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- [Jim] It was clear we had to do more
in order to prepare Mississippi for a radiation emergency.
We had to integrate radiation safety
into the public health preparedness program
more prominently than we had before.
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- I'm B.J. Smith.
- And I'm Jim Craig.
And together, we have over 60 years
of experience in emergency preparedness
at the Mississippi State Department of Health.
- Prior to 2012, preparedness funds went towards
increasing public health and laboratory readiness
for bio terrorism and chemical emergencies.
Many states didn't pay a lot of attention
to radiation emergencies
outside of the areas around power plants
and developing a statewide capacity
for radiation emergency response wasn't a funding priority.
We decided to change that in Mississippi
and began a multi-year effort to develop the tools,
training, and relationships we needed
to ensure we could respond during a radiation emergency.
- But first, we had to show our partners
why statewide radiation emergency preparedness
was important.
Which required us to define and communicate the roles
public health, and clinical professionals
would be expected to play during a radiation emergency.
Early on, the CDC's radiation program offered us
the opportunity to work together
on a set of preparedness toolkits
for clinicians and public health practitioners.
Then in 2011, we worked with Dr. Armin Ansari and CDC
to serve on the planning committee for the Bridging the Gaps
Radiation Preparedness Conference in Atlanta.
At that conference, we were able
to promote radiation awareness at a national level
and share why state-level roles and operations
were needed in a radiation emergency.
- Both the toolkits and conference presentations
helped Mississippi and other states
make the case to community stakeholders
that radiation preparedness is important.
And it helped us leverage new and existing funding
to build our tools and training capacity.
Our first objective was to improve the tools we had
to respond to a radiation emergency.
We worked to allocate
public health emergency preparedness funds
for radiation detection equipment.
After a couple of rounds of purchases,
we were able to equip our staff and volunteers
with a number of different resources.
Tools like portal monitors, Tyvek suits, N95 masks,
portable survey meters, and isotope analyzers.
But we needed more than just equipment.
We also needed to develop training materials
that would prepare our staff and volunteers
for the roles in a community reception center or CRC.
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- Developing that training
started at CDC's Bridging the Gaps conference.
When we met up with Dr. Lisa McCormick
from the University of Alabama Birmingham.
With her help, we secured a grant from CDC through the
Conference of Radiation Control Program Directors.
That grant allowed us to develop training videos
for each station at a community reception center.
Having the tools and training in hand,
we decided to take the next step in 2013
and host our first CRC exercise, Magnolia Blossom.
That exercise gave our preparedness plan and processes
a stress test.
It also provided an opportunity for Dr. Ansari
and some folks from CDC, along with Dr. McCormick,
to see our operation in action and provide feedback
that made our preparedness plan stronger and more useful.
- Magnolia Blossom reinforced the importance of building
and maintaining good relationships with our partners.
It also emphasized the need for routine outreach
to our volunteers and a robust system
to organize talent and training.
As a result, we distribute additional information
on our department's preparedness activities.
We travel and help train public health nurses
on community reception center concepts
and the roles and responsibilities
nurses may have when operating one.
It also encouraged us to implement a new volunteer database,
The Mississippi Responder Management System, or MRMS,
so we can easily provide updates and notifications
of additional training opportunities to those who need them.
One of CDC's strongest assets is the technical capability
they bring to our discussions and trainings.
Perhaps the most important example
was the Bridging the Gaps Conference
where Dr. Ansari and Dr. Charles Miller
provided the information we needed to explain
the importance of radiation emergency preparedness
to our stakeholders.
I don't think we would be as far as we are now
in Mississippi or in fact the country if it wasn't
for those two individuals and their teams.
- Going forward, we continue to invest in relationships.
Not only by maintaining the skills of our volunteers
but also by engaging hospitals,
Medical Reserve Corps volunteers, EMS,
and other community members with overlapping expertise.
We also invest in a culture of continuous improvement.
We identify opportunities for growth and development
in our after action reports and make the changes we need
to improve how we train, communicate,
and support our Radiation Emergency Response Teams
here at the Mississippi State Department of Health.
- I'm really proud of the credibility
our health department's received
from working on radiation emergency planning
with our local partners.
When visitors arrive for a meeting or a training exercise
they're all amazed
at how well Mississippi partners work together.
- The one thing I've learned
in over 40 years of emergency response,
is the value of our relationships
with our partners.
Planning is great, having the right equipment is important,
and training people to do the work is essential,
but after serving as the Incident Commander
for the ESF 8 response to Hurricane Katrina,
and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill,
I've found time and again that
it's the relationships we form before the emergency
that really make all of this work.
Our neighboring states and partners have helped us
in our times of need
and we've gladly stepped up to return the favor.
We're all doing our best to be prepared individually
but being able to pick up the phone and call on each other
to work side-by-side is what really makes us strong
when responding to a radiation emergency.
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