Vaccination station: Health Department holds earthquake exercise

Sixth and seventh grade students from Lindsey Smith’s and Courtney Heberer’s classes filed through the Jasper Middle School gymnasium as recent victims of an earthquake in the region.

The active exercise had the Dubois County Health Department creating a point of distribution (POD) for tetanus booster shots for those possibly injured by the earthquake. The scenario that played out at the gym was part of a wider exercise being conducted across the region.

Health Department Administrative Director Donna Oeding said this morning’s practice was important as four of the 12 employees in her department had never been through an exercise like this. “The goal is to ensure the health department can set up a clinic in a remote location to administer whatever countermeasures may be required by whatever the event is we are responding to,” she said.

In addition to distributing the vaccinations, the health department also deployed the tent they would use in case the office was destroyed or inaccessible during an emergency. The 20-by-40 tent is designed as a space for the department to provide services while utilizing a generator to power computers, refrigerators and other necessary equipment.

The exercise was completed by lunch.