Mass-Casualty Exercise Held at Calamityville
May 11, 2011
by Jim Hannah
As disasters go, it was a big one.
A monster Category 5 hurricane slams into a U.S. coastal community. Buildings collapse. An airplane crashes. Some residents are dead. Others are bloodied and dazed.
This frightening scenario played out May 11 in a mass casualty training exercise at Wright State University's National Center for Medical Readiness at Calamityville. It was the second major exercise at Calamityville, a 55-acre site in Fairborn that was once home to a cement factory.
Dr. Glenn Hamilton, professor of emergency medicine at Wright State's Boonshoft School of Medicine and senior director of Calamityville, said the exercise was designed to have military and civilian medical first responders—who often don't speak a common technical language–interfacing in a realistic, mock disaster setting.
"Our whole goal today is really to bring an exercise that allows the civilian/military sides to work together and start to develop a more common understanding of capability," Hamilton said.
