Search and rescue
Markings.
The first line for the X is made BEFORE you enter the structure, at this time you would also place YOUR rescue team or group ID. CPD 3/
You will want to make this big enough to be seen from a distance such as from the street and do not put it on the door as the door can be removed to be used as a stretcher or something.
After your team comes out of the structure you will make the second line of the X \ and write the date and time in 24 hour clock on TOP of the X
You will end up with makings which will look something like this;
2018-Oct-15 0700
CPD3 X GL
0 DB
At the bottom would the number of living or dead bodies inside. Example DB dead bodies, LB for live bodies or survivors.
** in the NOTES section you can add any resources found IF that is of interest to your group for later. F for food and W for safe water example they have a row or however many shelves with cases of bottled water OR 2L coke bottles of water.
Your local group may decide on specific verbiage that will be used but this is the generally accepted format when you see it used on the news or real life.
What to use to make the marks? Some groups use spray paint which lasts a LONG time, others use “permeant’ markers which will fade after several months or Crayons. I have even heard of some specifying the colors to be used, I do not find this to be practical for the most part as you may not have the colors available.
IF you are the ones making the search of buildings because nobody else is available you must be extremely careful [and it would be best for someone -the more the better- in your family / group should attend a CERT class in your area- contact your fire department and they can give you more information about local happenings] a search team generally consist of 4 to 6 people. 1 to 3 people STAY outside to provide back up and over watch in case things go wrong. The 1st person in stays just inside the door to keep an eye on the others who enter, during this process everyone will be looking at all 6 sides of the room -news [north, east, west and south] along with the floor and ceiling. The 2nd & 3rd person to enter calls out in a loud voice to anyone who may be in the building if there is any response the survivors should be told to “come here to the front door”. If this happens the survivors should be questioned about the safety and generally about the building and then told to either wait here or go outside to the others. Using any information obtained to direct your search OR if nobody answered after several shouts then you will start a systematic search of the building. Start either to the right or the left whatever your group has agreed on and go room to room on that floor. Mark each room as you enter and exit it similar to the outside markings. Pause often listen, call out to survivors and listen again. If you hear anything try to triangulate the sound between you, shining light at the sound. Once you have cleared all the rooms on the 1st floor go to the next floor up and follow the same procedure, ect for each floor and then basement assuming that there are more than the ground floor. During this you of course will maintain contact via radio reporting to all of you search team. Usually CERT teams operate on ch1 of FRS/GMRS radios.
Keep good records of all this to report to emergency services personnel or your coordinator for follow up when the professionals arrive. Do the best you can for the victims.
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There is a secondary system that uses a triangle that YOU can use to communicate with members of your family group. This is part of an established communications and evacuation plan in your family group.
There are 5 or 6 basic factors to show in this.
In the outside area on the upper left you put the number of days after the event that you arrived.
In the outside area on the upper right you put the number of days you stayed at this spot.
Under the triangle you would put the number of people you arrived with and separated by a slash / you would list the number of people you left with.
In the center of the triangle you would put the number from your evac plan of your destination.
In this example EB9 is the call sign of the person who left the sign.
IF you put an M on it there is a message for you, if there is not an M then they did not leave one.
So it would look something like this with a triangle around the 6
0 2
6 EB9 M
5 / 4
You arrived with 5 people at this rendezvous or rally point ON the day of the event and you stayed 2 days and left with 4 people. M = you left a written message- in this case your family group has agreed that written messages are put on the right side of the structure or the big tree, whatever your group decides. You can use whatever container you would like to weather proof the message such as a jar, zip loc bag or lay’s chip container- whatever is available or write it in crayon on the structure.
You will want to make this big enough to be seen from a distance such as from the street, but do not make it massive.
Some groups may designate a specific color [s] to mean something or person, I do not find this to be as useful as you may not have that color available to you at the time.