Tornado response likely included CDP alumni

When a series of devastating tornadoes tore through the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic in early December, leaving destruction, despair and grief in their wake, hundreds of responders sprang into action to tend to the storms’ survivors.

Chances are good a number of those responders were graduates of one or more Center for Domestic Preparedness courses.

During the last three years alone, the CDP has trained more 2,000 law enforcement officers, firefighters, doctors, nurses and emergency medical technicians from the four states hit hardest by the storms – Arkansas, Kentucky, Missouri and Tennessee.         

That total includes more than 340 responders in Kentucky, 460 in Arkansas, 710 in Missouri, and nearly 800 in Tennessee. 

Courses taken include the CDP’s Incident Command: Capabilities, Planning and Response Actions for All Hazards; Healthcare Leadership for Mass Casualty Incidents; Environmental Health Training in Emergency Response (EHTER) Operations; and Managing Public Information for All Hazards Incidents courses.

The late-season tornado outbreak produced catastrophic damage and numerous fatalities in the evening of December 10 and the early morning of December 11.

The death toll from the outbreak was 90 (with three additional non-tornadic fatalities).