No mass casualty incident (MCI) exercises in more than six months! Don't want to get rusty. Fortunately, BWI airport had one on May 7th.
After five of these, you can tell what's good and what's not so good. Good: Their moulage (simulated wound) artists were excellent. They worked without rubber prosthetics, and didn't just smudge on some powder. See
the photo gallery for examples.
Not so good: I've never seen an MCI exercise with less of a rush to treat and transport. One firefighter broke into a trot, and another said, "Joe
*, it's not that big a deal." Um... really? It will be when the real thing happens, so it might be good to practice that.
[* Not his real name.]
Dramatic tsunami during-and-after photos [The Atlantic]
DC finally got significant snow -- but only about 6", a far cry from last year's "Snowmageddon." Still, we can show the pictures below to our grandkids and say, "when I was your age, we had to walk 10 miles to school, uphill both ways, backwards, through 50 feet of snow... and we liked it!"
This is kinda cool. An Australian company is developing a large balloon that can lift and transport up to 150 tons, which is a lot more than the most powerful helicopters. The saucer-shaped Skylifter would be slower than helicopters and airplanes, but comparable to land vehicles, at a speed of about 50 mph. (Depending, no doubt on winds.)
Suicide squirrels have launched a nationwide assault on freedom-loving Americans, including our most vulnerable. (Won't someone please think of the children??) Below is a column by Mike Licht at the Notions Capital Blog, updated to list the recent strikes.
Another day, another (simulated) mass casualty incident. On Sept. 18, DisasterMan participated in an emergency exercise simulating a plane crash at Washington National Airport. Pictures and videos from this exercise and others are in the photo gallery.