Mass Casualty Exercise Caps Hurricane Theme Week
Students train on mass casualty response and recovery operations at the CDP’s Advanced Responder Training Complex during Hurricane Theme Week.
The Center for Domestic Preparedness (CDP) hosted its 2018 Hurricane Theme Week April 30 through May 5.
The CDP combined four courses and 175 coastal area emergency response and healthcare professionals for a week of hurricane-themed training, culminating in a mass casualty and environmental health exercise at the Advanced Responder Training Complex and the Noble Training Facility.
This capstone exercise combined a large, mass casualty response and recovery operation involving the decontamination of live-actor and mannequin patients with environmental health tasks caused by a hurricane.
Hurricane Theme Week training also included several guest lectures, including a presentation by Cheryl Nelson, an Emmy-nominated, certified broadcast meteorologist who spoke on hurricane preparedness and lessons learned from the 2017 Atlantic Hurricane Season.
The 2018 hurricane season begins June 1 and runs through November 30.
Meanwhile, FEMA continues its recovery and rebuilding efforts today in Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Florida, Texas and other states, following damage from the 2017 hurricane season.