The Coast Guard and emergency response organizations are teaming up with members from 14 agencies to conduct a full-scale international maritime mass-rescue exercise in U.S. waters near Ediz Hook Light with a triage staging area at Air Station/Sector Field Office Port Angeles Tuesday, September 27, 2016.
The joint exercise is designed to better understand each agency’s capabilities and concerns during a maritime event which will test emergency procedures, search and rescue coordination, accountability of passenger and crew, medical surge operations and activation of the disaster medical emergency mass casualty plan.
The exercise is scheduled to begin at 8 a.m. and should last for approximately eight hours. Sixty life-saving suits will be placed in the water to help simulate an actual response to the event. Volunteers from the Coast Guard Auxiliary will act as victims for first-responders to medically treat on-scene or be transported to Olympic Medical Hospital.