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BATT
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THE BATTALION is published daily, Monday through Friday during the
fall and spring semesters and Tuesday and Thursday during the summer
session (except University holidays and exam periods) at Texas A&M
University, College Station, TX 77843. Offices are in Suite L400 of the
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News: The Battalion news department is managed by students at
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Subscriptions: A part of the University Advancement Fee entitles each
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NEWS
I
Disaster City
simulates
potential
disaster
situations
to train first
responders.
Tanner Garza — THE BATTALION
DISASTER CITY CONTINUED
manager William Welch said any disaster is a local disaster.
“If Snook had a disaster and they called for additional
support and that support was Texas Task Force 1 or Forest
Service or any of these entities, they would come in and be
below the local jurisdiction,” Welch said. “Every disaster is
always local. That local jurisdiction may employ an incident
management team to help them mitigate the disaster.”
Welch said most local jurisdictions could remain inde
pendently effective for approximately 12 hours, after which
Texas Task Force 1 or other specialized disaster response
forces will move in as well.
“At the second operational cycle, task force has arrived and
gotten set up, bringing specialized tools and skill sets that they
have to operate in these environments,” Welch said.
Saunders said this exercise has been in the works for three
years now, with three different teams participating in similar
exercises. He said the exercises are important because the
Federal Emergency Management Agency task force teams
looks at all personnel to operate in these sorts of environ
ments.
“We want to be able to prove to ourselves that we can
do that,” Saunders said. “And then also if there are any gaps
we see from the exercise then we can address those gaps in
additional training.”
Beyond simply completing the exercises, Saunders said
communication is key to developing the most efficient re
sponse effort possible.
“When we’re on scene, very rarely do we operate by our
selves,” Saunders said. “Any really large incident is going
to have numerous different agencies and usually the failure
points are not the skill level of the responders, the failure
points are a breakdown in communication. So what this ex
ercise is all about is the human interaction and making sure
that we’re communicating with everyone correctly.”
In addition to training human personnel, Disaster City,
in collaboration with the Texas A&M veterinary medicine
program, is also on the forefront of developing techniques
for search-and-rescue dogs as well as how to deal with any
animals found in the wreckage.
Angela Clendenin, communications director in the Col
lege of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, said
the program developed in 2010 in response to Hurricane
Rita. Initially focused on sheltering, the vet med program
reached out to Texas Task Force 1 to gauge the health and
operations of their rescue dogs.
“We have a graduate student who now works full time
with a vet that designed a decontamination unit,” Clendenin
said. “Other states are asking for the blueprints and things like
that because they don’t have anything like it.”
Less than a year after Hurricane Rita, the fires in Bastrop
further spurred development of the training program.
“When you look at this environment that the dogs are
working in now, imagine that it was covered in hot burning
embers and ash,” Clendenin said. “They had booties for their
dogs but the dogs didn’t like them, and they were kind of
low so the dogs were tearing them off. We actually did pre
opera tional exams on them. We developed a new booting
system that kind of came up higher so they couldn’t get them
off as easy, and then we did hydration checks throughout the
day and then their post-operational period exam.”
Clendenin said, according to the Task Force, their search-
and-rescue dogs are subjected to grueling environments and
could remain operational for two to three days before need
ing to be rotated out.
After running the pre-operational exams, the vet med
program was able to increase the operational effectiveness of
these dogs to four to six days — nearly double the original
time in the field.
“This lets Task Force do their job more quickly, more
efficiently and they find more bodies and save more lives,”
Clendenin said.
Overall, Saunders said everything going on at Disaster
City applies to every sort of disaster situation imaginable.
“We basically create a world and a storyline for the exer
cise scenario, but last year’s was based off a gas line explosion,
and the gas line explosion did all this damage with the same
kind of contamination and all the rest of the stuff,” Saunders
said. “It’s not the story, it’s what you ericl up with.”
Many universities talk about the excellence of their
faculty and staff. . . .
rja TEXAS A&M
Jut l ' N I V E R S I T Y
At Texas A&M, our best wear it with pride!
Our Distinguished Acheivement Award winners proudly wear a distinctive watch
symbolizing that they have achieved Texas A&M’s highest level of recognition.
Join us to celebrate their
commitment, performance and positive impact
on students, and the future of Texas and the world.
Distinguished Achievement Awards Ceremony
Monday, April 27, 2015 - 1:30 p.m.
Rudder Theatre, Texas A&M University Campus
The Ceremony is part of Distinguished Week, recognizing the following individuals,
our Distinguished Graduate Students, and our University Distinguished Professors.
FOR TEACHING
Ahmed Abdei-Wahab '03, Chemical Engineering Program,
Texas A&M University at Qatar
Oral Capps, Jr. f Department of Agricultural Economics,
College of Agriculture & Life Sciences
John C. Keyser, Department of Computer Science &
Engineering, Dwight Look College of Engineering
Nancy L. Klein, Department of Architecture,
College of Architecture
Arvind Mahajan, Department of Finance,
Mays Business School
Stjepan Mestrovic, Department of Sociology,
College of Liberal Arts
James D. Pennington, Department of Chemistry,
College of Science
W. Shawn Ramsey '90, Department of Animal Science,
College of Agriculture & Life Sciences
Nova J. Silvy, Department of Wildlife & Fisheries Sciences,
College of Agriculture & Life Sciences
Ching-Yun Suen, Department of General Academics,
Texas A&M University at Galveston
FOR RESEARCH
Deborah Bell-Pedersen, Department of Biology,
College of Science
Darren L. DePoy, Department of Physics & Astronomy,
College of Science
Vijay P. Singh, Department of Biological & Agricultural
Engineering, College of Agriculture & Life Sciences
Haiyan Wang, Department of Electrical & Computer
Engineering, Dwight Look College of Engineering
Mark E. Westhusin '83, Department of Veterinary
Physiology & Pharmacology, College of
Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences
Kirk 0. Winemiller, Department of Wildlife & Fisheries
Sciences, College of Agriculture & Life Sciences
FOR STUDENT RELATIONS
Sue Geller, Department of Mathematics,
College of Science
Donna Hajash, Department of Visualization,
College of Architecture
FOR ADMINISTRATION
Eleanor M. Green, Dean, College of Veterinary Medicine &
Biomedical Sciences
FOR EXTENSION, OUTREACH, CONTINUING
EDUCATION & PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
James C. Cathey '91, Department Wildlife & Fisheries
Sciences, College of Agriculture & Life Sciences
FOR STAFF
Yasser Al-Hamidi, Mechanical Engineering Program,
Texas A&M University at Qatar
Sandra D. Maldonado, Department of Communication,
College of Liberal Arts
FOR ADMINISTRATION
Michael R. Kinney, Department of Accounting,
Mays Business School
Dorothy E. Shippen, Department Biochemistry &
Biophysics, College of Agriculture & Life Sciences
The Distinguished Graduate Student Awards and the Distinguished Achievement Awards are
generously funded by gifts to the Annual Fund of The Association of Former Students.
Proudly supported by:
The Association
OF FORMER STUDENTS 5
TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY*