Home › News › Local news
Disaster drill helps agencies prepare for the worst
Please download the latest version of Adobe Flash Player, or enable JavaScript for your browser to view the video player.
Photo Gallery
A 'practice' disaster
Naples-area emergency response agencies earned some practice points Tuesday with a drill for a "disaster" at the Naples airport. The fictional drill helped agencies be prepared in case of an emergency.
More Local news
- Lee County Sheriff Alert: Possible child abduction in Lee County
- PHOTOS/POLL: Outspoken public takes full advantage of final public forum on proposed Alligator Alley lease
- Collier students and their parents get an education in college acceptance
Tell us about it
- What would you add to this story? Tell us what we missed.
- Do you have photos from this event? Documents we need to see? Share with us.
- Upload photos & videos
- More ways to get your stuff online and in the paper.
STORY TOOLS
Share and Enjoy [?]
Protruding bones, bloody wounds and burned flesh — the Naples Municipal Airport took on the look of a zombie movie Tuesday morning.
But this was no cinematic gore-fest.
Instead, volunteers donned bloody makeup to play victims of an airplane crash as part of a real-time drill for nearly two dozen Collier County emergency response agencies and hospitals. The drill was hosted and coordinated by the Collier County Emergency Services Bureau.
The three-hour drill started at 9 a.m. on the tarmac outside the Collier Mosquito Control District offices where firefighters extinguished a blaze in a portable fuselage rented for the training.
About 100 students and volunteers from local community emergency response teams were strewn across the tarmac, moaning and screaming, awaiting paramedics and firefighters to triage them.
Sue Brennan, the team leader of the Golden Gate Estates CERT team, did her best to stay in character, even as a misty rain began to fall.
“I can’t breathe,” she said. “I’m so afraid. I’m going to die. I’m so scared.”
The drill was a part of a multi-phase exercise that county officials have been planning for about a year, Emergency Services Director Dan Summers said. Earlier in the year, county officials took part in exercises simulating workplace violence and hazardous materials situations.
Summers said emergency services officials like to do field exercises at least every two years. That way, new emergency responders have a chance to participate and new technology is implemented.
By mid-morning, officials had found that a couple of emergency radio channels were mislabeled.
“We’ll find the devils in the details, make a list and make corrective actions as soon as possible so we’re ready for the next event,” Summers said.
Once the victims had been organized with green, yellow, red and black armbands to signify the severity of their wounds — green for minor injuries to black, signifying dead victims — they were transported to local hospitals.
School and county buses were used instead of real ambulances, so as not to tie up the ambulances in case of a real emergency, Summers said.
At Physicians Regional Medical Center-Pine Ridge, victims who had been contaminated with jet fuel showered in a yellow decontamination tent and then shivered in plastic garments while they waited for emergency care.
“It’s freezing outside, but the water was warm,” joked Jessica Judd, a 21-year-old student from the Lorenzo Walker Institute of Technology who volunteered for the decontamination shower.
A chilly morning was the least of Brandon Cardin’s concerns as he waited to go to the emergency room with a severe stomach wound and a shard of glass protruding from his forehead.
“Two minutes after I get in there, I expire,” Cardin said of his instructions. “I’m starting to stink. Rigor mortis is setting in.”
Heather Meyers, a spokeswoman for the hospital, said real patients were notified of the drill so they wouldn’t be concerned. The drill will help the hospital prepare for a real emergency, Meyers said.
“In health care,” she said, “you have to expect the unexpected.”








Comments
This site does not necessarily agree with comments posted below. Comments are the sole responsibility of the person posting them. Break our rules, and we will ban you. No exceptions, no second chances. Read our privacy policy & user agreement.
Great job by all of Collier County Emergency Management and the respective CERT Teams from around the county. We are all grateful for those people that take the time to drill in the hopes that the actual event never occurs.
Collier Emergency Management is the best. When we need them they will be ready to help us all.
#1 Posted by MarcoRobert on April 29, 2008 at 2:23 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I am glad they got to play with their toys, I hope they gather dust and turn to rust before we ever need to use them for real.
#2 Posted by kneejerk on April 29, 2008 at 9:54 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Lets pray there isn't any jobs cut so that we still have these professionals to respond to the calls !!!! Good job everyone !!
#3 Posted by Nplschick on April 30, 2008 at 1:41 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Don't forget most if not all of the actual CERT members are volunteers from the community. CCEM helps coordinate the teams as well as other local public safety agencies, namely fire dept's.
#4 Posted by zumachris on May 1, 2008 at 6:48 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Post your comment
(Requires free registration.)