Mass Casualty Exercise to Be Held in Grand Haven August 14

Heads up, Grand Haven! You may notice a lot of police activity in town on Wednesday, August 14 - but it's only a drill.

The Ottawa County Department of Emergency Management announced Monday that they will be holding a mass casualty exercise on Wednesday at Harvest Church, with setup beginning at 3 p.m. and the exercise going from 6 p.m. until 10 p.m.

During the time leading up to the exercise, you'll likely see an abundance of police officers, firefighters, EMTs, and volunteers. This includes officers from the City of Grand Haven Department of Public Safety and the Grand Haven Fire Department.

The area around the church will be closed to the public.

Why Hold Mass Casualty Exercises?

The sad reality is that communities need to be prepared for these types of situations. Especially communities that often have large crowds of people, like Grand Haven.

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Lou Hunt, Ottawa County Emergency Management Director, said in a release that,

The purpose of the exercise is to develop the best capability in Ottawa County possible for responding to large-scale mass casualty incidents.

And while we certainly hope that nothing like this will ever occur in West Michigan, it's best to be prepared.

We are already confident in our first responders and medical professionals in Ottawa; they all know their jobs well, but this exercise tests coordination and efficiency across the disciplines as they work together.

Area hospitals will also be involved to a degree, but those who are in the hospitals at the time likely will not be affected. The hospitals will conduct their own medical surge exercise at a future date that has yet to be announced.