What a Disaster!

Thanks to Neal's volunteer work with Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), our family, with the exception of Rhys, was able to participate in the Disaster Simulation for the new CERT students.  Rhys got to spend some quality time with Oma and Opa which was good because it was a bit gruesome.  Glad we had prepped Sophie as much as we did.

The team had done a great job of creating tornado wreckage based on one of Neal's friends, Brian--The Master of Disaster".


Deadly hazardous waste spill

Large room with cubicles.  They had the power out in all the rooms and halls. 

Narrow, dark, debris-filled hall

Another hall with debris and large blocks

The moulage artists did a great job as well.  Here were some of the less fortunate victims just a few days late for Halloween.

Broken arm or rebar through the chest anyone?

Once the students arrived, Neal took his position in the control room where they had monitors to 4 cameras and control over sound, smoke, and fire.  He got a kick out of seeing Keri and Sophie try to make their way into the building. 

They played "the frantic wife with her daughter looking for her husband."  They would sit us down and out of their way. Just as soon as they were distracted by some task, they tried to interrupt the CERT workers, or worse, try and make their way back into the building, being annoying and dramatic.  Not a far reach for her, right?

Neal loved seeing all their hard work and weeks of planning come together.  Keri had a blast acting, and Sophie decided that she was uninterested in participating next year.

Had to take a moment to teach when Keri had been trying to get past CERT students who were trying to get her to sit down, and Sophie told Keri, "We don't listen to their rules!  We only listen to Jesus' rules!"  We revisited that this was pretend and it was our job to make their life hard today.  Also emphasized more than once that if it were real, we would be the ones listening to them and helping them.

Another great moment was this evening when Sophie was asked to pick-up her bedroom floor before getting in bed.  She looked at the mess and said, "Hey! This is like the disaster today!"  Keri was so pleased to see her realization and taught that it can be dangerous to have a messy floor.

Sadly, no moulage artist was put to work on Rhys' face.  He got this bad scrap when he went down the backyard slide and the first thing to meet the ground was his face. After cleaning the dirt from his mouth it was noted he had a cut inside lip as well.  Poor guy!  Sophie alerted us to the problem by leading Rhys in the back door while shouting, "Oh shoot!  Oh shoot! Oh shoot!"

Our amateur family pictures were to be taken tomorrow so we will see how they come out and if they can be touched up at all to make him look less pathetic.