Thursday evening may have seemed like a nice summer night for most in Marion County, but it was anything but a nice summer night for the Columbia police and fire departments. These men and women were preparing for the worse possible scenario resulting in a mass casualties event.
Miss. Citizen Corps State Program Manager, Dave Nichols II, oversaw the training exercise, which began at the police department. The citizen corps program is through the Miss. Dept. of Homeland Security.
Police Chief Michael Kelly said they normally try to do some type of mass casualty exercise once a year, however with the coronavirus pandemic, they could not do so.
The event started first with a class led by Nichols, where he explained how to assess potential victims to determine the level of triage quickly.
“We all want to save lives, but we have to work toward the greater good so as many lives as possible are saved,” Nichols said.
Nichols said that because as law enforcement, firemen and first responders do everything they can to save a life, however, the goal is to save as many lives as possible in a mass casualty event.
“Failure is normally not an option, but in this case, it is okay to fail. We are here to learn,” Kelly told the group.
During the break and unbeknownst to the group, a second group was positioned at the training exercise location. This group were individuals who had all kinds of injuries (fake) and scattered all over.
Nichols told the exercise trainees that a tornado came through Bluff Street Park, while a family was hosting a reunion there. He then gave them five minutes to prepare.
At Bluff Street Park, the trainees arrived to see people spread out with different severity of injuries, from no injuries to fatal. The victims were screaming and yelling in pain and wanting help as in a real situation.
Immediately all of the trainees went out and began checking on the victims. The victims were tagged with one of four different colors. Red meant they needed immediate help. Orange meant delayed help as in they are badly injured but does not appear to be life-threatening if not treated right away. Green meant minor injuries and black meant the person was deceased.
From the assessment and speaking with the victims, the trainees learned some people were missing and broke into teams searching the park, including the railroad tracks for victims. While those teams were searching, a triage area was set up with the CPD Ambus.
Slowly the victims made their way by stretchers to the triage area, unless they could walk, to be further assessed and receive more treatment.
The exercise at Bluff Street Park lasted for 90 minutes and the trainees went back to the CPD conference room to discuss how it went.
Nichols gave the group a C+. He was very impressed with how many trainees knew basic first aid, which was a huge help. However, on scene, he noted the group did not meet to assign tasks to everyone. Instead, they all immediately went to check on the victims.
“That is what you are trained to do, save lives, however in a mass casualty event, you have to think differently,” Nichols told them.
Several different teams assessed some victims, and he said that is a waste of valuable time as in a real situation, every second counts,” Nichols stated.
Overall, though Nichols was pleased and so was Kelly. Kelly said they now know what they need to improve on to do better. He told the group that the training was held so everyone could learn and be better prepared should a real event occur.
