Effingham County Emergency Management Agency and Georgia Emergency Management Agency met with Michael Murphy, emergency management health care professional at Effingham Health System, to discuss plans for the 2014 hurricane season.

At the meeting, EEMA Director Ed Myrick and GEMA Deputy Director Terry Ball stressed the importance of reviewing and/or updating annual evacuation procedures for all long-term care facilities in Georgia. Murphy received information regarding Georgia’s hurricane evacuation preparation memorandum of agreement.

The MOA, which was signed by Effingham Health System CEO Norma Jean Morgan, will serve as a secondary option for transportation in the event of a hurricane evacuation should Effingham Extended Care Facility’s primary mode of transportation fail.

By signing the MOA, GEMA will work to provide ambulances, para-transport vehicles and coach buses for the facility. These vehicles will transport the residents to the facility’s designated evacuation destination in Augusta.  EEMA has worked closely with Effingham Health System in developing all of its emergency operations plan.

After the meeting, GEMA, Georgia Healthcare Association and the Georgia Hospital Association provided Effingham Health System with the opportunity to participate in a statewide event that evaluated the process of determining state-needed transportation for the long-term care facility.

This exercise allowed GEMA to prepare the facility with the types of questions and additional amounts of information needed in an evacuation. Various modes of communication were used during this exercise to show how the information will be disseminated during an evacuation.