Disaster preparedness exercise scheduled for Hughes, Okfuskee, Okmulgee, Pottawatomie, Seminole County Health Depts.

The Hughes, Okfuskee, Okmulgee, Pottawatomie, and Seminole County Health Department, along with community partners and local first responders, will participate in The Earth, Wind, and Fire statewide exercise November 15th 2018.

“The goal of our exercise is to test the capabilities of the plans we have in place to protect the citizens throughout the counties as well as statewide,” Local Emergency Response Coordinator Mike Potter said. “The exercise will simulate several different natural disaster and terrorism scenarios and allow us to test our incident command and general staff operations.”

Local health department staff, community partners, and volunteers have received more than 26 hours of training over the past couple of months as they continue to prepare to respond when called upon.

Agencies participating in the exercise include police, fire, emergency management, and EMS agencies as well as hospitals, long term care centers, and health departments around the state.

Regional Administrative Director Brenda Potts says the five counties will conduct a full scale bioterrorism exercise in April of 2019 which will test the health department’s mass immunizations prophylactic (MIPS) plans. If interested in volunteering and joining our emergency response team go to www.okmrc.org.