Explorer Post 493 sponsored by the Boulder Branch of the American Red Cross, and the Boulder City County Office of Emergency Management was chartered early in 1995 as a pilot program for Emergency Management Exploring. The Federal Emergency Management Agency first proposed the program in 1992 as a way for Explorers to become involved in helping their communities to prepare for disasters by teaching emergency preparedness to children in elementary schools, members of the community and many other areas. Explorer members of Post 493 have completed a variety of Red Cross Training courses in Disaster Preparedness and Community Disaster Education, as well as courses in Incident Command, Red Cross Emergency Response (first responder) and CPR for the Professional Rescuer. Other post upcoming events include "Ham" radio training and licensing, visits to the Federal Emergency Management Agency Offices and the National Earthquake Center, the North American Air Defense Command Center (NORAD) and Community Emergency Response Team (C.E.R.T.) training.
During this program development phase, information on the program and evaluation of the techniques will be submitted to the Federal Emergency Management Agency and to the National Exploring Division of B.S.A. for inclusion in future updates of the newly published "Emergency Management Exploring Program Helps." The first edition has just been published and is available to Explorer Posts from local B.S.A. council offices.
Some of the early events of Emergency Management Exploring included the 1994 and 1995 Explorer Mock Disasters held in Golden and Boulder respectively. The 1994 scenario involved simulated school bus crash and was featured in the Spring 1995 edition of the national Exploring magazine. The 1995 event was a simulated raid on an illegal "drug" factory with resultant explosions, "casualties" and law enforcement. Explorers from the Denver Area Council and Longs Peak Council Explorer Officers Association (E.O.A.) jointly planned the events and conducted them. Explorers from a variety of different posts joined together to participate. Over 120 Explorers participated, either as "victims" rescuers, law enforcement, firefighters, incident command/communications, and many others. The Explorer "Mock Disaster" is an annual event designed to permit Explorers to assume all of the roles of managing a "mass casualty incident" (M.C.I.) to improve their emergency preparedness skills.
Charter members of Post 493 were primarily Explorers from existing posts specializing in Law Enforcement, Firefighting, Search and Rescue, Health/Medical Careers, High Adventure, as well as some new members who were not previously Explorers.
Post 493 Explorers have developed their own "Web" page on the Internet to describe their post program and share ideas with other posts interested in forming Emergency Management Explorer Posts. The Post 493 "Web Page" can be accessed by address "http://bcn.boulder.co.us/community/explorer/". E-mail address is Amick@Spot.Colorado.Edu.