Cleve Dowell/Clarendon Citizen
Clarendon emergency officials deem disaster drill a success
An evacuation bus carrying families back to their homes on the coast collided with a large truck in Manning on Thursday, June 17.
There were 20 people on board.
Luckily this was just a drill.
The exercise was a collaborative effort by members of the Clarendon County Emergency Operations Center (EOC), Clarendon County EMS and Clarendon Health System. County and city fire departments and law enforcement were also involved in the statewide disaster exercise.
The drill, held in conjunction with the South Carolina Emergency Management Division, was done to test the state’s hurricane preparations.
“This drill reinforced that Clarendon Health System is prepared to handle a large volume of patients in the event of a major disaster,” Scherrie Cogdill, Director of Community Services said. “The communication between EMS, the fire departments, the police and the hospital was excellent.”
About 20 Clarendon County and Manning Fire Department personnel were at the scene of the staged catastrophe.
An overturned school bus was placed in the Manning High School parking area.
Twenty volunteers from the school’s ROTC program, as well as the community participated as actors. They were placed in the bus with marked bandages which indicated their injuries.
Firefighters “arrived” at the scene, made assessment of the situation and began to serve power, check for leaks and make entry points in to the bus. They made two holes in the roof and began to take out victims.
“We were able to do all that in about 10 minutes,” said Clarendon Fire Chief, Frances Richbourg.
The victims were then transported to Clarendon Memorial Hospital via Clarendon EMS, and other private transport companies. Cogdill said that the hospital ran by an internal disaster plan.
“When you have an external disaster, the hospital has to have a plan to deal with the volume of patients and the various trauma,” Cogdill said.
Cogdill said that the exercise was a success. A majority of the state’s 46 counties had staged events of their own to test their levels of readiness in the event of a disaster.
