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Lindsay Metcalf
on Jun 19 2013 - 06:00 AM
My top five most important moments of the summer so far
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mara williams
on Jun 18 2013 - 06:00 AM
Hey, manchild, mama says: clean your room, wash the dishes, don't drink and drive.
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Emily Parnell
on Jun 16 2013 - 06:00 AM
Eating fresh, local produce is good for body and soul
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Jim Cosgrove
on Jun 13 2013 - 06:00 AM
I just want to buy some pants. Please, turn down the music.
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- kim nakahodo - Profile | Pictures | Blog
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Yes, this was the course material for a 4-day class!
Last week I attended the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Emergency Management Institute in Emmitsburg, MD. The facility is a training center dedicated to preparing responders for major emergencies or disaster situations. The instructors jokingly refer to the facility as “Camp FEMA.”
I must say the training lived up to the hype. It was amazing.
My course took place in a fictitious city named Central City that just so happened to be made for disasters. We’re talking about chemical manufacturing companies at the end of airport runways, serial killers on the loose, Category 4 hurricanes and a poorly maintained dam in the northern part of the City. Everything that could go wrong does, in real time, over 4 days.
The time away from my family was hard, but the training made the trip worthwhile. The instruction was excellent and I learned a lot during the course of the class.
But, I learned more from a man named Miles.
Miles is a Deputy Fire Chief for a fire company in a suburb of Boston. Miles remembers 9/11 well for many reasons. 10 years ago, Miles was a Battalion Chief and one of the areas he was over was the Urban Search and Rescue Team. As soon as he saw the first tower go down, he didn’t wait for the call. He called his wife and told her he didn’t know when he would be back and left for the fire station.
Miles spent the next 14 days in what could only be known as Hell on Earth. He had the grisly job of going through the wreckage, looking for survivors. His unit was ordered back to Boston by FEMA as the operation moved from rescue to evidence recovery.
Miles said he thought he was leaving the worst of 9/11 behind him, but he was wrong. When he got home, he had realized what the tragedy had done to his family.
He had left without saying goodbye to his kids.
When he was at Ground Zero, there was no way for him to communicate that he was safe or for his kids to get a hold of him. His kids (like most Americans) watched the towers come down thousands of times in the following weeks. They watched having not being able to say goodbye to their dad, they watched not knowing if he was safe or if there was going to be another attack.
His youngest son was a straight-A student before 9/11 and almost flunked out of school in the following months. His marriage was stressed and his other kids were full of anger and resentment.
Miles shared this story so that we would not follow in his footsteps.
He admits that he should have stopped by the school his kids were attending to say goodbye in person. He should have gone to his wife’s office before he left town. It would have only taken an hour more to do this, and he thinks now it would have made a big difference for his family.
Of all the things I learned at “Camp FEMA,” this was the most important thing - family is first.
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