05/12/2024
🌪️ TORNADO RESPONSE 🚨
I wanted to share how grateful our department is for the prompt and professional response we received from our mutual aid partners across Middle Tennessee.
On the afternoon of the tornado apparatus had been upstaffed by our volunteers. As the storm came out of Lewis County and tracked across northern Columbia, several Chief Officers, Engines, Brush Trucks, and our Heavy Rescue followed the storm and immediately went to work in the damaged areas. An area command was established at our Station 30 located on Lasea Rd and was also designated as a casualty collection point for injured to be brought to.
911 calls were being triaged by an MCFD Chief Officer at the 911 center and as resources arrived into the staging area assignments of high priority calls were given to the staging officer. We want to express our deepest gratitude to the dispatchers at Maury County 911 for their professional response. Luckily the event happened close to shift change and both shifts went to work answering the myriad of emergency calls coming into the 911 center. Dispatchers were a sense of calm and hope to residents who had just experienced a terrifying and devastating disaster and reassured them help was on the way.
Department heads including Chief Periut were at the Maury County Office Of Emergency Management Center coordinating resources at the state and federal level and supplementing command staff in the field with information and resources.
At the Area Command Post a plethora of resources from surrounding cities and counties were pouring in. Task Force’s were formed and assigned to high priority calls. Once all pending calls were handled a grid search was started to start ensuring all residents were accounted for.
By midnight mutual aid resources had been released so that they could replenish equipment and get some rest. Maury County Fire units continued to search areas throughout the night through additional bands of rain and severe storms to ensure no area was missed.
The attached image is a small glimpse of the personnel who worked through the night, searching homes, cutting trees, and responding to other emergencies.
We will share more in the coming days of the responses, but we wanted to provide a brief overview of the operations that went into responding to this devastating tornado.
