Saturday, September 14, 2013

T.F. Green (KPVD) holds Disaster Preparedness Exercise

WARWICK, R.I. -   Saturday, NBC 10 got a glimpse inside the emergency process at T.F. Green during a Disaster Preparedness Exercise that was put on by the Rhode Island Airport Corporation, the Rhode Island Emergency Management, and emergency response partners.

The Federal Aviation Administration requires this type of exercise once every three years, and our cameras were allowed in to get a close up view of the proceedings.

NBC 10 spoke with Rebecca Bromberg, Communications Affairs Manager , who emphasized the main purpose of the drill; "that's the whole point of an exercise like this, to find out the glitches with communications, with emergency response, so that we're better prepared if we do have a real accident here at the airport."

Alan Andrade, Vice President of Operations and Maintenance, explained the scenario for this particular exercise, "the initial call was that an aircraft landed and the nose gear collapsed, and then we had a mishap, we had injuries."

In Saturday's scenario, the actual airplane was replaced by a couple of buses, but the emergency responders are very real, and so is the communication among them.

The emergency protocol uses a color-coded bracelet system complete with bar codes so that patients can be tracked through every step of the rescue process.

An emergency triage center is set up on airport grounds to process those with minor injuries, and EMTs are on hand to transport those more seriously injured.

More than 20 agencies and upwards of 250 people took part in a Disaster Preparedness Exercise that was held Saturday morning at T.F. Green Airport.

The exercise was put on by the Rhode Island Airport Corporation (RIAC), the Rhode Island Emergency Management (RIEMA), and the emergency response partners for the purpose of assisting aviation, law agencies, and first responders in incident preparedness.

In a press release RIAC President and CEO Kelly Fredericks described the purpose of the exercise saying "this required exercise tests our responsiveness in the event of an incident or accident. There is a great deal of required communication and cooperation between first responders, city and state agencies and RIAC."

The exercise was conducted as if it were an actual incident, including participation from area hospitals; it lasted several hours and was held primarily on the northeast side of the airfield.


Original Article:   http://www.turnto10.com