A new addition has been added to the Columbia Police Department fleet; a mass disaster response vehicle otherwise known as the AmbuBus.
The Columbia School District donated the bus. It is set up on the inside to be able to transport up to 12 patients. There is a space to establish a command post in the vehicle with all of the communication equipment already on board.
“The idea behind this is if we get deployed by the state, they will staff this bus with nurses and we would go to a hospital or nursing home and do an evac of that,” Chief Michael Kelly said.
Kelly said the vehicle is set up to with extra power to allow for IVs and other medical equipment to be utilized as needed.
The idea came about when Kelly said where he worked before the department had a trailer crate with everything in it, but it would take half a day to set it up. It’s too late then, he said. The Mississippi Department of Health then went to the idea of buses, which are already mostly set up.
He said he called the Health Department and said with multiple nursing homes and a hospital, they needed to be prepared. The department told him if he could get a bus, they would equip it.
Volunteers painted the bus white and put new flooring in.
“It’s a labor of love that you hope you never need,” Kelly said.
The AmbuBus has two air conditioners and a generator. Not only can it transport up to 12 patients at a time, but there are extra cots to allow them to return to pick up more patients.
Toward the back of the bus is additional light that can be set up outside. Kelly said it was something similar to a lighthouse, and the bus is equipped with a ramp and railings to accommodate patients in wheelchairs.
It took over a year to get it all together, Kelly said.
The AmbuBus is currently in service helping carrying supplies to Covington and Jeff Davis counties where residents received severe damage from the Easter tornado.
“We’re happy to have it,” Kelly said.
