By OLIVIA BERGMEIER
Salina Post
Tabletop RPG dice rolls decided the disaster scenario for the Saline County Department of Emergency Management's training session last Thursday — a 4 p.m. tornado through the south side of Salina.
Subsequent dice rolls decided that the tornado caused 50 injuries during the event, one death, widespread damages and power outages across town.
RPG stands for 'role-playing game,' which is also commonly known as pen-and-paper games where players describe the actions they intend to take. Most games use dice rolls to decide the outcomes of the said actions.
Emergency Management director Michelle Weis said she plays Dungeons and Dragons and thought the dice-rolling aspect of the game would be helpful in a training scenario.
Read more: Michelle Weis helps prepare Saline County with emergency exercises
A dice roll at 9 a.m. decided the disaster participants would respond to and each change throughout the day until 3 p.m. when some participants finished training with a media debrief.
Act as you train — realistic scenarios and solutions
Throughout the training exercise, Weis walked along the training room to allow participants to roll and decide the situation's outcome. Each roll decided on various factors throughout the day.
Weis said crisis training before this often focused on worst-case scenarios, with rigidly designed situations that don't allow first responders to think quickly and adapt to shifting environments.
"It can be pretty simple to say, 'I'm just going to show up and I'm going to do my job, and everything's going to be fine,'" Weis said. "In reality, we all know that nothing ever goes how we plan."
An important focus point of the day was quickly finding out the "who does what's" of the 17 various departments at the training event, defining each unit's roles in a crisis scenario.
Salina Regional Health Center infection preventionist and emergency preparedness coordinator Gerilyn Diederich said she was impressed by the communication skills between departments, quickly dividing up tasks and assistance for the community.
SRHC inpatient supervisor Misty Long and Diederich said the training was more realistic, allowing participants to adapt to changing scenarios with each dice roll.
"It makes you think on your toes, and that's exactly what you'll be doing in a disaster," Long said. "A lot of people are counting on us to think on our toes, and you always act as you train, so training with this kind of scenario is really very helpful for us."
Long and Diederich said they intend to present this type of training for SRHC, focusing on training for the various crisis scenarios the center could experience.
Salina Police Department sergeant Mike Miller said the training exercise was helpful for his department and wants to see more people in the room next time.
"I think we need to bring more city departments in, especially if we're going to have an emergency within the city," Miller said.
Most of the 17 departments that participated included county divisions, including some from Lincoln and Dickinson counties.
"They all essentially want to come together and help the community out for the greater good, whether that's in an emergency or whether that's dedicating six hours to sitting through a training," Weis said. "The fact that they put everything aside and dedicated a day to this speaks volumes to their commitment to making sure that the city and county are prepared for whatever incidents may occur here."
Weis said she intends to do the training exercise again with some improvements in the future.