VERO BEACH — During a typical day in June with no storm in sight, the American Red Cross “opened” the storm shelter at Vero Beach Elementary School during a disaster shelter drill.
“This is a real life drill where we try to get members of the community to come in and act as actors and clients and allow our representatives, our Red Cross volunteers, to get experience in a real world type situation,” said Brian Cook, of the American Red Cross.
Red Cross volunteers and observers, along with 10 Indian River County Sherriff’s representatives, the Indian River County School District Risk Management’s Darrell Remole, and the Vero Beach Elementary Principal Ainsley Seely, were on hand for the drill.
Actors were given scenarios they were to follow as they portrayed different situations that volunteers might encounter during the time when people would have to come to the shelter.
One scenario was played out by Debbie Pimental, her character came to the shelter with a parrot and three cats.
Volunteers were then tasked to work with Pimental to remedy the situation of a person who came to a non-pet friendly shelter. They tried to get her to call her daughter to take the cats or go to another shelter that was pet friendly.
Barbara Pisani was tasked to play the part of a person with Alzheimer’s. She was with another lady and continually kept saying, “I’m going home sweet home.”
“They told me I was supposed to agitate people,” said Pisani.
The drill was expected to last three hours.
“We find that drills are the best way to measure organizational capacity so that when our neighbors really need us, we know that our systems will work and that residents can depend on us,” said Sarah Ruwe, Executive Director of Regional Volunteer Management.
