By Michelle Villarreal
Corpus Christi Caller-Times
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — A Category 5 hurricane is brewing in the Gulf of Mexico and it’s headed straight for Corpus Christi.
The hurricane will make landfall in five days, and military personnel have been ordered to transport patients by plane from the hospital to Dallas. That’s the scenario military, fire and law enforcement officials from across the state faced in a mock evacuation Thursday based at Corpus Christi International Airport.
“It takes a lot of coordination and effort to put this together,” said Col. Rick Blair of the Texas Army National Guard.
About 30 students from Del Mar College and Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi volunteered as medical patients and were treated as if they were being transported.
In light of a real storm, hospital patients who are unable to be transported by other means will be identified with wristbands and scanned into a tracking system. They will be put in an ambulance and scanned again so personnel can track them each step of the way. The wristbands are scanned a third time when they arrive at the Corpus Christi International Airport, again when they are processed and once more when they are on a C-130 cargo plane, which can transport about 60 evacuees.
When they arrive in Dallas, officials know who to expect, have prepared medical equipment and have determined which hospital the patients will go to depending on their needs.
“It’s a very intricate system designed to get people to safety,” Blair said.
Del Mar College student Nell Laurel, who is studying to be an EMT, lay on a stretcher in an air-conditioned tent at the airport waiting for military personnel to load her on the plane.
She had been there since 6:30 a.m. Thursday for processing.
“I’m learning a lot being here,” she said, “like seeing the military and the process which they handle things in a critical situation.”
Laurel, 27, didn’t get loaded on the plane. Instead, crews loaded about 35 dummies, which flew to Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport for processing as part of the drill.
About 300 participants with The Texas State Guard, Texas Air National Guard, Aero Medical Evacuation Squadron with the Air Force Reserve, Texas Army National Guard, Corpus Christi Police Department, Corpus Christi Fire Department, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Public Transportation and Texas Division of Emergency Management helped with the drill.
G.W. Holt, a Texas Air National Guard operations group commander from Fort Worth, assisted with response missions in Louisiana when Hurricane Katrina hit.
“Storm after storm, we recognize how much impact we can make,” he said. “Katrina was the turning point in how we respond as a state and a nation.”
Holt said the drill has taken efforts from many groups with everyone working together to make sure people get to safety.
Officials from each group will meet today to assess what worked, their goals and what needs to change for next time.
“It’s actually the most important part in preparation for next year’s drill,” Blair said.
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