What would you do in a disaster scenario? Dozens of community members and volunteers found out Sunday as they took part in Bounce Day , the sixth installment of the annual community disaster response experience.
The event creates a learning environment for community groups, including medical and nursing students, amateur radio operators and a range of volunteers.
While many emergency management and disaster response training events focus on government employees, Bounce Day is about community learning, said Byron Callies, an emergency manager at Mayo Clinic and public information officer for the event.
"By and large it's really about creating a fun learning environment as a community event, to help us build relationships (and) become more resilient as a community should bad events happen," Callies said.
The group ran two scenarios Saturday at Gamehaven Reservoir Park. In both scenarios, the volunteers worked through a simulated mass casualty event and with victims who had a communicable disease — a fictional "zombie" condition.
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Between scenarios, the groups discussed strengths, weaknesses and how to better prepare for future events.
"We view this as a classroom, an opportunity to explore how we need to teach disaster preparedness differently," said Robin Molella, medical director for Bounce Day.
