Maui 4-H students got to show how well they can deal with a disaster at the final simulation event for the My PI Hawai‘i Disaster Preparedness program on April 16. More than 160 youth from Baldwin High School CTE and JROTC programs participated in the 12-week program, developed by Maui County 4-H and youth development agent Nancy Ooki, and the final event was their opportunity to demonstrate the skills and knowledge they learned.
Youth were required to participate in four separate stations: (1) Search and Rescue, for which they had to complete a damage-assessment form based on a photo and then call in their report using radios; (2) Triage, for which they were given cards depicting injury scenarios such as compromised airways, bleeding, and shock and then sort the victims according to who should be treated first; (3) First Aid, in which youth used photos of injuries and a head-to-toe assessment to assess and treat victims; and (4) Fire Suppression, in which the participants demonstrated proper techniques for putting out fires and carrying out victims.
In addition to these skills, the program also taught CPR, AED, how to extract victims from under objects that have fallen on them, and how to conduct a light Search and Rescue after a disaster. The students were also required to work with seven families in their community to create emergency plans and kits. The high school will be offering the program again next year to new students, and Nancy is looking to expand the highly useful program to other schools on Maui and throughout the state.