When disaster strikes, Gary Mann will be ready.
Sam Tenney / The Citizen
Cayuga County Red Cross emergency responder Gary Mann recently completed a weeklong training course on domestic preparedness.
Cayuga County Red Cross emergency responder Gary Mann recently completed a weeklong training course on domestic preparedness.
The Cayuga County Red Cross emergency responder recently completed a four-day course of homeland security training at the Center for Domestic Preparedness in Anniston, Ala. Mann's training focused on the Red Cross' role in disasters as a secondary responder that must manage resources and prevent their misuse.
“There are only so many times agencies will help you if you take a warehouse full of bottled water and throw it away,” Mann said.
To prevent such waste of precious resources, Mann learned the significance of structural similarity in every disaster management agency - from fire departments to the military. Effectively communicating with each enables proper response to an emergency without the errors that can arise from confusion or ignorance.
Though the course prepared Mann for situations the scale of the Sept. 11 attacks or Hurricane Katrina, he expects to mostly put his new skills to use when Cayuga County is stricken by fires or ice storms. In such emergencies, the Red Cross assumes the role of a secondary response agency that often aids the victims. Through the Red Cross, families left without homes or possessions are put up in hotels, given money for clothes and placed in contact with case workers.
“Like most people, I thought the Red Cross was all about blood before I started,” Mann said. “We do so many different things.”
If a family can recover from the damage of a fire on its own and the Red Cross's aid is not necessary, the agency will not be asked to help by the first responders, such as police and fire departments.
It is this attitude of resource conservation that Mann hopes to spread through the infrastructure of relief agencies in Cayuga County. He looks forward to meeting with county agencies soon to discuss how to streamline their operations in hope of making future emergency responses as effective as possible.
“It's not OK with me if I don't have as much information as possible,” Mann said.
The intensive scenario workshops Mann worked through at the Center for Domestic Preparedness impressed him with their realism. He gathered with fellow trainees in a lab to delegate relief responsibilities when a small plane crashed into three cars and a building on the street. Working through the simulation was a step far beyond second-guessing such situations in the news.
“You can read about things like the cyclone (in Myanmar), but they're just words,” he said. “You don't know what it means or how it feels unless you're in that situation.”
After he has put into practice the skills he developed during his training, Mann may return to the Center for Domestic Preparedness for another, more specialized course.
“A lot of it sounds exciting because I watch ‘24' and it looks like it's OK, but not everyone can be Jack Bauer and not actually die,” Mann said. “It's really pretty scary.”
“You can read about things like the cyclone (in Myanmar), but they're just words. You don't know what it means or how it feels unless you're in that situation.”
Gary Mann
Red Cross emergency responder
“There are only so many times agencies will help you if you take a warehouse full of bottled water and throw it away,” Mann said.
To prevent such waste of precious resources, Mann learned the significance of structural similarity in every disaster management agency - from fire departments to the military. Effectively communicating with each enables proper response to an emergency without the errors that can arise from confusion or ignorance.
Though the course prepared Mann for situations the scale of the Sept. 11 attacks or Hurricane Katrina, he expects to mostly put his new skills to use when Cayuga County is stricken by fires or ice storms. In such emergencies, the Red Cross assumes the role of a secondary response agency that often aids the victims. Through the Red Cross, families left without homes or possessions are put up in hotels, given money for clothes and placed in contact with case workers.
“Like most people, I thought the Red Cross was all about blood before I started,” Mann said. “We do so many different things.”
If a family can recover from the damage of a fire on its own and the Red Cross's aid is not necessary, the agency will not be asked to help by the first responders, such as police and fire departments.
It is this attitude of resource conservation that Mann hopes to spread through the infrastructure of relief agencies in Cayuga County. He looks forward to meeting with county agencies soon to discuss how to streamline their operations in hope of making future emergency responses as effective as possible.
“It's not OK with me if I don't have as much information as possible,” Mann said.
The intensive scenario workshops Mann worked through at the Center for Domestic Preparedness impressed him with their realism. He gathered with fellow trainees in a lab to delegate relief responsibilities when a small plane crashed into three cars and a building on the street. Working through the simulation was a step far beyond second-guessing such situations in the news.
“You can read about things like the cyclone (in Myanmar), but they're just words,” he said. “You don't know what it means or how it feels unless you're in that situation.”
After he has put into practice the skills he developed during his training, Mann may return to the Center for Domestic Preparedness for another, more specialized course.
“A lot of it sounds exciting because I watch ‘24' and it looks like it's OK, but not everyone can be Jack Bauer and not actually die,” Mann said. “It's really pretty scary.”
“You can read about things like the cyclone (in Myanmar), but they're just words. You don't know what it means or how it feels unless you're in that situation.”
Gary Mann
Red Cross emergency responder