MCRD/ERR PARRIS ISLAND, S.C. -- The Depot's Emergency Operations Center was in full swing during a hurricane evacuation exercise Tuesday and Wednesday.
Phones were ringing in urgency as the sound of typing keyboards filled a room already overflowing with information from video monitors flashing feeds of Beaufort County roadways, maps detailing evacuation routes and people compiling updates in anticipation of an approaching storm.
The overall goal of the exercise was to rehearse procedures and the decision making process should a storm necessitate the evacuation of the Depot and the displacement of recruit training to Marine Corps Logistics Base, Albany, Ga.
"The Emergency Operations Center will become the nerve center for gathering information for the Commanding General," said Maj. Eric R. Junger, G-3 operations officer. "It will provide him with the continuous situational awareness he'll need to make informed decisions to protect the Depot and its residents."
The event employed the full-time efforts of a small number of Depot personnel, and represented a small fraction of the manpower that would be required if a severe storm required an evacuation and the interruption of recruit training.
"Essentially, what we did was to take a small percentage [of the tasks] and physically implement them," said Junger. "It provided an opportunity for every level within the base to review their procedures, find out if there are any holes in the Depot order and brush up."
Any opportunity to push the focus onto disaster preparedness on a Depot level will increase readiness, said Capt. Steven E. Shultze, Recruit Training Regiment assistant operations officer.
"I don't think it will generate any problems as much as it may expose some potential gaps or weaknesses in our current procedures, which is part of the reason why we are conducting this exercise," he added.
That emphasis on preparedness is essential to having things run smooth when it comes to an actual evacuation.
"The biggest element is letting the Marines know what their part is," said Gunnery Sgt. Shawn T. Lewis, Installations and Logistics chief. "That way you will know that everybody has acted out their roles and they know what to expect."
For the exercise, the Depot used five buses to simulate the transfer of recruits to Marine Corps Logistics Base Albany, Ga. In the case of an actual evacuation, there would be more than 200 buses involved. Marines from the DMCC, the team in charge of transporting the recruits to and from the evacuation point, went to the Beaufort County staging areas, completed any required inspections and brought them to the Depot.
After the buses were marked, the simulated evacuation began. The buses then began their journey toward Interstate 95, which was the turnaround point during the exercise.
The buses and the routes that they will take are the direct result of the cooperation with
Beaufort County.
"Our involvement isn't just necessarily physically, but there is a lot of coordination that goes on between us and Beaufort County," said Junger. "A perfect example of that excellent relationship is that our EOC is tied into their EOC. Beaufort County has traffic control cameras that they use that are dotted up and down most of the major roads in Beaufort County."
Those cameras are used to keep track of areas where there are traffic control problems along the highways. Since those cameras are strictly used for traffic control, the Depot EOC can use them to track the progress of the buses as they move toward Interstate 95.
During an actual evacuation the recruits would be sent to MCLB Albany, where they would be temporarily housed until the storm passes, and it is safe for them to return to recruit training.
The exercise is finished in a physical sense. It is now time for the members of the EOC to look for ways to improve the techniques and to formulate an executive brief covering the entire exercise.