Fort Bend County Medical Reserve Corps “Uniting Fort Bend in Preparedness”

Christine Manson de Rabe

Homeland Preparedness Project

MRC Fort Bend County Coordinator

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Mission Statement

The mission of the MRC is to engage volunteers to strengthen public health, emergency response and community

resiliency.

Action Focus

The overarching goals provided by the Surgeon General

improve health literacy, increasing disease prevention, eliminating health disparities improving public health preparedness

CELEBRATING CHANGE

George W. Bush's 2002 State of the Union address, and officially launched as a demonstration project in July of 2002. Over these past ten years, we have seen the program grow to over 200,000 volunteers in almost 1,000 units across the country—ready to respond to emergencies and building resiliency in thousands of local communities through prevention, preparedness and public health activities.

National Response & Service

When the southeast was battered by hurricanes in 2004, MRC volunteers in the affected areas and beyond helped communities by filling in at local hospitals, assisting their neighbors at local shelters, and providing first aid to those injured by the storms. During this 2-month period, more than 30 MRC units worked as part of the relief efforts, including those whose volunteers were called in from across the country to assist the American Red Cross (ARC) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

During the 2008 Hurricane Season more than 1,500 MRC members were willing to deploy for Hurricane Ike

Almost 200 volunteers from 25 MRC units were activated by HHS.

400 volunteers from more than 80 local MRC units were activated to support ARC disaster operations in Gulf Coast areas.

Part Of FEMA’s Citizen Corps Network Community Volunteer Efforts Prevent And Respond To Any Kind Of

Disaster

Carrying Out the Mission in Fort Bend County

Making Numbers Count

982 MRC Units in the United States 206,192 registered MRC volunteers in the US Fort Bend County has approximately 560,000 residents 16 Public POD Locations, several other Closed PODs 5600 volunteers are needed to man all 16 PODS Fort Bend County has one of the Medical Reserve Corps

in Region VI and the US Currently Fort Bend County has over 2000 active

volunteers Since Aug 1, 2011 our Team has provided over 2500

volunteer hours to our County valued at approx. $40,000

Fort Bend County MRC

Get Trained! Go to Work

How do I become a member? Attend a MRC Orientation Complete paperwork Participate in a minimum of one yearly exercise Complete ICS 100, 200, 700, & 800 (online)

How long is the training? 3 hour Orientation complete with paperwork

Where do we train? Pick a place and we will be there

Who do we train? Anyone 16 and older with consent

Fort Bend County MRC

WHAT?

In the 3 hour Orientation we train everyone in a brief overview of ICS structure and basic SNS and POD functions.

We work with Health and Human Services Public Health Emergency Preparedness Team to provide in class and online trainings in the real threats to this area. These specifically include Unit Lead, Radio Communications, CASPER, WebEOC, Epidemiology, Family Preparedness, and Nuclear or Radiological Terrorism among others.

http://ftbend.togtraining.com

Looking at the Future of MRC in Fort Bend

Mobile (Medical) Sheltering Unit

M.U.S.T. (Mobile Unit Set Up Team)

Special Olympics April 21, 2012

Served as a cooling/first aid/water station shelter for over

250 Special Olympics participants

M.U.S.T. Deployments

We are being featured in NACCHO’s (National

Association of County and City Health

Officials) 10th Anniversary

newsletter for this event!!!

C.O.R.P.S. Leadership

Core Operations Response Squad – 50 member leadership group that holds meetings every 6 weeks to help MRC and HHS plan SNS operations, POD leadership, and develop MRC growth and future plan for Fort Bend County among other things.

Exercises & Deployment October 22, 2011

Full Scale EX

May 19, 2012 Full Scale EX

Exercises & Deployment

Call-Out to assist Magnolia

County Last Fall for wildfires

H1N1 Swine Flu deployment 2010

Do you Want to Know More?

Homeland Preparedness Project www.homelandpreparedness.org National Office

– 2833 Cytherea Circle, Alvin, Texas 77511 National Medical Reserve Corps Website

www.medicalreservercorps.gov

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You will receive event updates, training opportunities and important preparedness information.

Full Scale EX Sat. May 19, 2012 Seven Lakes High School

8 am – 2 pm