LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — One of Arkansas' most underserved populations received hands-on training Friday in emergency response.
A dozen members of the deaf and hard-of-hearing community came together for Community Emergency Response Team Training at the Arkansas School for the Deaf.
"It's about neighbors helping neighbors in all communities," ADEM Community Preparedness Coordinator Gary Ragen said. "In a disaster, it's not like what you see on TV with fire trucks and EMTs everywhere. It may be some time before you receive help."
That's why Ragen with ADEM ensures the hard-of-hearing and deaf communities are equipped with these lifesaving skills.
"How to put out fires, work in disaster situations, care for patients, first aid, search and rescue, all these different skills necessary for a disaster that they can help within their communities as volunteers until the professional help arrives," Ragen said.
Jeff Prail is the vice president of the Arkansas Association of the Deaf and a member of the deaf community. He said the March 2023 tornado was eye-opening and is part of the reason he wanted to do this training.
"There was no access to communication, so there was a lot of missing information that the deaf community did not receive," Prail said. "We felt helpless. We didn't know what was going on or what to do next. We didn't have the tools necessary."
Prail said that after the training, he and others will have more confidence in their ability to jump into action and help those around them in a crisis.
"We're the first CERT team here that's deaf," Prail said. "We're hoping that we can provide this statewide, as needed. If there is a deaf community that's impacted, and in a different part of Arkansas, we would love to go and support and facilitate any communication and access."
According to ADEM, their next goal is to give students the credentials to teach other communities what they learned.