Evacuation drill reunites families in event of a natural disaster

Melissa Friel, left, reunites with Mark Winkler at an emergency reunification drill during the Children and Youth in Disasters conference Tuesday at First United Methodist Church. Friel's character was Winkler's group home leader, and they reunited at the hospital following the "tornado."
Melissa Friel, left, reunites with Mark Winkler at an emergency reunification drill during the Children and Youth in Disasters conference Tuesday at First United Methodist Church. Friel's character was Winkler's group home leader, and they reunited at the hospital following the "tornado."

State agencies are working to ensure emergency preparedness personnel have a plan in place to help communities reunite in the event of a natural disaster.

A reunification process was put to the test Tuesday during the third annual Children and Youth in Disasters summit hosted by the Department of Mental Health, State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), Department of Social Services and Department of Health and Senior Services.

Imagine at 10 a.m. a category F-3 tornado touched down 20 miles outside of Jefferson City - where would you go to find your family? The reunification process helps bring people together to a central location during a natural disaster.

During the exercise, about 180 people were evacuated from the Capitol Plaza Hotel, transported to the reunification site and paired with "loved ones" after being separated because of the tornado.

For example, 9-year-old Kelly Carslile was at school when the tornado touched down, and the school evacuated all students and faculty to a nearby shelter. Carslile was hysterical, frantically asking for her mom and dad, without emergency response personnel knowing to whom the child could be legally released.

The scenario required the injured mom to locate her 9-year-old daughter by stopping at the last place where the child was known to be, which was at school.

"With this exercise, we made the assumption that people would likely start at the last place their loved one was," said Deb Hendricks, statewide volunteer coordinator at SEMA. "But it made sense to me and to our group that we have a broadcast location where people can start the reunification process."

From the injured mom's perspective (a member of the conference), the most important thing to her was finding her daughter before the child's father could get to her, due to a pending order of protection.

For American Red Cross volunteer Bary Kramer, this exercise was a way for emergency response personnel to consider the different responses people could bring to the table when a disaster happens.

"This exercise helps so that if you are working at a site like this, you know how to respond to people when they come in looking for their loved ones," Kramer said.

Jay Jastal, school resource officer from the Monett Police Department, said it is important for law enforcement to be present in conversations like this.

"Sometimes policies are made without taking other agencies into consideration," Jastal said. "An exercise like this helps us to communicate, be more cohesive and get on the same sheet of music as our community stakeholders."

During a debriefing after the exercise, audience members cited custody issues, the impact of Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act in dealing with school districts and accessing records outside of the city's jurisdiction among the challenges that could prevent the process from being as effective.

Joann Woody, state leader for Mass Care of Kansas City, also pointed out the American Red Cross has a Safe and Well online registry to allow people to individually check in and let people know they're alright.

Hendricks agreed this would be a perfect avenue for people to self-report.

At the end of the conference, Hendricks advised every family to have a plan.

"Know where you're supposed to go, make sure your loved ones know who their supposed to call," Hendricks said. "The more we can do ahead of time the better off we are."