Workshop: Thinking the ‘unthinkable’

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

What would happen if a jetliner crashed in Van Wert County, or a Greyhound bus was involved in a major accident on U.S. 30?

Scenarios such as those were the subject of a workshop on mass casualty incidents hosted by the Van Wert County Emergency Management Agency and Van Wert County Health Department at Vantage Career Center on Tuesday.

A total of 85 first responders — firefighters and EMS personnel, law enforcement agencies, hospital employees, county coroners and health department officials from 18 northwest Ohio counties — are attending the two-day workshop, which began Tuesday in Vantage’s Community Room.

Speakers for the event were Mike Gedert and Bob Shank, private morticians who have also been involved in a number of national response teams that have handled numerous multiple fatality incidents.

“We are looking at what our local capabilities are of handling something very large – a Greyhound bus, a jetliner going down from Fort Wayne International Airport, a train, whatever the case may be,” said Van Wert EMA Director Rick McCoy, “and, when we would exhaust that, where we would look for additional resources.”

Noting that county coroners, such as Van Wert County Coroner Dr. Scott Jarvis, who is attending the workshop, are in charge of such incidents, McCoy added that the workshop also addressed what would be the protocol if additional help were needed.

“In those situations they are going to be in charge, we’re going to have to work with them and (determine) what are they going to need,” he noted.

McCoy said that, in a major mass casualty incident in Van Wert County, the local coroner and his assistant would be overwhelmed and would need to seek outside help, adding that determining where that help would come from is also part of the workshop.

The local EMA director said having a mass casualty incident in Van Wert County is not all that far-fetched, noting that there a number of buses that travel on highways in the county, while schools bus accidents are not that rare in the county, even though, thankfully, none have resulted in large numbers of deaths and injuries.

Furthermore, with a Greyhound bus or jetliner accident involving people from outside the county would necessitate dealing with relatives of the victims, as well as national press and likely several state and federal agencies.

McCoy said having a jetliner crash in the county could affect that crash area for some time. “9/11, they’re still dealing with that, years and years later,” he added.

In addition to accidents, the workshop also covered natural disasters, such as tornadoes and pandemics, such as the Spanish flu outbreak that occurred in 1918 that killed more than a million people in the United States alone. That incident led local philanthropist George March to push for the creation of a county hospital, rather than rely on private doctor facilities, as had been done up until that time.

McCoy said that, while no one wished for such an incident to happen, it’s best to prepare for something, even if you don’t want it to happen.

“God forbid that (a pandemic) would happen,” the EMA director said, adding, “In a pandemic there’s no help, since everyone is in the same boat.”

But McCoy said preparation for the unthinkable is still necessary, because one never knows when something unimaginable might actually happen in northwest Ohio – and even here in Van Wert County.