Piedmont nursing majors and Habersham Emergency Service employees work together to load a drill "victim" into an ambulance for transport. (Photo: Hadley Cottingham, Now Habersham)
A simulated electrical explosion and fire at the Piedmont College Swanson Center brought theater, mass communication, and nursing majors together to produce the 2021 disaster drill. This event, held annually, creates a mock disaster with victims, complications, emergency services, and all the chaos of a real-life disaster.
The 2020 disaster drill was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic when Piedmont College closed its campus. While the 2021 drill looked different, with all of the Piedmont students masked, the college’s theater department spared no effort to put on a convincing show.
The Swanson Center was filled with “smoke,” created by fog machines, making it impossible to see inside the building. Theater professor of pyrotechnics, Henry Johnson, set and operated pyrotechnics to simulate the electrical explosion that caused the event. Piedmont theater students created a set with debris entrapping students portraying victims and put together convincing injuries with special effects makeup.
The Habersham County Fire Department and Demorest Fire Department work together to get victims out of the Swanson Center. (Photo: Hadley Cottingham, Now Habersham)Fake electrical explosions, put together by professor of pyrotechnics Henry Johnson, caught students off-guard, making the chaos of the event even more realistic. (Photo: Hadley Cottingham, Now Habersham)A group of Piedmont nursing majors transports a patient to the triage they have set up outside of the Swanson Center. From here, nurses will determine what care patients need. (Hadley Cottingham/Now Habersham)A “victim” lies in critical care, but “dies” during treatment. The injury to his head is created by Piedmont College theater majors with special effects makeup. (Photo: Hadley Cottingham, Now Habersham)Habersham County Emergency Services members attended the drill, offering guidance and assistance as nurses worked to save “victims.” (Photo: Hadley Cottingham, Now Habersham)Disaster drill “victims” hold cards that display their injury status– these identifying cards, as well as their injuries produced by Piedmont’s theater department, serve as indicators for nurses. (Photo: Hadley Cottingham, Now Habersham)Nursing majors transport a “child victim” to an ambulance to receive treatment at the Habersham Medical Center. (Photo: Hadley Cottingham, Now Habersham)Some disaster drill actors play children, which presents a unique challenge to the nurses: how will they care for a patient in need of pediatric care during a disaster? (Photo: Hadley Cottingham, Now Habersham)Piedmont nursing majors and Habersham Emergency Service employees work together to load a drill “victim” into an ambulance for transport. (Photo: Hadley Cottingham, Now Habersham)A suspect, played by a Piedmont student, is “arrested” at the scene by a Habersham County sheriff. (Photo: Hadley Cottingham, Now Habersham)Piedmont mass communication students attend a mock-press confrence. (Photo: Hadley Cottingham, Now Habersham)
This day serves as a training exercise for nursing students, mass communication students and local emergency services alike. As the nursing students work under pressure to save the lives of the students acting as victims, mass communication students are learning how to photograph and record real-world disasters. For emergency services, this is a day of practice and a time to share their wisdom with students who are learning the right way to handle emergencies in their field of study.
While Piedmont’s 2021 disaster drill is in the books, at least one more Northeast Georgia school will have its own this month. Truett McConnell University in Cleveland will hold its 2021 disaster drill this coming Wednesday, Mar. 31.
