Turkey AAR

TABLE OF CONTENTS 2. Executive Summary 4. Operation Overview 5. Operation Summary 8. Areas of Analysis 9. Transportation 9. Volunteers 10. Equipment 10. Safety 11. Communications 12. Key Lessons Learned 13. Key Actions

After Action Report

Turkey, 2011 Operation: Earthquake Scout Team

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Turkey, 2011

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY On Sunday, October 23 2011 a 7.1 earthquake struck in the eastern region of Turkey near the city of Van. It was shallow in depth and caused severe shaking across the region, especially in towns that border Lake Van. Team Rubicon sent a small scout team to recon the earthquake disaster zones near Van Lake in the cities of Van and Ercis. Van is located approximately 100 miles from the borders of Iraq and Iran, and is heavily Kurdish in makeup. Between 300,000 and 600,000 people live in Van and the surrounding areas, a margin of error so wide only because of the relative austerity of the region. This austerity forced many survivors to do without aid from the Turkish Government, who initially told international aid organizations that they were not requesting help of any kind, and could handle the catastrophe themselves. On 25 October the Turkish government announced that they would accept aid from other countries specifically in the form of tents, prefabricated houses and living containers. Affected Earthquake Areas in Turkey By this time many aid organizations had sent advance teams that were on standby in neighboring countries as well as Istanbul. Team Rubicon’s scout team deployed immediately after the disaster, and had prepositioned in Turkey by the night of October 24th. After spending the night in Istanbul the team of 2 flew into Van on the morning of October 25th in order to fulfill 3 critical needs:

1. Recon the cities that were affected and create a intelligence brief that accurately portrayed the developing crisis scene

2. Deliver the intelligence brief to Team Rubicon headquarters for them to make the determination on whether to deploy a full team

3. Canvas the countryside and search for areas that were neglected by Turkish rescue services, which had focused their efforts mainly in the central cities.

Transportation to these areas took almost 72 hours by air due to their relative isolation and austerity. By then most of the “emergency” had given way to a controlled government response. There were gaps in certain areas of the response, but some were either too specific to address (toilets, OB/GYN) and others were endemic (faulty construction, lack of organization). While on the ground it was the scout team’s mission to provide an honest assessment of the situation, and call for mobilization of a full team should it be deemed necessary. While the scout team saw no such need, they worked to fill the gaps in response that they could address. They helped set up tents for the injured, searched the local villages for lapses in medical attention, conducted assessments of general camp conditions, and identified

TEAM RUBICON, After Action Report

potential refugee camp disease processes. All of these actions were conducted with heavy hearts as the true toll of the disaster unfolded. Team Rubicon maintains the highest state of alert for disasters such as these around the world, and continues to monitor developing crisis in an effort to Bridge the Gap should one be discovered. As the scout team leader, it is my duty to deploy to such locations and it is with the greatest sorrow that I witness such human suffering. We at Team Rubicon, as well as Nathan and myself, will support the efforts of the Turkish government as they continue to rebuild and recover from the earthquake that destroyed so many lives. Scout Team Members prep notes in the airport Jake Wood William McNulty Joshua Webster President, Team Rubicon Vice President Team Leader

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OPERATION OVERVIEW

OPERATION NAME: Turkey Earthquake Scout Team DURATION: 6 Days DATES: October 24th, 2011 – October 29th, 2011 LOCATION: Eastern Turkey OPERATION DIRECTIVE: Provide search and rescue/medical support ELEMENTS: 1 Scout Element TOTAL VOLUNTEERS: 2 (Webster, Schmidt) MILITARY VETERANS: 2 (Webster, Schmidt)

TOTAL CASH RAISED: $2,157.00 LESS: CREDIT CARD FEES: $144.43 NET: $2,012.57 EXPENSES: TRANSPORTATION: ($4,208.86) EQUIPMENT: $0 FOOD: ($180) LODGING: ($332.86) AUTHORIZED CASH DISBURSEMENTS: ($40) TOTAL: ($4,761.72) NET OPERATION GAIN/ (LOSS) ($2,749.15)


OPERATION SUMMARY PRE-‐DEPLOYMENT News of the earthquake in Turkey spread after the initial event in the evening of October 23rd. That evening a meeting convened at the house of our temporary Operations Center to discuss deployment options. As the initial reports spread to include separate towns and as the body count totals continued to rise the decision was made to deploy a team. The make-‐up of the team was in question as the country of Turkey initially declared that they didn’t need any international aid. Despite that, Team Rubicon foresaw the possibility that Turkish humanitarian authorities might reverse their initial decision regarding international aid once the full scope of the earthquake was realized. In an effort to respond, but so as not to spark international controversy, Team Rubicon made the strategic decision to send a scout team of two key personnel into Turkey with the intent on “pre-‐staging”. These two individuals were specially trained rescuers who had worked together in the military, and had personal recovery/extraction gear staged for just such a deployment. While they were given details of the operation a follow-‐on element of rescue and medical personnel were alerted to the possibility of deployment. Downtown Ercis, Turkey The mission of the scout team was to travel the 6,800 miles from Los Angeles to Istanbul, Turkey and then to fly into the eastern city of Van, Turkey following an expected international call for help. The follow-‐on team was prepared for the same flight, but would bring with them more medical personnel and those trained in confined-‐space rescue, collapsed structure, and logistics. The decision to send a scout team first was based on three main factors.

1. The Turkish government had made no officially call for international aid. 2. As the foreign press learned about the story, and as foreign aid workers bought plane

tickets to Turkey, the cost to send rescuers to Turkey was rising quickly. 3. The reports surrounding the event were extremely limited, and there was no clear

picture of the “need” on the ground. By sending in an initial two-‐man scout element Team Rubicon could gather accurate intelligence, get an initial team on the ground who were specially trained for this type of mission, and develop relationships with other humanitarian organizations in preparation for a “full mobilization” team to arrive.

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DEPLOYMENT The team departed from Los Angeles International Airport on October 24th and arrived in Istanbul that night. They continued to Van, Turkey the morning of the 25th, almost 48 hours after the earthquake had occurred. The team landed and met with a contact in the Turkish rescue services who was also in Van. During the conversation they learned that Turkish rescue services were quite robust and had been on the scene almost immediately. They were told that Van was no longer considered a disaster area and that Ercis was in more need. The team traveled to the rally point in Van for rescue workers and met with the city mayor. They were given a guide to take them to the disaster site, and both team members agreed that the situation in Van was under control. The team rented a car and drove the 50 kilometers to Ercis, Turkey. Ercis was located in a very remote area of Turkey and its downtown area was almost completely decimated in an area roughly the size of 10 city bocks. The team set up shop in the local high-‐school stadium in Ercis, and began looking for an EMS coordinator to liaison with. They met with a fire chief who showed them the downtown areas where professional “search crews” had been rotating shifts for the past 3 days. At this point the search teams were being augmented by local villagers who were neither wearing protective gear, nor displaying any general safety guidelines while sifting through the rubble. Work was fast, and dangerous. The local gymnasium was the center of the relief efforts, and the team used it as a point of contact to meet other humanitarian organizations. Representatives from the relief organization Humedica were on hand to work with, and also to provide an initial intelligence report. The team conducted a thorough assessment of the downtown rescue center and surrounding relief center that had been set up by Turkish rescue services. A “tent city” had been erected and was housing many of the city inhabitants. Nobody in Ercis was living in their houses any longer, for fear of aftershocks, and sheltering materials were needed desperately. The temperature hovered around 50 in the daytime, and dropped to below freezing at night. The following day the teams searched the surrounding countryside with the Humedica team. They cleared the towns surrounding Ercis, looking for any medical need that may have been overlooked by the Turkish EMS systems. After an exhaustive search it was decided that the relatively shallow fault-‐line had restricted the destructive area of the earthquake to mainly downtown Ercis. The teams surveyed local village elders, but learned that anyone who had been injured was usually sent to Ercis, and would have been treated the day prior.


The teams returned and surveyed the needs in the three “tent cities” in Ercis. They conducted a cursory search for common ailments such as: pneumonia, frostbite, and influenza but found the villagers relatively unaffected. What was causing distress was the lack of bathrooms provided by the Turkish government. There were only a handful of portable bathroom units for an entire city, and trash was everywhere. The inhabitants also needed food and water prepared for them, as they would not enter their houses for fear of them collapsing while they were inside. Turkish emergency medical response teams set up makeshift “dining areas” where they prepared soup and bread for the city dwellers.

TR and Humedica visit a “tent-‐city”

The scout team, then, had to make the difficult decision of whether they could offer any further assistance. They had arrived as quickly as possible, developed an intelligence report, and surveyed the surrounding areas. They also had identified the major needs of the areas and done cursory “primary care” assessments in the tent cities. The team came to the conclusion that the needs of the city inhabitants were outside of their ability. The city needed bathrooms, an Obstetrics/Gynecology doctor who could administer to the pregnant women in the village, and better winter sheltering materials. The villagers also could use an influx of winter clothing, a working telecommunications system, and better access to food, although these were of a secondary concern compared to the first group of needs. With heavy hearts the scout team departed Van the following day. They conducted a final “check-‐in” with their partners at Humedica and told them of their plans to depart. The Humedica team, while under the same suspicions about their role in Ercis, informed the team that they would be staying to provide “comfort items” to the children of Ercis in the form of stuffed animals and toys that they had brought from their home base in Germany, after which they would also depart.

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AREAS OF ANALYSIS

1. Transportation 2. Volunteers 3. Equipment 4. Safety 5. Communications


ANALYSIS

TRANSPORTATION SUMMARY It took the scout team nearly 72 hours to travel to Ercis, Turkey. By that time most of the actual rescue operations had turned into debris removal. Although a few survivors were found after the 72-‐hour mark, most notably a small child who was in a void in a collapsed building, by the 96-‐hour mark the workers were simply looking for bodies. The distances and time zones that separated the rescue team from the Middle East were an enormous barrier. RECOMMENDATION A hard look needs to be made at the actual practicality of sending search and rescue teams into the Middle East, or anywhere else that is a 3-‐day journey away. If they indeed go, then their gear needs to represent the type of operation that they will most likely be doing. This may affect what is taken based upon what can legally and practically be flown inside of an airplane. Dedicated transportation would fix this problem, but is highly expensive. ACTION

VOLUNTEERS SUMMARY Volunteers were chosen based on a very specific need. Personnel needed to be: local, ready to move, and be trained in the types of work that would most likely need to be done. This was identified as personnel who were trained in the following areas: Search-‐and-‐Rescue, Collapsed Structure, Confined Space Rescue, and who were also Paramedics. The two team members were both veterans and the team leader had extensive knowledge of middle eastern customs and courtesies based on prior experience in the middle east on combat deployments. RECOMMENDATION Teams in the future need to take into consideration the changing nature of a disaster site, and plan for the work that they will probably do, not the work that they want to do. This means that a 72-‐hour

• Contact ISTAT-‐AIRLINK about partnership for quick response personnel to be flown directly into “disaster areas”

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journey may end up placing a team on station that doesn’t need to do immediate life-‐saving trauma medicine but who needs to do Obstetrics and Gynecology for a town of women who need maternity care. ACTION

EQUIPMENT SUMMARY The team brought search-‐and-‐rescue gear consisting of a small “haul kit” which contained: rope, carabineers, pulleys, and anchors. This was easily divided between the two packs and made room for individual medical kits for each man. This gear was not used although if the team had arrived within the first 24 hours it very well would have been. The medical gear was used in a Primary Care capacity and for conducting cursory inspections of the locals who were living in the “Tent-‐city” camps. RECOMMENDATION Gear that is brought on missions needs to be handled as sensitive items if they exceed certain commercial monetary value. Also, the gear cache’s will have to be upgraded and gear will need to be separated by type with medicine in a locked cabinet for accountability purposes. ACTION

SAFETY SUMMARY The towns of Van and Ercis had local police doing their regular work duties. Additionally, the Turkish military had recently followed Iraqi PKK forces into Iraq during a “hot pursuit” engagement the day the team arrived. This meant that Turkish military forces were controlling roadways and bridges in the local

• All of the gear caches will be fully inventoried. As well they will be running on a software program that tracks gear and allows Team Rubicon to “check out” and “check in” sensitive items.

• Continue updating database into a volunteer management system that can better identify volunteers who should be deploying.


areas. This added to the overall internal military presence and coupled with the amount of “eyes on” from the international humanitarian community made humanitarian efforts largely protected. RECOMMENDATION The team had met with the mayor of Van when they arrived; this allowed them to be assigned local officials to escort them through the towns. This gave them a degree of overhead protection against anyone who otherwise might bid them harm. ACTION

COMMUNICATIONS SUMMARY The teams lost regular satellite-‐phone coverage when they entered Ercis due to the collapsed infrastructure and poor weather. Interestingly though, the wifi capabilities of the town remained intact, and all that was needed to communicate was a USB air-‐card for a laptop computer. The Humedica team was first to oblige the scout team, and they were able to use a USB air-‐card to communicate blog posts and pictures back to home base. RECOMMENDATION The teams should be carrying international USB air-‐cards on all deployments regardless of the suspected communications systems in the area. Ercis was extremely remote, but the Turkish government had taken steps to ensure that the wifi system was still working. By the 96-‐hour mark they had temporarily fixed the local cell towers as well. ACTION

• Partnerships with local leaders should be set up before departure through some sort of systematic approach, possibly through the state department.

• Purchase, inventory, and stock USB air-‐cards for use during a deployment. • Teams need to update their international features of their cellular phones in case the local cell

phone towers are still working, instead of relying on a sat-‐phone that may not work due to poor weather.

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KEY LESSONS LEARNED

1. The distance that needs to be travelled to a disaster site can severely affect the team’s ability to plan for the suspected mission. Bring what you may need for the follow-‐on mission if at all possible.

2. A more robust volunteer management system needs to be able to isolate key personnel quicker. 3. Equipment that is expensive is “sensitive” and needs to be tracked carefully to ensure that our

precious dollars are not wasted on re-‐buying gear. 4. Sometimes the best way to ensure you are protected while overseas is to be in an area that is

on “military alert”…especially if they are chasing their enemies across the border away from the disaster area.

5. Communications systems do not exist in a vacuum. Expect even the most remote areas of the world to have a rudimentary telecommunications system.


KEY ACTIONS

1. Prepare “blow-‐out” kits for team members that can be standardized across all of the Team Rubicon storage caches. Kits will include medical items that can be used either by the medic on themselves and on a victim.

2. Expand the volunteer database to reflect a user-‐friendly “portal”. 3. Find a software tracking system that will allow Team Rubicon members to easily “sign-‐in” and

“sign-‐out” our gear. Remember, the simple the better…we are usually rushed. 4. Strip down our “communications bag” so that we are carrying the lightest and most

internationally useful gear FIRST. The expensive/heavy gear may end up being an enormous paperweight.

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Turkey AAR