VIDEO: County Hosts Drill to Prepare Students and First Responders

LOWNDES COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI)- Multiple emergency response agencies responded to BMH in Columbus this morning for a decontamination drill.

“We test our plans to make sure there are no gaps in our plan,”  says Lowndes County Emergency Services Coordinator Cindy Lawrence.

Practice makes perfect, or that was the goal at Thursday’s drill.

The fire department, police department, MEMA, Hazmat team, and BMH staff all tested their communication with one another- so that in the event of a real emergency each agency knows their role.

“In a real event, we’d all be working together and we know each others plans and what to do in case there was an emergency in Lowndes County,” says Lawrence.

Students from MUW’s nursing program played multiple roles in Thursdays drill, from student, to victim, and even first responder.

Professors from the school say this is the perfect scenario for students to learn the skills they need to know to react to these emergency situations.

“They’ll get to see from the hospital standpoint, and from other community agencies, emergency management, and the department of health. The real world experience of seeing how everyone communicates together, how everyone has to work together in the times of a disaster,” says MUW nursing Professor Cathy Smith.

The scenario also included surrounding medical offices and put the offices preperations to the test…

“It’ll test their communications, how they’ll handle their patients, if they’ve got patients that are supposed to be coming in for an appointment it’ll test their contact and bring up the question, ‘ok how do we get a hold of the patient and tell them not to come right now and set them up another appointment’, so it’s testing them and the communication within their facilities,” says Mississippi Department of Health Emergency Coordinator Curtis Jernigan.

Following the drill, the agencies will meet and discuss what worked and what might need improvement.