The only way to find out if we're ready for a natural disaster is practice. And through Vigilant Guard ’08, hosted by the SC Army National Guard, Beaufort County is doing just that with a mock-earthquake exercise.
It’s not real, but everyone there set their minds forget that.
They responded to a collapsed apartment building with tenants stuck inside--hanging on for life. The local and regional responders tried desperately to save them.
"Our patient was in a tunnel area. He was about 8-10 feet into the tunnel area completely incased in concrete. We had some large boulders, 6-8 foot- about two feet deep. We had to breach the concrete- go through a lot of rebar and dig dirt and get all that from around the patient as well as getting access to the patient for medical care,” Randy Gatlin with USAR 4 said.
It's the best training out there for the ones we'll count on in a disaster. And a solid practice like this could in turn save our lives.
Mark Shannon, a first responder after the Oklahoma City Bombing, helped design the very obstacles he so vividly remembers.
"I want to make a difference. Two of the men here today were at the Murrah with me. And they want to make a difference. Let somebody else not make our mistakes. They have their own mistakes to make- they can't avoid theirs- but they can avoid ours,” he said.
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