A Category 3 hurricane crashing in on Savannah and the Coastal Empire was the frightening, yet eerily reminiscent, Katrina-style scenario that more than 150 Air National Guard medical personnel from eight southeastern states, including those from Georgia, faced recently at Garden City’s Combat Readiness Training Center.

Exercise “Hurricane Savannah” was played out for four days as Air Guardsmen from North Carolina and South Carolina, Florida, Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama and Mississippi, members of the Georgia State Defense Force, and several local, state, and federal agencies and volunteers deployed throughout the region and Chatham County just as they would if the real thing had happened.

“Once every five years, similar medical exercises involving massive death and injuries are conducted in the U.S.,” said Col. Jill Hendra, North Carolina’s air surgeon and this year’s exercise director.  

This Air Guard, FEMA Region IV Medical Exercise had been in the planning for more than two years, Hendra explained. The eight medical units involved exercised their abilities to deploy, assess the level of medical care needed, coordinate military resources and respond to massive injuries and casualties, he said. The idea is to set the scenario so that medical resources are stressed beyond their usual capacity as would happen during an actual crisis, Hendra concluded.

“The doctors, nurses and medical technicians who take part in this exercise are faced with every medical emergency we could throw their way,” said Lt. Col. Alan Peaselee, 116th Medical Group commander and operations director for the exercise. Medical personnel responded to everything from massive casualties resulting from a building collapse, to exposure to toxic gas emissions, to train derailments and traffic accidents, Peaselee said.  Also, under the pressure of caring for injured and dying patients, medical personnel were subjected to simulated sniper attacks, fire and toxic gas which forced them into MOP gear.

“A handful of exercise coordinators and senior medical personnel carefully designed the number, intensity and frequency of the more than 40 medical emergencies that fell to the first responders and medical personnel performing in the exercise.” 

Mass casualties resulting from Hurricane Savannah were brought to Air Guard medical personnel at a 25–bed Expeditionary Medical Support Hospital (EMEDS) set up at CRTC. Normally used to provide medical care in combat theaters, such as Iraq, the hospital is a "high-tech concept” of the former Mobile Army Surgical Hospital.

This year’s exercise also involved communications technicians provided with Brunswick’s the 283rd Joint Communications Support Squadron and Savannah’s 117th Air Control Squadron.  Also North Carolina’s 145th Airlift Wing provided C-130 aircraft and the 156th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron, mortuary affairs personnel, chaplains, and Members of Georgia Joint Task Force and the Georgia State Defense Force also planned a role in the four-day exercise.

As participants in Hurricane Savannah played out their roles, they also played host to eight international observers from Slovakia and the Republic Georgia, to include Deputy Prime Minister Jambul Bakvradze.

Civilian players in the four-day emergency exercise included the Chatham County Emergency Management Agency, the Georgia Emergency Management Agency, Savannah and Chatham County Fire and Police, Savannah and Chatham County Public Works, Coastal Plains Public Health, and the Georgia Disaster Medical Assistance Team.  Also involved were the Memorial Medical Center and Chandler and St. Josephs’ hospitals in Savannah, Tift Region Medical Center in Tifton, and the Safety Assessment Volunteers and HAM radio network.