One can never be too prepared for disasters. In fact, lack of preparation only heightens the stress level of responding to a disaster.

The goal for today was to stress the importance of maintaining communication and having a backup plan.

If you are relying on cell service for communication and the power goes out, what is your backup plan? If your backup plan is radios, does everyone in your family/team, know how to use it? Do you have spare batteries? What happens when that backup method fails too?

Another challenge during disaster response is not maintaining situational awareness. If you are in the woods, take in your surroundings. Is there the potential for a helicopter to land if an emergency evac is needed? What about if one of your team members falls ill? What is the best way to safely move them from the potentially hazardous/dangerous situation, to get access to care? Is it even possible, or do you need to send someone else from your team ahead to get more help?

There are opportunities for self-reflection after every situation. Do you take the time to review what happened and learn from it, or do you brush it off and respond to the next disaster/situation, missing a chance to learn something that may be beneficial?

#adventureswithnursejamla