Those traveling on South Main Street in Newton on Friday morning probably slowed down to see what was the commotion at Bedford Care Center of Newton.
Those onlookers saw numerous law enforcement vehicles and other emergency personnel responding to an active shooter drill at the Newton nursing home campus.
Charlotte Donald, administrator for Bedford of Newton, said that they are mandated to do one full-scale training exercise once a year with cooperation from local emergency management and first responders.
“We chose to do an active shooter drill because that has been in the news a lot over the last few years,” Donald said. “This is a great opportunity to test our emergency preparedness plan and to see what gaps we might have in that plan so that we can correct it.”
Donald said they informed all patients and their families prior to the drill along with neighbors immediately around the facility. They also posted yard signs to indicate that a training exercise was in progress.
Newton County 911 dispatch also put out a warning prior to the event over radio that the event was a drill.
Newton County Emergency Management Director John Williamson said this was a good opportunity for local agencies to work together in the event of a major disaster.
“It gives us a chance to improve our relationship with Bedford Care Center and to become more familiar with their facility,” Williamson said. “God forbid, if something were to happen here, at least our emergency personnel would be somewhat familiar with the layout of the campus and could better respond to a real emergency.”
Williamson said one of the most important aspects of dealing with a disaster is having good communication between each agency.
“Communication is the most important aspect of any emergency,” Williamson said. “If you have good communication, you’re going to respond much better and easier to a major disaster. And that’s one of the things were doing here. We’re seeing how well we can communicate with each other and see what gaps we have. Like this morning, the 911 call didn’t roll over to the Newton dispatch. That’s something we’re going to have to fix in our system.”
Williamson said all parties will sit down later after the event and discuss what worked well and what needs to be improved on.
“We appreciate the Newton County EMA and all of the responding agencies for assisting us with this training exercise,” Donald said.
Williamson said the exercise included Bedford staff, EMA personnel, Newton County 911, Newton and Decatur Police, Newton County Sheriff’s Department, Newton County Special Response Team, Newton Fire Department, Mississippi Department of Public Health and other agencies.
