Brown County, City of Brownwood, City of Early, Brownwood/Brown County Health Department, Comanche County, along with the Texas State Guard and numerous other area agencies and organizations will be conducting a disaster drill this Friday & Saturday, June 7th and 8th according to Brown County Emergency Management Coordinator Brent Bush.

Bush stated that the mock disaster will be a large wildland fire requiring the opening of many shelters in and around Brownwood.

Approximately one thousand Texas State Guard personnel will be attending this drill, Bush stated.

One of the shelters to be staged will take place at Care Nursing and Rehabilitation, Inc. of Early.  According to Admissions and Marketing Coordinator Jodie Armstrong, Care Nursing and Rehab will be opening up one of their apartments as a temporary triage shelter for evacuees from the wild fires.

“Our administrative staff met Tuesday, June 4, 2013 with LTC Steven Chung from  the Texas State Guard, and Jimmy Trowbridge and staff from Guardian EMS to design an inject in the already planned wildfire disaster drill to be held this Friday and Saturday,” explained Armstrong.  “Among the roll playing of patients, we will execute patients with a heart attack, diabetes, an Alzheimer’s patient, and a violent evacuee just to name a few.  We will set up our own incident command unit and a communication center set up along with one of Brown Counties own ham operators to assist.”

Armstrong stated the importance of being prepared for disasters.

“I want to make sure that with all the tornadoes, floods and fires that we have seen in the last couple of years, we are being proactive and not reactive,” said Armstrong.   “I look forward to being a part of this exercise and learning to be more prepared for disasters should one strike our community”.

A disaster drill conducted last year in Brown County had a scenario of a disaster caused by a hurricane.   Citizens are reminded to be prepared for emergencies and to sign up for alerts offered by services such as Brown County’s free Code Red alerts or other notification services.  CLICK HERE to sign up for Code Red weather warning alerts in Brown County.  For more information on how to be prepared in case of a disaster, CLICK HERE to visit the Brown County Emergency Management webpage.

Pictured above are Texas State Guardsmen participating in a disaster drill held in June 2012.