Far right, Mark Hacherl (right), incident commander for the Pennsylvania Incident Management Team (PA-IMT), talks to East Stroudsburg University students about how his team supports emergency shelter operations such as the one at Koehler Fieldhouse. With him are Lt. David Reese, the public information officer for PA-IMT and Gail Toscano, the American Red Cross preparedness and resiliency manager in northeast Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n
By Margie Peterson<\/strong><\/p>\n East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania (ESU) students got a crash course in crisis management Thursday when two classes met with first responders working at the temporary shelter at ESU\u2019s Koehler Fieldhouse, which is housing people fleeing the effects of Hurricane Sandy.<\/p>\n The state\u2019s 11-person Incident Management Team talked to students studying public health and social work about the intense planning and logistics that go into dealing with a disaster. The team \u2013 which includes first responders from such agencies as the state Departments of Health, Agriculture and Corrections as well as State Police \u2013 is supporting the Department of Public Welfare and the Red Cross in shelter operations.<\/p>\n \u201cThis team, and all of the volunteers on site are shining examples for our students in how to respond in emergency situations,\u201d said Marcia G. Welsh, president of ESU.\u00a0 \u201cWe are very fortunate to have these professionals on our campus, and for them to be so willing and open to sharing their years of experience and knowledge with our students, faculty and staff.\u00a0 I think we will all walk away from the Hurricane Sandy crisis with a much better appreciation of what these first responders know, and do, to keep us safe.\u201d<\/p>\n The temporary shelter at ESU was set up to assist people from Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York.\u00a0 The widespread power outages drove senior citizens, families and others to find warmth, light and food at the Koehler Fieldhouse, which is lined with cots as well as tables and chairs where American Red Cross volunteers serve food and comfort.<\/p>\n \u201cThis week\u2019s event brought people together in a unique way, and provided a tremendous opportunity to assist those in their time of need,\u201d said Secretary of the Department of Public Welfare Gary D. Alexander. \u201cThroughout the experience each organization involved worked tirelessly to ensure Pennsylvania citizens remained safe and I would like to thank East Stroudsburg University and their student volunteers for lending a hand when our neighbors needed us most,\u201d said Alexander. \u201cWhen you first go somewhere, local resources are overwhelmed,\u201d Hacherl said.<\/p>\n When they set up a shelter in the aftermath of a disaster, first responders must anticipate what else can go wrong and how they\u2019ll fix it. \u201cThese people are coming here because they don\u2019t have power,\u201d said Greg Bernard, operations section chief for PA-IMT.\u00a0 \u201cWhat happens if we lose power?\u201d<\/p>\n The PA-IMT needs to be ready to deploy on short notice and be prepared for less than cushy conditions. \u201cWe all come with sleeping bags and pillows in case we don\u2019t have a hotel room,\u201d said Jared Grissinger, a logistics section chief with the PA-IMT. Dr. Alberto Cardelle, professor of health studies, sought to give his students a sense of the scope of a large, multi-level operation. \u201cEmergency management is a key function of public health,\u201d Cardelle said. \u201cI think the scale of it is hard to grasp sometimes.\u201d<\/p>\n Dr. John Kraybill-Greggo, associate professor of sociology, brought his \u201cFoundations of Social Work Practice\u201d class to see how agencies cooperate. \u201cIt\u2019s beneficial for students to learn how systems work together to deal with a critical incident in the community,\u201d Kraybill-Greggo said.<\/p>\n Students, such as sophomore Aalih Hussein of East Stroudsburg, who is majoring in social work and sociology with a minor in women\u2019s studies, were impressed with the amount of planning and coordination that goes into responding to a disaster.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was magnificent to know the massive organization you have to have at every level,\u201d Hussein said.\u00a0 \u201cThey bring a level of humanity and compassion but also a level of professionalism.\u201d<\/p>\n Shaquil Roberts, an ESU freshman from Philadelphia who is majoring in social work and psychology, said he was surprised at how many levels of government are involved in the response. \u201cIt was definitely an eye-opener,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Students Learn from First Responders<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3705,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[22,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-facebook","category-news-release"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3701"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3701\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nSpeaking at the fieldhouse, Mark Hacherl, the Pennsylvania Incident Management Team (PA-IMT) incident commander, explained to students how important it is to bring in supplies from outside the crisis area because odds are you won\u2019t find common necessities available at the scene.<\/p>\n
\nESU professors whose classes took part in the training said it was important for students to hear from these outside experts.<\/p>\n