How Virtual Reality Will Change Emergency Preparedness Readiness
Virtual Reality (VR) will be a game changer for disaster response training around the world.
VR has the capabilities of putting the first responder or trainee in real-life drills and tabletop exercises.
Emergency Case is exploring the different uses of virtual reality based training in efforts to help ensure responders and volunteers are prepared for a wide variety of potential disasters.
According to 2015 statistics by FEMA, the most common disasters are:
43% Floods
28% storms
8% earthquakes
6% extreme temperatures
5% Landslides
5% Droughts
4% Wildfires
2% Volcano Activity
(Terrorism and Active Shooter were not listed)
In 2015, there was 16.1 Billion Dollars in insured losses due to natural disasters in the U.S.
At the same time in 2015, there were 316 fatalities from natural disasters.
How Can VR Help the Preparedness Industry Today?
There are several ways first responders and volunteers can benefit from VR disaster response training.
Safety: first responders can practice real life scenarios and skills in a safe and protective environment.
Environment: Pre-designed common place disaster scenarios can be created to prepare them for different circumstances and environments.
Efficiency: First responders can be trained in simulated environments individually or as a team. This allows for better team building and uniform training.
Community Cohesion Training: Single agency or neighboring agencies could train together and have some unit cohesion on how to best handle a disaster situation. Coordinated response will be necessary so coordinated response will have more of a helpful impact for needed communities.
Tailored Training: Training can be customized to recreate certain 3-D training environments that would provide a variety of different training scenarios providing a “think tank” of endless opportunity to train individuals or teams to react in stressful situations.
Why the current emergency preparedness training isn’t cutting it.
Training for emergency preparedness is conducted in a classroom. The web-based presentation (powerpoint) material lacks the realism missing from conducting drills and emergency exercises.
Different cities and departments conduct their own version of training and is usually different from other cities. Some places have more people respond while others have no one caring about their communities.
Benefits of VR
People can be learn more from advanced training because they find themselves being immersed in different disaster situations.
The implementation of planning and training in a training environment can make a difference between life and death in the real world.
Scenario based training can make a big difference in how first responders and volunteers react during stressful situations.
Experience is the best teacher. When first responders and volunteers get the best training possible, they will be able to perform their duties and tasks during a stressful situation.
VR Disaster Response Training will be a game changer in how we train, assist and help communities affected by natural or man-made disasters.
Emergency Case believes in teaching, training and inspiring other Americans to be ready for any emergency situation.
It’s your civic duty to be prepared and not be dependent on the federal government for help.
VR is the future of disaster preparedness and Emergency Case will take the lead.
