Multi-County Emergency Preparedness Exercise Planned For Region

Nashville, Tennessee — The Tennessee Office of Homeland Security, in cooperation with the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency, local Emergency Management Agencies, public safety, health department and hospital officials in Bedford, Coffee, Franklin, Lincoln, Marshall, Moore, and Rutherford Counties, will conduct an emergency preparedness exercise on Tuesday, April 24, beginning at 9:00am and continuing until 1:00pm.  Events will be staged on the grounds of the Tennessee Walking Horse Celebration in Shelbyville, at Lincoln County High School in Fayetteville and in hospitals throughout the seven-county area comprising Homeland Security District 6.

Forty-seven agencies will be active participants in this real-life exercise.  More than 300 citizen volunteers will support this area-wide emergency preparedness exercise by acting as victims.  Some of the actors/victims will include students from Lincoln County High School.  They will participate at the Point of Distribution (POD) located at the school.  Simulated medications are to be distributed in response to the exercise scenario.

The POD is being overseen by the Tennessee Department of Health through its South Central Regional Office.  At no time will students actually be exposed to any infectious agents or be given any medications.   Public participation in this exercise event is of great value in adding realism and increasing the training value of the exercise.

The goal of this exercise and all other similar training sponsored by the Tennessee Office of Homeland Security is to establish real-life learning experiences.  By participating in these training opportunities, police, fire, ambulance, rescue squad, health department and hospital personnel can become familiar with and rehearse the steps necessary to respond to and recover from a mass casualty event, especially events resulting from acts of terrorism.  Community-wide exercises such as this one give responders in this part of the state an opportunity to evaluate their plans and performance under real-life conditions.

The Tennessee Department of Safety (www.tennessee.gov/safety) is responsible for ensuring the safety and general welfare of the traveling public.  The department’s general areas of responsibility include law enforcement, safety education and motorist services including the issuance of driver licenses.  The department and its highly trained staff of Troopers are responsible for safety on more than 15,000 miles of state and federal highways.