Planning Against Major Disasters

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29931, 19 September 1962, Page 2

Planning Against Major Disasters

Planning against a major disaster meant preparations at Government and local authority level to use all available resources, said Brigadier J. T. Borrows, regional commander for Civil Defence, in a recent panel discussion on disaster

planning. Country people as well as town, folk would be organised to help and in many South Island districts plans were already well advanced, he said. Groups encouraged to take part in schemes included parent-teacher associations, the St. John Ambulance Brigade, the Red Cross and the Registered Nurses' Association.

Explaining the plan for Christchurch, Brigadier Burrows said the city would be divided into subdivisions. Each would have separate control and independent resources. These subdivisions would be divided into sections, with further divisions until each street had its own warden, he said.

A primary school would be the focal point of each sector, he said. Around the periphery of the city, where secondary schools were 10-t cated, these would be additional points of control. There would be a definite chain of command whereby communications would be maintained between sectors and subdivisions.

Nothing raised the morale of people than to have someone available to provide information and a lead, and to have some place to go for care and attention, he said. Hospital service, as part of an emergency plan, was discussed by Dr. W. I. Paterson, director of outpatient services of the Christchurch Hospital. Hospitals were directly concerned with disasters, such as fire, which might occur in the hospital itself. Staff should be prepared to evacuate patients to other parts of the same buildings or to areas outside the hospital.

Hospitals should be prepared to expand in a disaster.

This required some planning to know how many extra patients could be admitted, where they might be placed and the additional equipment and supplies required to give them the necessary attention, he said. Any plan must be simple to operate at a time of interference with essential services. Because there would be insufficient trained nurses to deal with injuries in a major disaster, more persons should be trained in first aid and home nursing, said Miss K. Bland, matron of the hospital at Bumham Military Camp.

Equipment should be packed in preparation for an emergency. Wherever possible, casualties' should be massed in one place so that nursing staff could be concentrated to give medical treatment, she said.

The discussion was held by the committee for study activities of the Canterbury branch of the New Zealand Registered Nurses’ Association. Dr. R. C. S. Dick, medical superintendent of Princess Margaret Hospital, was chairman.