Brown County emergency responders participated in mock disaster training throughout the day Friday and will continue their efforts on Saturday.
Brown County’s Public Health Preparedness Coordinator Emily Gore explained that the drill consisted of two incidents, the morning evacuation of Bangs Nursing Home to a shelter at Early First Baptist Church due to flooding and a two vehicle accident in the afternoon which involved a truck that leaked chemicals.
Pictured above are Brownwood Fire Marshal Buddy Preston and Brownwood Assistant Fire Chief Grady Shuey as they prepared to initiate the emergency instructions during the disaster simulation.
During the drills, emergency personnel experienced additional mock problems that developed during the disaster simulations, such as two flooding victims at the shelter becoming critical—one with a seizure and another experiencing a heart attack, which required ambulance personnel to transport them to the hospital. The hospital was scripted to have an influx of patients due to electricity outages and flooding issues. In addition to this, the vehicle accident had variables of people nearby the accident becoming sick due to fumes and a nurse that become nauseous while treating patients. Cell phone over usage and outages also were simulated to give responders practice with other means of communication involving amateur or radio operators from the Brownwood Radio Club.
Bangs Nursing Home residents enjoyed the day out with staff and learned just what it would take during an evacuation. Administrator Jean Mindieta stated that Bangs Nursing Home has an evacuation plan and that even the resident’s pets are included in the plan.
Below are other pictures of activities during the training simulation.
Jim Hicks, communications operator helps dispatch responders to mock disasters from the Brown County Emergency Communications Trailer.
Guardian EMS attends to heart attack victim at shelter.
Heart attack victim loaded for transport to Brownwood Regional Medical Center.
Bangs Nursing Home Residents and staff members: nurses Dawn Mings & Diane Jones; Jean Mindieta, administrator; and Margie Young, director of nursing.
Salvation Army staff and volunteers helped serve lunch to emergency responders and mock victims. Pictured left to right are Paul Coghlan, Nathaniel Rendon, and Caren Friend, Region 3 Representative of the Salvation Army.
The new Salvation Army trailer used to support in disasters, fires and other emergency situations.