We started off this episode with a look at the weather picture from the last few weeks from our disaster weather expert, Kyle Nelson. Kyle, along with Dr. Joe Holley, shared some of the preparations being made for the upcoming solar eclipse in states expecting a surge in population by eclipse watchers traveling to areas where the eclipse will be total in scope.

Kyle also shared some dramatic video and an article about a rescue helicopter situation in Austria. Check that out at the links here.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4757642/Dramatic-moment-rescue-helicopter-crashes-Austria-mountain.html

We are also joined by Dr. Richard Bradley from Texas Task Force One, one of the Federal Urban Search and Rescue Teams (USAR) spread around the country. There are 28 federal USAR teams around in the U.S. Above the USAR teams are three Incident Support Teams (IST) that provide overarching coordination and support between the federal teams and state and local resources.

Federal IST Disaster Response Structure

Rich shares his experiences deploying multiple times with either USAR or IST groups to disasters around the country. He talks about the Katrina disaster and the total collapse of local governments in and around the New Orleans area. He goes on to talk about the structure and mission of the USAR and IST groups that deploy into local jurisdictions.

Check out this episode and if you have questions, leave them here or on our new disaster podcast Facebook Group.

Paragon Brings “The Experience”

Paragon Medical Education Group specializes in bringing what they call “The Experience” to jurisdictions around the country. They bring together police, fire, EMS, and hospital teams to train together and learn what to expect from each diverse group in the response team so that each knows what to expect from the other and how to back the other groups up. Visit Paragon’s site at ParagonMedicalGroup.com for more information on how this can be brought into your system.

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