24 APRIL, 2020 - BRINGING THE VIRUS HOME

There are simply some people who are worthless in times of trouble, they either don’t want to help, or they are incapable of helping, sometimes they even "become" a secondary problem by forgetting their training completely, or even become "the" problem. 

As an early or team responder, I have experienced many people who simply refuse to deal with emergencies or extremely ugly unbelievably messed up situations, even when "they" were a cog in the emergency team... it is a type of event-shock... they quit, run away or hide until the crisis is over, or even pretend that it’s not (cannot) happen at all, leaving anyone on their team that depends (ed) on them high and dry. It is dangerous.

This can take on many forms, when TSHTF it doesn't always follow those 911 or Chicago Fire TV success stories, or those "staged" training regimens (usually dry Corporate designed-managed) sessions, no one could ever possibly dream up or recreate these real-life razzmatazz situations.

 "Always missing" in these "dry run" training sessions are the very important elements of Sound... the chaotic yelling, radios, sirens, rescue or out-of-control machinery running, the roar of fire or water-wind-rain and buckling/collapsing groans, panicked-injured-wailing animals and people.  The Smells... breath taking acrid, toxic, stinky,  eye-watering, sooty or vision masking, even blinding, needing breathing apparatus, of unknown makeup and dangerous?  The general Atmosphere of a spectacle, tension, fear, lots of commotion, weather conditions, temperature (in waves and layers), the footing with its unknowns of debris and ground conditions, darkness-lighting-flashing and reflections, and always the seeing and unfamiliarity... of all types.  
Your Preparedness... and how well "suited up" you are for this endeavor, are you in your underwear and shoeless, or in full regalia ? how is your Chi level (that vital energy that animates you mentally and psychologically), can you clear your head for the imminence of what is about to unfold?  this is where "experience" is of central importance to your surviving the event (in all ways).
The Duration... from start to finish, the cleanup, after-wash and refurbish are as big as the event, the toll of tension, heat/cold/wet, and no coffee break (like in those training sessions), even sleeplessness are adrenaline cured (only temporarily).

And the very important, never discussed, PPEM... personal post-event management, Emergencies/Disasters create a simultaneous duplicity of numbness and hyper-awareness that is unique to each event exposure.  It is depleting, exhausting, unforgettable, ugly and lasting.  

There are a great many "one-time" first responders that never recover, cannot recover, from seeing, experiencing, the "insider" view of a major "emergency/disaster" event, and, there are many that accumulate and fold mid-career... and still, many others that are devoid of any impact from response to emergency. 

AS YOU CAN IMAGINE... CATS LOVE 'EM !

As we sit here in rural coastal Oregon, comfortable and isolated safely aboard So...fea during this Virus assault, our freed up brains are far removed from the trenches, and we just realized that the people we always looked at as "support" or sometimes "Second responders", are now the "First responders", and their emergency/disaster is "invisible" and lacking all that I spoke of above (except the PPEM).

How ready were our medical facilities and their in-house teams for this emergency/disaster Virus ? like an exhausting forest-fire, the futility of it all sets in, but, unlike the wildfire, you cannot walk away and just let it burn itself out... this one is burning life forces.  After so long of a battle, things must be getting pretty tacky, and the Chi levels must be harder to call up every advancing day.  

I have to make a "heads up" notice that from ER through Crematorium, we are looking at a usually "unrecognized" team of these now "First Responders", we all get caught up in the visuals of an airliner crashing to earth, or a building collapsing, or a Tornado hit, but we almost never "see" the closed-door people in our Medical chain-of-events, the Triage, the in-your-face all dayness, or in this case, the unknowns and mental strain of fighting an unseeable phantom that you could take home at days end to your family.

Like we do for all First Responders, we civilians take you for granted ... Thanks for being there.