Brown County emergency agencies, first responders, volunteers and civic organizations are working together to perform a tornado disaster exercise from 9:00am to 5:00pm on Friday, April 13th. Three locations of the mock disaster will help to evaluate how the county will respond to a disaster and discover any unexpected problems that could occur during disasters to better prepare should the area ever experience the real thing.
The locations of the disaster will be Howard Payne University, Early City Hall and Brownwood Regional Medical Center.
The scenario will be the aftermath as a tornado hits the area, damaging not only the campus of Howard Payne but also the BRMC emergency room. The damage results in the need to establish an alternate care center which will be housed in a large tent on the BRMC grounds near the ER. Some of the disaster exercise may also be seen in Early where a mock exercise involving mass casualties could occur.
Early City Hall’s council chambers will serve as an alternate command center should anything happen to the emergency command trailer. A secondary alternative location for emergency communications if Early City Hall is damaged would be the Early Economic Development Center.
Brown County Emergency Management Director Brent Bush stated that this exercise is a great opportunity for the county to prepare for the worst.
“You can never be prepared enough,” said Bush. “These events are the one thing we can do to find out what we would do in a disaster as well as what our weaknesses are and places you need to improve to get a better response time.”
Bush stated that we have to practice to be prepared.
“We will learn what we’re going to do when it does happen in order to be able to protect the public when a real disaster happens,” Bush stated.
According to the Emergency Preparedness Coordinator Jodie Hohertz, the event has become a bigger and better exercise than she had hoped. She expressed the importance of being prepared and was thankful for all the organizations and agencies who are participating in the exercise.
Some of the participants in the exercise are:
- Brownwood Police Department
- Brownwood Fire Department
- Health Department
- Brown County Emergency Management
- Early Police Department
- Early Fire Department
- Brownwood Regional Medical Center (staff, facilities, property)
- Howard Payne University (nursing, student organization, drama team and facilities)
- Guardian EMS
- Heart of Texas EMS
- City and Rural Rides (transporting volunteers to the event)
- The Brown County Community Emergency Response Team (CERT)
- Students With A Goal (SWAG)
- Brownwood High Students for Health
- Center for Life Resources (MHMR)
- Brown County Amateur Radio Club
- Red Cross
- Salvation Army
- Brownwood ISD
- Early ISD
Many other volunteers in our community from businesses, organizations, retirees, etc. will also be involved.
Friday’s disaster exercise is being orchestrated by the Brown County Public Health Preparedness Department and Emergency Management team. A recent planning meeting with leaders from the various agencies, organizations and businesses in the area who will participate was held at the Brown County Law Enforcement Center in early March to coordinate the exercise and answer questions. Pictured above is Hohertz leading the program during the planning meeting.
