Old Bridge Medical Center Holds Hurricane-Response Drill

OLD BRIDGE, NJ — This past weekend, Friday and Saturday, Oct. 21 and 22, Old Bridge Medical Center held a full-scale emergency response drill to test how the hospital could respond in the event of a catastrophic hurricane.

The exercise involved the creation of a 50-bed field hospital outside of the hospital and was done with the New Jersey EMS Task Force, made up of more than 250 career and volunteer EMS workers across the state.

"As we near the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Sandy (which made landfall in New Jersey on Oct. 29), and deal with the aftermath of more recent Hurricanes Ida and Ian, it’s never been more important to conduct these exercises and drills,” said Patricia Carroll, CEO of Old Bridge Medical Center.

The drill tested Hackensack Meridian Health's ability to respond if there was a catastrophic infrastructure failure at one of its facilities. The drill involved the installation of a 50-bed field hospital, medical ambulance buses and oxygen generation trucks.

Here is video from Saturday's drill:

“As recently seen in Florida after Hurricane Ian, meeting medical needs during a disaster, without power, with limited access to supplies and food, and when local resources are taxed, is a critical element to rapid recovery for the community," said Mike Bascom, state leader of the NJ EMS Task Force.

The state of New Jersey formed the NJ EMS Task Force after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks as a way to better prepare New Jersey’s planning and response to large-scale disasters.

These are the men and women who are the first to respond to large-scale man-made and natural disasters, which could include the ongoing pandemic, natural disasters such as hurricanes, flooding and wildfires, and potential man-made incidents at New Jersey's ports, rail stations, transportation hubs and anywhere there could be mass gatherings of people.