Mount Pleasant Magazine July/August 2018

68 www.MountPleasantMagazine.com | www.ILoveMountPleasant.com | www.BestofMP.com feature be assigned to four distinct sections. Operations consists of “the boots on the ground,” the fire, police, public works and transportation employees responsible for search and rescue, fires, hazardous materials and, because of road and bridge damage, traffic management. Planning collects information from Mount Pleasant’s partner agencies and distributes it to town officials and residents and is also responsible for creating a plan to help the town react to the emergency. “We want to make sure we have a clear understanding of the progress we have made and what we would like to accomplish so we can stay on task and move toward recovery,” Knight explained. Logistics makes certain the town has the equipment and supplies it needs to stick to the plan, while Finance measures the expense of the town’s response and makes sure all costs are documented and that the town is able to obtain any materials it might need to save lives and repair damaged infrastructure. All four sections work together to get the job done. “For example, if a building collapses, a search and rescue team needs to stabilize the structure,” Knight said. “We might need materials that we don’t have, such as lumber, to shore up the building. Our Operations section determines that the search and rescue is necessary and asks Logistics to come up with the lumber. If the town doesn’t have those materials, Logistics asks Finance to obtain them, either from another level of government or from a private contractor.” In a real emergency, in addition to saving lives, the town would have to deal with critical infrastructure, such as roads and bridges. Knight said Mount Pleasant also would help other entities get back on line, if necessary, such as hospitals and gas, electricity and water providers. “Emergency management is a whole community approach,” said Knight. “It takes the government, the private sector and individual households. Public/private cooperation is essential.” Knight cited another hurdle the town would have to navigate if an earthquake or hurricane caused severe damage to East Cooper’s roads and bridges. Many Mount Pleasant employees who are essential to the EOC live on the other side of one or more of the rivers that wind their way through the Lowcountry. Knight said once they made it to Mount Pleasant, they would be provided with a place to live as long as the EOC remained open. She added that some employees might have to reach the town by boat. While town employees were preparing to deal with the overall effects of a natural disaster, administrators and health care personnel at East Cooper Medical Center were practicing how they would react if dozens of injured people showed up at an already-overtaxed hospital. In the parking lot was a triage tent, where, in a real emergency, doctors and nurses would determine who would be admitted to ECMC and who would have to be transported by helicopter to another medical facility. On June 6, volunteers, some of them from a local Boy Scout troop, showed up at the triage tent with a variety of “fake” medical issues, from burns and broken bones to injured eyeballs. According to East Cooper Medical Center Chief Executive Officer Patrick Downes, the hospital’s capacity could be increased from 150 beds to around 200 beds by putting two patients rather than one in some rooms. “This is an important drill for us,” Downes commented. “Staffing and planning is important. We have to have a plan.” When asked if he thought the hospital would ever Above: Fire Chief Mike Mixon and Craig Oliverius of the Emergency Services Branch. Below: Special Events Manager Nicole Harvey, Emergency Manager Amanda Knight and Deputy Director of the Recreation Department Jimmy Millar. Photo by Jess Wood. Photo by Jess Wood.