MART Vol. II MO/MP - NESA - Civil Air Patrol

een blocked, but emergency vehicles can get to the hospital using aneasterly approach.• What are the primary active hazards in the area? Are there secondaryhazards? For example, in a flood the water is the primary hazard; if thewater is flowing through an industrial zone then chemical spills and fumesmay be secondary hazards.• Is the disaster spreading toward emergency or disaster operating bases,or indirectly threatening these areas? For example, is the only roadleading to an isolated aid station about to be flooded?• Have utilities been affected by the emergency or disaster? Look foreffects on power transmission lines, power generating stations orsubstations, and water or sewage treatment facilities.• Can you see alternatives to problems? Examples are alternate roads,alternate areas to construct aid stations, alternate landing zones, andlocations of areas and facilities unaffected by the emergency or disaster.While it is difficult to assess many types of damage from the air, CAP is wellsuited for preliminary damage assessment of large areas. Generally, you will belooking to find areas or structures with serious damage in order to directemergency resources to these locations.A good tool for assessing tornado damage is "A Guide to F-Scale DamageAssessment" (U.S. Department of Commerce, NOAA, NWS; it can bedownloaded from the web as a .pdf file).It is very important to have local maps on which you can indicate damagedareas, as it is difficult to record the boundaries of large areas using lat/longcoordinates.CAP can quickly provide vital information on the status of:• Transportation routes (road and rail).• Critical facilities/structures such as power stations, hospitals, fire stations,airports, water supplies, dams and bridges.• Levees and other flood control structures.• The type and location of areas that have been damaged or isolated.• Concentrations of survivors (people and animals).As discussed above, there are many things to look for during your sortie.Some specific things to look for are:• Breaks in pavement, railways, bridges, dams, levees, pipelines, runways,and structures.• Roads/streets blocked by water, debris or landslide. Same for helipadsand runways.• Downed power lines.• Ruptured water lines (this may have a major impact on firefightingcapabilities).• Motorists in distress or major accidents.• Alternate routes for emergency vehicles or evacuation.• Distress signals from survivors.NOTE: Local units should become proficient in identifying theirneighborhoods, major facilities, and roads/streets from the air.112