Anyone driving past the Troup County School System’s administrative building on Wednesday morning might’ve been a little confused.

The Troup County Health Department was working through its Point of Dispensing plan, practicing through an exercise where the county had been infected and vaccines immediately needed to be dispersed. In Wednesday’s scenario, an anthrax outbreak had occurred in Troup County, and the health department was attempting to get everyone the help they needed.

“We have to practice having people come through here, signing paperwork and see how much time it takes for us to actually dispense the medicine,” said Tishari Hardnett, who was acting as the media relations person. “It shows where we are messing up and how to do better. Because if this was a real incident, we would have this set up and ready to go.”

Some of the scenario was based around simple logistics, such as where people should go and how to direct people to the correct area. Those details may seem minor in the moment, but they’d be huge if an actual medical emergency occurred in Troup County. 

The hope, obviously, is that this type of scenario never becomes a reality and all of this practice is for naught. However, bad things do happen, and it’s important we’re prepared locally for the worst while hoping for the best.

That’s why our local law enforcement officers regularly train for all types of scenarios, including mass shootings. We covered local officers, EMTs and firefighters conducting a drill at Whitesville Road Elementary School last year where a made-up gunman was in the school. Even though it wasn’t real, it wasn’t easy to watch. 

Both situations are examples of local agencies doing their best to prepare for what might happen, just in case. That way if there is a major event locally where many people are injured or need medical treatment, they’ll be ready.