Helping people facing disaster
I first learned of the 2015 Gorkha Earthquake late in the evening from a text message while at home in the USA. By then, I had served as a firefighter for 10 years and had spent many years off-and-on in Nepal and was therefore determined to do something. With generous help from friends around the world, I collected about 100 kilos of medical and survival equipment and within a few days was on a plane to Kathmandu. Among the items I bought was sufficient food and water purifying equipment to ensure I did not take away any resources from the people in Nepal. Having set up camp in the courtyard of a monastery in Tinchuli, I immediately went to work. By then, the rescues had largely concluded, except for maybe the miracle case in the Gongabu area of a boy trapped under a collapsed hotel. Nonetheless, much needed to be done. Assessing the impact American firefighters are trained extensively in building construction. As an assistant fire chief at the time, I had become an instructor of just such courses. We did not instruct our firefighters to act as engineers, rather the purpose was simply to determine whether staying in a compromised structure was exceedingly dangerous. The Nepali government had already been engaging in building inspection, marking structures with various colors to indicate the danger level in entering them. Still, in Kathmandu Valley thousands upon thousands of buildings had suffered damage. Government officials simply could not inspect them all in a short time. So, that is where I began. I inspected hundreds of homes, monasteries and shops throughout Kathmandu, particularly in the Bouddha and Kapan areas. Along the way, I provided medical treatment for minor injuries such as lacerations and contusions. To make my efforts possible, a Tibetan monk accompanied me as an interpreter; he spoke impeccable Nepali, English, and Tibetan. Search, rescue and reunion On several occasions, locals approached us asking for help to locate loved ones. In those first few days, phone and internet availability was sporadic, making it very difficult to communicate. These folks would provide a photo and some information about the person missing, and we would inquire with others as we moved from place to place. With incredible luck, we located nearly half of the people we were tasked with finding. In every case, the people had simply fled to the safest place they could find, unable to communicate by phone. As aftershocks continued, many people were reluctant to move about if they had found a reasonably secure location at which to remain. Once we found them, we would happily escort them back home for their reunion with their families. Indeed, for my own family back home, I myself remained ‘missing’ for some time as I could not find sufficient internet to inform them of my condition for nearly two weeks. Aside from inspecting buildings and dressing minor wounds, I also joined several missions into the higher terrains to deliver food, tarpaulins, medical and other supplies. Riding upon heavily laden trucks on mountain roads made dangerous by frequent aftershocks and landslides plagued my dreams for months afterwards. An emergency manual Upon my return to my family and job back in America, I was committed to continuing efforts toward making Nepal a safer place in the event of future disasters. First, drawing upon my expertise as a first responder, I drafted a manual on preparing for emergencies. The manual provides a guideline for institutions to set up an emergency plan. It is intended for places where many people might congregate at once, such as schools, hotels, monasteries or other public buildings. Written in simple language, it explains how to plan ahead, account for all the visitors and guests, and weather the storm afterward until professional help arrives. Doing simple things like establishing meeting points and evacuation routes, and designating “emergency managers” can save many lives and reduce the inevitable chaos disasters bring. The manual is available in hard or soft copy, in Nepali, English, and Tibetan. Since the publication of the manual, I started a new foundation called EALS Global. After my career in the fire department, I joined American law enforcement. My specialty there was technology crime, and I became quite adept in many different aspects of technology, such as application development, digital forensics, remote sensing technologies, and others. EALS Global is an organization designed to assist communities living in potential disaster zones. We are developing applications and other programmes to provide advanced warning and real-time emergency information to those facing disasters, location information to responders and media, and disaster data to research organizations. Our goal is to do whatever we can to reduce injury or death from incidents by informing people about imminent dangers, helping responders locate those who cannot escape, and providing data to planners and government officials. Living in a remote area should not mean people should not have information in advance, something that could save their lives. My foundation receives extensive input from first responders—people who have made a career of heading into disaster zones, at their own risk, for the benefit of others. In addition, we are growing our network of researchers, scientists, software engineers and like-minded organizations to launch our programmes wherever they are needed throughout the world. I have spent a career helping people living through all kinds of calamities—fires, floods, earthquakes, and crime. This foundation is a new chapter where I hope to put two decades of experience and training to work toward helping more people than I ever thought possible.
