15 Personal Reflections

Personal Reflection – Sidny Miner

Reflecting on my experience and contributions to this group project allows me to assess my knowledge and lessons learned. I first became interested in emergency management after taking an exploratory course here at the University of Iowa. It was an introductory level course that immediately piqued my interest. We did a lot of hands-on activities and tabletop exercises, and I was able to gain several certifications relating to emergency preparedness and response that will be helpful in my future endeavors. Writing material throughout the semester was a lot of review for me, but I also gained a plethora of new knowledge. (SM)

I am passionate about emergency preparedness and response because I have personally experienced an unforgettable, catastrophic disaster. A derecho hit the Midwest on August 10, 2020. After missing the last couple months of my sophomore year of high school to the COVID-19 Pandemic, we now had to delay the start of my junior year because our school had to be repaired. I live in Van Horne, Iowa, which is just twelve miles away from Atkins, Iowa where the storm winds peaked at 126 mph. The straight-line winds destroyed millions of acres of crops, snapped elder trees, and flattened just about everything in its path, including my family’s old dairy barn that had stood for over a century. We were without power for over seven days. I have never seen my community come together quite like we did during that time. My childhood best friend’s house was destroyed, and her family was displaced from their home. After making the necessary repairs to our rental home that had minimal damage, they were able to move in a couple weeks later. The day after the derecho, we had a knock on our front door. It was another family that was looking for a place to live as their house had also been destroyed beyond repair. I will never forget the feelings that came with having to tell them that we already had another family moving in. It was a mutual feeling of helplessness, for them because they needed a home and for us because we could not help. During the week of recovery, things that were small and taken for granted before became powerful and moving. Things like a warm shower and hot breakfasts. My family was fortunate enough to have a generator, so we had several friends come over for meals, showers, and laundry. This was a trying time for our community, and it helped me understand the importance of preparedness and community involvement. Not only did I experience the physical aspects of the storm, but I also felt the mental and emotional toll that came with it. I watched trees break from the wind and felt them shake the house when they hit the ground, and I listened to my dog howling in the garage because the air pressure kept the door from opening. The days following were filled with manual labor in the August heat, cutting trees and clearing debris. Although I was helping my family and those around me, I also felt helpless and that is a feeling that I will never forget. (SM)

Writing these chapters made me reminiscent of my past experiences with the derecho. I understand the need for preparedness at different levels and multijurisdictional response efforts. I can also relate to the importance of taking care of individuals responding to disasters, which is why I felt that Peter Teahen’s personal account of 911 was a good addition to my chapter. The concept of disaster preparedness and response is very information heavy, but when it is time to respond to a real-life disaster, it is how you put that information into practice that matters. Disasters are unpredictable, so it is our job as public health professionals and emergency responders to learn from historical events so that we can best serve and prepare our communities for what’s to come. (SM)

Personal Reflection – Lydia Wollerman

Working on this group research essay was a very valuable learning experience for me both as a student and as an individual wanting to learn more about disaster preparedness and response. This project challenged me as a student in a few different ways. It required me to be intentional with my time and planning how I wanted to take on this semester long project. I found the deadlines checking our writing progress to be very helpful. Additionally, giving presentations like most people are very stressful for me. I felt intimidated at the beginning of the semester when I saw that we were instructed to do a ten minute presentation. In my college career I have only had to do a handful of presentations which were often very brief. I was scheduled to present late into the semester which gave me plenty of time to prepare. Because I had already completed so much research for my portion of the project I felt confident in my knowledge of the subject. This eased much of my anxiety around presenting. (LW)

At the beginning of the semester when we were exploring topics I was instantly interested in disaster preparedness and response. With a changing climate, the presence of natural disasters are only going to increase in frequency and severity over time. We are already seeing the impacts of that today with tornados in Florida, severe yearly hurricanes, and annual California wildfires. In January of this year my best friend lost her childhood home in Pasadena, California to the Los Angeles wildfires. While I didn’t experience it first hand, I did witness the devasting impacts it had on her and her family. I was receiving texts from her in the midst of it all expressing her constant anxiety and fear. By family at one point offered our home if the fires continued to spread farther across California. I remember not knowing what to say to try comfort her. There was so much unknown and the reality was it was a terrifying situation. There is nothing you can say. When she was instructed to evacuate her and her family had no idea what they were going to return home to. When it was eventually deemed safe to return they came back to a neighborhood with nothing but charred empty lots. A home full of memories instantly gone. Her Mother runs a small business selling hand made clothes from home. She lost thousands of dollars towards her business in the fires. Months later she would tell me about the stress she feels when she simply smells smoke. When we see stories of fires or hurricanes or any other natural disaster it is very easy to distance ourselves from the situation. Especially growing up in Minnesota I never directly lived through a significant natural disaster. This project further put into perspective that natural and human made disasters impact very real people and that we are all responsible for responding and preventing these tragedies when we can. (LW)

Megan Mindy- Reflection

Throughout this project, I have learned a lot about the protections in place on a global, national, state, and local level. Prior to this project, I didn’t have much knowledge on disaster preparedness and response and how this is used in practice. Learning about CBRNE and how these disasters are managed in a wide variety of settings, communities, and nations was a very interesting learning experience.

In addition to my limited knowledge of disaster preparedness and response initiatives that are working all the time to protect people and the public, I did not know anything about bioterrorism. I have always been interested in bioterrorism and everything that goes into a bioterror event. From the specifics of how the event occurred to the people who planned such a frightening event, I am fascinated by chemical and biological hazards. This project allowed me to explore the wide variety of historical events related to bioterrorism and robust systems in place to prevent future disasters.

This project was extremely interesting to complete in a time of significant change in the federal administration. I had the unique opportunity to travel to the nation’s capitol in April and sit in on allocation committee meetings. I traveled to D.C. with the University of Iowa Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilities training program through University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. This trip was based around public health initiatives related to disability, but it also happened to fall on a time where a public witness hearing took place in teh senate subcommittee. This allowed me to listen in on first hand witness accounts of people working in the public service sphere. Hearing from Frech, who worked in bioterrorism defense was an incredible opportunity to enhance the content for this project. I was able to hear a personal testimonial about how critical the programs in place are to uphold the ideal health and safety of our nation, how cuts in federal funding are so dangerous to the welfare of communities, and, most importantly, how to get involved in policy and changemaking processes.

I plan to take what I have learned from this project to continue to influence policy at local, state, and federal levels and educate those around me on why disaster preparedness and response is so important to the health and safety of all.