eye liner than lives.
* the fictitious country on which the disaster simulation exercise was based.