UNC Greensboro students and staff will be among the participants in a mass casualty drill on campus tomorrow morning. Organizers are using a tornado aftermath scenario to see how first responders react in a crisis situation with injuries. The drill comes just two days after a real-life scenario unfolded in Boston, where two bombs exploded at the finish line of the Boston Marathon, killing three people and injuring more than 100.
Susan Hannah, an instructor at UNC Greensboro's School of Nursing, says the drill was planned before the real-life emergency played out in Boston.
“I felt very eerie watching that unfold thinking, ’Wow, here we've had this planned for months and right there is a situation where that could be my students going in and trying to help those people,’” she said. “So I think there's going to be a real sense of this could actually happen and I want to take it seriously and learn as much as I can So that if this happens where I'm at, I know what to do.”
Hannah says first responders can apply the lessons they learn today to other mass casualty events including a terrorist attack. Local EMS technicians and campus emergency management will also take part in the drill, which begins a 9:00 a.m. on UNC Greensboro’s soccer field.