Yesterday’s Obama rally was historic, and the record turnout of 75,000 people was only one reason. During the last election, a comparatively smaller rally for John Kerry (45,000) on a hot day led to over 100 heat injuries, with fire personnel having great difficulty finding people in the crowd or getting them out. Given the chance for a similar medical scenario yesterday, POEM activated the Woodlawn Neighborhood Emergency Team to coordinate a first aid response. Woodlawn NET recruited members from all of the associated neighborhoods around station 14.
It was a long hot day, especially for the medical strike teams that went out into the massive crowds with water. The need never ended, we continued to hand out water (entire gallons to families and groups) until the park was mostly emptied out. Andrew Ayers from the Woodlawn team estimated that the 5 pallets of water distributed represented 1,600 gallons of water, weighing 13,000lbs.
Special thanks go out to the Portland Water Bureau, which donated and delivered 8 pallets of water to our aid station. Dan from the Obama campaign was an amazing event manager as well, quickly providing everything we needed, from metal barricades to our own port-a-potty. Obama volunteers were also a critical component in preventing heat injury, about 20 of them continually took water/cups out into the blocks-long lines and into the crowd to keep people hydrated. It was inspirational to watch so many people seeing a common need and pitching in to help out.
The real measure of success was the fact that there were only a handful of serious cases for the fire bureau and paramedics to deal with, and we only had 3 individuals brought to the NET aid station for shade/cooling. Quite an achievement and a stark contrast to what happened at the Kerry rally. Thanks go out to the amazing team which mobilized for the better part of Sunday.
Steve Gough, a Eugene resident who attended the rally, wrote in to the NET program website on Monday following the rally: “I attended the Obama rally yesterday, and I was very concerned about the potential problems for heat related injuries. While standing in line for over 3 hours, I could tell that most people did not come prepared with enough water. Your group saved lives yesterday. You are to be commended for a fantastic job. You were very well prepared and totally organized.”
If you are interested in learning more about the City’s free Neighborhood Emergency Team Program, visit www.pdxprepared.NET
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This is *really* impressive! Heat-related medical issues are often overlooked for big events, especially at the beginning of the hot season. Way to go, Woodlawn + Ethan!