ADEM partners with Arkansas Association of the Deaf to provide emergency response training to the deaf community

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – The Arkansas Department of Emergency Management is partnering with the Arkansas Association of the Deaf to bring disaster emergency training to the deaf community.

The event was held at the Arkansas School of Deaf and through hands-on training exercises, the community was able to learn how to respond to disaster situations.

Through an interpreter, Jeff Prail from the Arkansas Association of the Deaf said the training was spurred on because of the Mar. 31 tornado that ripped through Little Rock last year.

“Do we stay in shelter? Do we come out? We did not know at the time,” Prail said.

With no electricity or proper ways to be alerted, the deaf community was left in the dark. After Prail reached out to Gary Ragen at the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management, he said they began brainstorming ways to avoid this lack of communication in future disasters.

“It feels really good to be able to work with a group of people that have asked for this help and it’s going to help them be better prepared for disasters,” Ragen said.

With the help of other community organizations, this group earned their certificates in stop-the-bleed training and completed the Community Emergency Response Team course.

“Gary understood what our needs were and was willing to do the hard work so it’s teamwork, bottom line,” Prail said.

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