Piedmont Triad Ambulance & Rescue / Operation Summer Heat

Piedmont Triad Ambulance & Rescue (PTAR) Members
Participated In The "Operation Summer Heat" Disaster

Drill At High Point Regional Hospital
On August 01, 2008
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The Article Above Was Published In The August 2, 2008 Edition
of the High Point Enterprise Newspaper About A Training Exercise Which
Included Piedmont Triad Ambulance & Rescue (PTAR) Personnel

The "Operation Summer Heat" Disaster Drill began in Iredell County and involved
17 agencies and hospitals in Iredell, Forsyth, Guilford, Caldwell, Stokes and Surry
counties. The exercise simulated a tornado striking in Iredell County, and
overloading the capacity of the local hospitals.

Many of the "patients" had to be transferred to other hospitals. High Point Regional
Hospital received a "surge" of 40 "patients" in a 2-hour period during the exercise.

Due to concerns about fuel usage, and taking on-duty ambulances out-of-service
for the exercise, volunteers who served as "patients" gathered at a staging area a
couple of blocks from the hospital, and were transported by one PTAR ambulance,
one Guilford County EMS ambulance, and a large Mecklenburg EMS Agency
Mass Casualty-Evacuation Transport Bus. Their arrivals at the hospital was timed
to simulate the actual time it would have taken to transport patients from
Iredell County to High Point during a real disaster.