 |
| St. Simons Island volunteer firefighter Joe
Combs, from left, his wife, Aimee Combs, assist Martha T. Hodge at her
apartment in an emergency management agency evacuation drill, Friday. (Photo
by Chris Brennaman/The Brunswick News) |
| |
EMA practices speedy
retrieval of elderly, infirm
Joe Combs took off work two hours
early to practice evacuating people from Brunswick and the Golden Isles.
A volunteer firefighter in Glynn
County, he was taking part in a practice drill for the Glynn County Emergency
Management Agency's plan for evacuation of special needs citizens.
"This is something we need to do in
the event of a bad storm," Combs said Friday.
"I feel good doing it."
The plan is to make sure that people
with no family or friends and with certain medical needs are taken care of in
the event of a mandatory evacuation.
The drill called for members of the
Glynn County Volunteer Fire Department and Search and Rescue to act as if an
actual evacuation had been called for.
"This helps give everyone an insight
into what to expect," said Capt. Richard Strickland, director of the Glynn
County EMA.
"This is a functional exercise."
Residents with special needs were
picked up in vans by volunteers and taken to the Brunswick Multipurpose Center,
where they were put on school buses.
In a real evacuation, school buses
will be used to transport them to Ware County High School.
"It would happen 72 hours prior to
the storm," Strickland said.
"The last thing we would want to do
is have them sit in five to six hours of traffic."
After the practice exercise, everyone
was taken back home.
|
