Aurora drill helps city prepare for worst

When the October Air Angels helicopter crash forced the evacuation of several nearby apartments, Aurora officials weren't sure where many of those residents would go.

Thankfully, most evacuees were able to stay with family and friends for the two days they were forced from their homes.

Now, after some recent training exercises in setting up and operating a mass-care shelter, the city believes it's in a better position to handle a large number of displaced people should disaster strike again.

Director of Community Services Dan Barriero said several residents were trained and certified last year by the Emergency Management Association to help in such situations.

"Getting people trained was one thing, so this year we felt the need to raise the bar and conduct a hands-on mass-care shelter exercise to prepare us in the event of an actual emergency," Barriero said. "We've got a thick binder of procedures but we won't have time to be looking for that binder in an actual emergency."

Roughly 100 students from Cowherd, Jefferson and Granger middle schools participated in a recent drill along with volunteers from the city, the Quad County Urban League, Kane County and the Red Cross.

In the role-playing scenario, several Aurora neighborhoods had been devastated by a tornado hopping through the city. As the students arrived at the mock shelter, they were given roles to play from being a disoriented child, to having a broken leg, to having no injuries at all.

As they flooded into the center, volunteers processed each child, diagnosed their injuries based on the roles they were playing and delivered them to different stations throughout the shelter to get the appropriate help for their physical and mental injuries quickly and efficiently.

Allison Ortlund, 11, of Granger Middle School was happy to only pretend she had a broken leg.

"It's fun to role play," she said. "But they also told us we are helping the city learn what to do, so that's neat."

Richard Quick of the Red Cross was overseeing the drill and helping volunteers with different procedures.

"Often times, a city will begin setting up a facility like this and then we'll come in and man it," he said. "So it's great if we can help the city be organized to prepare for a smooth transition in those circumstances."

After the daylong drill, Barriero said he would meet with volunteers this week to compare notes on what went as planned and any glitches they may have encountered along the way.

"If we learn one way to do something better, the drill was a success," he said. "I'm sure between all of us we learned more than one thing."