Lincoln Disaster Drill

[SCPD]

There is a disaster drill today in Lincoln, Nebraska that I will be taking part in as a disaster victim. It willl run Monday afternoon 9/20 from 1pm to approximately 3pm.

I've heard these go down before on the scanner and thought it might be interesting to see as a person involved in the drill. Previously I've heard LFR operate on TAC 8 during these drills and LPD on channel 21. I do not know what talkgroups will be used today. I'm going to try to listen in though on my Android phone will playing victim.

I'm not sure what agencies will be involved in the drill. It could however, provide some interesting listening opportunities for scanner listeners. I'm not sure if this drill will be picked up by the Lancaster County feed or not, however a possibility does exist that it might be depending on talkgroups used on the EDAC system.

 

[SCPD]

This ended up being a disaster drill performed in the local hospitals with no outside agencies involved. Hospitals involved were Bryan LGH East and West and St. Elizabeth's Hospitals.

It was fairly uneventful where I was at Bryan LGH West, though the ER was rather busy when they declared the alert in place. It was quite interesting to see how the ER handled all the real patients with the drill patients.

My part? I was a red victim, with chest injuries, difficulty breathing and blood coming from the nose. I was also non-responsive so I was having quite a bit of fun in not providing answers to the medical staff.

 

[wb0qqk]

Offutt AFB conducts a mass casualty drill every year in prelude to the airshow/open house. It involves all of the area hospitals. Amateur radio is used to communicate from the field to the hospitals via a command post. A volunteer communicator is also assigned to each bus used to transport patients with simulated minor injuries. It's quite an operation to see and listen to. Hopefully, it will never be needed in a real-time incident.

 

[SCPD]

The disaster response plan was put to test here in Lancaster County about a year ago. A pickup truck and rural school bus collided in the county in a quite spectacular accident that resulted in the bus catching fire.

The students responded well, and soon many rescue units were on-scene to transport the worst of the injured. This disaster drills were cited as being a positive influence as the hospitals were waiting for the all the injured to arrive at the various hospitals.

While drills may seem unrealistic the do prepare the various agencies and hospitals to be prepared. It was quite interesting to see them call the alert and watch all the personnel respond to their various locations in the hospital.

 

[wb0qqk]

You can never be too prepared. We've been very lucky not to have too many transportation accidents involving multiple passenger vehicles, but one can never predict when a bus collision or passenger train derailment will occur and result in an overwhelming patient load for EMS and the receiving hospitals. Do the amateur radio operators in Lancaster County participate in your disaster response drills?

 

[SCPD]

I'm not sure if Amateur Radio is involved in the drills or not.

However, early this year we lost inbound 911 calling ability and Amateur Radio operators were placed in central locations in Lincoln for people to go to in the event of emergencies.

 

[wb0qqk]

Saw that story in the Omaha World-Herald - very good press for the Lincoln area hams! The volunteer amateur communicators take a big load off the public safety radio systems by passing essential traffic on other frequencies.

 

[ChopperDan]

Listen to LPD, LFR,and Red Cross on a football Saturday now that is a disaster. they really have do have their stuff in one bag.
With 88,000 fans they do an out standing job.