Culver City Tests Disaster Response Readiness

The parking lot at Brotman Medical Center in Culver City looked like a MASH unit Thursday.

People lay on gurneys, looking as if they were nursing broken bones or gasping for air because of smoke inhalation.

Doctors and nurses appeared to hover over the victims at the makeshift triage unit, waving many of the stretchers into the hospital for more extensive treatment.

But the injuries were not real; the doctors and nurses were just playing along.

It was an earthquake preparedness drill to see how well Brotman’s medical personnel, the Culver City Fire Department and local businesses would work together if the area was rocked by an 8.3-magnitude earthquake.

The state mandates that cities run disaster drills following California’s Standard Emergency Management System in order to qualify for reimbursement from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said Phil Garcia, assistant chief of the Culver City Fire Department.

Creating a make-believe disaster scene is a test in creativity.

Culver City’s drill leaders tried to imagine what it would be like if a powerful earthquake shook a sound stage to the ground at Sony Pictures Entertainment, leaving 43 people injured, some of them seriously.

Phones and faxes would not work, although the electricity and water still would be on.

That was the scene played out Thursday morning when ambulances and vans carried employees--actors for a day--from Sony and nearby Culver Studio to Brotman for treatment.

They were met at the hospital by more than 30 doctors and nurses responding to a Code Yellow (the code for an earthquake or other disaster) announced over the hospital’s public address system.

Medical and fire department personnel agreed that some aspects of their emergency response system could be improved.

Brotman could use more radios and the Fire Department could use more computers and electronic displays of the city’s infrastructure.

However, overall the drill was a success, they said.

“This is the first time we’ve ever done anything on this scale using live victims and having the Fire Department involved,” said Mike Henbery, disaster coordinator for Brotman.