ANZCA Bulletin June 2011 - Australian and New Zealand College of ...

Frosty, muddy, shaking and
Heading glowing: 11 days in Sample
Japan
with the NSW Urban Search
and Rescue taskforce
continued
The days spent working in the
Minamisanriku area became recovery
rather than rescue, as environmental
conditions extended the extremely slim
survival chances to nothing. Snow was
falling, it was cold and windy, and the
devastation we were surrounded by was
near total. It was hard to comprehend
the town that was standing at the
time of the tsunami, and the normal
Japanese life that was carried out in
the now flattened area. It was akin to
a warzone, with barely perceptible
concrete structures surrounded by
wooden and minor structural litter
spread across vast areas. There were
personal effects: clothes, photos and
shoes, littered everywhere. The majority
of the cars we searched and cleared still
had keys in the ignition, and wallets
and phones in them. The hospital we
cleared was full of patients at the time
of the tsunami, and in some buildings
we discovered local residents, who had
lost everything, had returned for shelter.
Fishing paraphernalia was everywhere,
as were oysters, abalone, and fish. The
smell was more seafood than offensive
loss of life, which the cold conditions
more than likely held in check.
The culture of the Japanese people
was astounding. There was no looting,
yelling or screaming. In fact, there
was no public show of emotions. They
quietly and respectfully continued on,
lining up silently, often holding their
children in the snowy conditions, for
hours for clean water or food, or slept in
their cars queuing for the little available
petrol. Everyone we came across
thanked us repeatedly. They went out of
their way to express their gratitude for
our presence. They are intensely proud,
and their resilience and unwavering
ability to cope in the face of adversity is
a quality that will remain in my memory
forever.
Challenges
The everyday working environment
in which we work cannot be more
different to the pre-hospital or disaster
zone situation. Safety for yourself and
each other is paramount, and forms the
backbone of USAR training. Hazards
are littered everywhere, from the visible
– LPG tanks, downed power lines,
biological contaminants, jagged metal
and heavy concrete – to the invisible
– asbestos and silica particles and,
Brief history of Urban Search
and Rescue in Australia
Urban Search and Rescue (USAR)
teams in Australia are among the most
highly trained and sophisticated teams
worldwide. USAR techniques have been
used, developed and refined since the
Thredbo landslide in 1997, and used
worldwide throughout the earthquakes
in China and Turkey, Hurricane Katrina,
and the more recent Queensland floods
and earthquake in Christchurch. The
“heavy” designated USAR teams of NSW
and Queensland are able to be deployed
anywhere in the world, be self-sufficient
(food, water, shelter) and with no
reliance on the local (often damaged
or absent) resources, for a total of
10-14 days.
The heavy designation denotes the
ability to use heavy rescue machinery
and techniques to secure, shore
and enter collapsed buildings or
structures, and safely find, stabilise,
treat and retrieve injured patients.
The environment in which this occurs
is potential highly dangerous, with
hazards including biological, chemical
and radiological contaminants.
Extensive training, personal protective
equipment, and maintenance of skills
and equipment are vital to be able to
work in this situation. Not only are they
an extension of skills used in our usual
workplaces, they are novel, rarely used
but potentially life saving practices that
are offered by few other organisations.
The 74 person team in NSW consists
of a structured command and control
organisation, with a taskforce leader
and incident management team. A
large logistics component complements
the two sub teams (alpha and bravo),
providing the transport, wellbeing,
decontamination, and just about
anything else that can be required.
Structural engineers are included in the
team to provide assessment and advice
regarding building and structural
damage. Police liaison and/or disaster
38 ANZCA Bulletin June 2011