Disaster Day Participants Brave Inclement Weather To Execute Disaster-Response Simulation
BRYAN-COLLEGE STATION, TX—More than 600 Texas A&M University students braved forecasted rain alongside Texas A&M Health Science Center (Texas A&M Health) faculty and staff to conduct the 17th annual Disaster Day on March 28. As the nation’s largest student-led, interprofessional emergency response simulation, Disaster Day provides students with critical life-saving skills required in disaster situations.
This year’s exercise saw students navigating a simulated train derailment with complications arising from a hazardous materials spill at Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service's (TEEX) Disaster City, a 52-acre mock city that simulates real disasters and serves as a training facility for emergency responders. Event participants engaged in triage at the disaster site, patient care at mock field hospitals, mental health care and needs assessment at an evacuation shelter, and disaster management and simulation oversight.
Disaster Day affords student participants the opportunity to develop vital skillsets with the potential to substantially impact Texas communities, said Christine Kaunas, EdD, MPH, assistant vice president for Interprofessional Practice, Education and Research, the Texas A&M Health office that oversees the coordination of the event in concert with a student planning committee. In addition to disaster-response skills and disciplinary skills within individual fields like medicine, pharmacy or public health, students also learn team-based skills by practicing alongside other professions.
“Research shows that well-developed collaborative skills improve patient and population outcomes, especially during a disaster,” Kaunas said. “From 1980-2024, there were 190 confirmed weather/climate disaster events—an average of four per year—with losses exceeding $1 billion each, including wildfires, tropical storms, hurricanes and winter storms. Disaster Day equips our students to stand on the front lines, ready to serve when disaster strikes.”
In 2024, Americans grappled with record heat, wildfires and hurricanes. April alone brought more than 100 active tornadoes amidst still-wintry weather in parts of the United States.
For Student Planning Director Tyler Watson ‘27, the annual exercise embodies the best of Texas A&M University.
“Being able to achieve this big feat to serve our fellow students, seeing so many people being excited is encouraging, because this matters to people,” Watson said. “It’s not an easy task, but it’s one that means a lot and will make a difference.”
This year marked Watson’s third year of participation in Disaster Day. Starting off as a volunteer in the fall of 2022 on the student planning committee, he took on the role of incident commander for Disaster Day 2024. While serving as the student planning director for Disaster Day 2025, Watson is pursuing a doctorate in counseling psychology in the Texas A&M Department of Educational Psychology.
“Getting to see it from a different view has been really eye-opening,” Watson said. “As much as the disaster changes, the process doesn’t. In a disaster, you’re going to have chaos, you’re going to consistently need multiple disciplines to reach a common goal. No one discipline or person can solve it all, but the whole is consistently greater than the sum of the parts.”
This opportunity for growth sets apart Disaster Day for students looking to hone real-world skills, according to Kaunas.
“It’s truly a privilege to work with the next generation of health professionals as they take on the challenge of planning and implementing a large-scale and incredibly complex disaster response simulation,” Kaunas said. “Their dedication, ingenuity and collaborative spirit are nothing short of inspiring. They demonstrate an impressive ability to think critically, work across disciplines, and demonstrate exceptional talent and leadership potential that will shape the future of health care across our state.”
Disaster Day began in 2008 with a group of 35 students from the Texas A&M College of Nursing who, after watching Texas A&M provide disaster relief to the more than 650 individuals displaced by Hurricane Rita, conducted their own, day-long mock disaster. Today, a group of more than 50 students meets for six to eight months, under the guidance of Texas A&M faculty and staff and TEEX disaster response experts, to plan the annual, one-day event. Planning and event participants hail from across Texas A&M, including all five Texas A&M Health colleges and schools, the Texas A&M College of Education & Human Development, the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, and the Texas A&M Corps of Cadets. Event partners include multiple state and local government entities and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
Over the years, Kaunas has watched Disaster Day evolve and pivot to reflect not only the natural disasters facing today’s medical professionals and emergency responders, but also the various logistical challenges presented over the years. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Disaster Day adopted a fully virtual format, as students persevered to facilitate the event despite stay-at-home orders.
“Planning a realistic disaster simulation of this scale is monumental,” Kaunas said. “The student planning committee and their faculty and staff steering committee have dedicated thousands of hours to make this event realistic and impactful for the student participants. The event also represents a model of multi-level cooperation across dozens of state and local entities, as well as NGOs and industry partners, which showcases the resources Texas A&M Health brings to bear for the most impactful student learning experience.”
As Disaster Day looks toward its 18th year, Kaunas anticipates the event will continue to grow as it reflects evolving challenges and new potential disaster scenarios.
“At Texas A&M Health, we take disaster response seriously,” Kaunas said. “We work to ensure our health professions students can adapt to address the many challenges of emergency situations and are prepared to respond when—not if—the next disaster strikes.”
Texas A&M University Health Science Center
Texas A&M University Health Science Center (Texas A&M Health) comprises five colleges (dentistry, medicine, nursing, pharmacy and public health), integrated University Health Services, several research centers and institutes, and numerous outpatient clinics with a shared mission of advancing health care for all. We serve the state and beyond with campuses and locations in Bryan-College Station, Dallas, Temple, Houston, Round Rock, Kingsville, Corpus Christi, McAllen and Navasota. Learn more at health.tamu.edu or follow @TAMUHealth on X.
