The Wrangell Medical Center (WMC) and the Local Community Preparedness Committee (LEPC) is planning to stage its annual emergency disaster drill on the flats of the Stikine River this year.
Janet Buness, who works on emergency preparedness at the hospital has been tasked with planning the drill. Buness said she is hoping to stage a boat wreck on the flats with 30 “victims.”
The drill should take place in late summer, Buness said, and should be a collaborative effort between WMC, the fire and police departments as well as other community organizations such as Alaska Island Community Services and the Stikine River Jet Boat Association.
“Our goal is really to work on getting everybody to come together,” she said.
Thirty community volunteers will be needed to act as “victims,” which is a larger number of victims than used in past emergency disaster drills, Buness said.
Also, that amount of victims will force the WMC to set up an alternative care site at the elementary school, where those with “minor injuries” from the “disaster” will be transported, she said.
Besides testing the effectiveness of an alternative care site, Buness said other goals of this year’s drill are to test the communication system between the WMC and the fire department, as well as work on interactions with volunteer organization and the city government.
Unlike previous disaster drills, this year’s drill in Wrangell will have a consultant draw up specific plans. The consultant is being provided through the Metropolitan Medical Response System (MMRS) for Southeast Alaska, said Buness.
Observers of the disaster drill will be watching and assessing what went right, what the community needs to work on and things that should be improved upon should a disaster take place in Wrangell, she said.
“This is really a full scale exercise,” Buness said.
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