“How would Jersey cope with a mass casualty event?”

Friday 20 November 2015

With the world still reeling from the terrorist massacre in Paris seven days ago, the emergency services have been gathering this week to talk about how Jersey would handle the aftermath of a major disaster.

The two-day seminar at the Airport has focussed not just on the immediate response to a disaster, but also the impact on the community in the weeks and months that followed.

Dr Anne Eyre – an expert on psycho-social aspects of crises and major emergencies - has been talking to around 70 delegates from the emergency services, States departments and voluntary bodies about how a community responds to a tragedy.

She has worked with survivors of the Hillsborough disaster and the Marchioness ferry tragedy about the impact of mass-fatality events.

“It’s not just the impact of the event, but also the aftermath and the response in the days and weeks after, and putting the needs of the people in involved in major casualty-events right at the heart of the planning and response,” she said.

“It’s about having places where people who have been affected by an incident can go, places where friends and families can come, and humanitarian centres which can address the needs of people affected in the weeks and months after an incident.

“We have seen it in Paris in the last few day – one of the things that consistently happens is that people want to talk to each other, people want to come together and support those who have been affected and to express their common grief.

“It’s about enabling people to make a place where a tragedy has happened and to make sure that site is respected and the wishes of the families are met in terms of opportunities to visit and to have access to the kind of support that they need from one place, rather than going to lots of different services.”

The event has also focussed on casualty identification, body recovery and liaison with travel services and other governments.