Hillman's Thunder Bay Clinic, Montmorency Emergency Management and Hillman Ambulance and fire services teamed up on Thursday for a day of training at the Hillman Community Center.
The center's grounds were open for the public to receive its free drive-thru flu-shots.
District 4 Emergency Preparedness Coordinator Bill Estbeck also used the event to drill his team on antibiotic distribution in emergency situations.
"The reason we do this is to familiarize the people of the process on how stuff would be distributed for, lets say, a biological attack," Estbeck said. "We have four nurses and four or five volunteers handling the line of cars that extended past the street waiting for their shot."
"We did 165 in one hour in Atlanta on Wednesday," Montmorency Emergency Management Coordinator Dave Utt said. "We did 250 overall in three hours."
As the cars pull up they are approached by a nurse that asks how many people live in their residence and how many are under the age of 12. In an emergency, the head of household would pull ahead and another staff member would distribute the medicine and repeat the procedure.
"I am in charge of four counties with 89,000 people and I would have to have them vaccinated in 48 hours. If we amped it up with a few more nurses, we could do 500 plus an hour," Estbeck said. "That's 500 heads of households. That's not counting their families and loved ones."
The training practice is in it's third year and is held annually.
"We had some pains in the beginning," Estbeck said. "We had a nurse bit in the face by a dog in Atlanta, so we adjusted and make people with dogs in their cars park and approach on foot."
In times of emergency, both Utt and Estbeck agreed that the most important thing to do is tune in to your local radio stations, WHSB and WATZ.
"The one thing that I really want to hammer home to people is to listen to the radio," Estbeck said. "They will tell you where the distribution stations are and give you directions. Don't call 911."
Estbeck has been training in Alpena, Montmorency, Cheboygan and Presque Isle while the nurses administer the flu vaccination.
"We have shots and drills in Alpena on Friday, and Onaway and Rogers City next week," Estbeck said. "Some people come early and sit in line for an hour. They don't need to because we get them through fast and there is no shortage so everyone will get one."
The Department of Transportation also lends a hand and helps with traffic flow for the event.
"MDOT really bends over backwards for us," Utt said. "When we got to Atlanta they had cones set up and a huge traffic sign with an arrow pointing to the location."
There is always an ambulance on scene just in case someone has a reaction to the injection.
"When a person receives their vaccination, there is a chance, a very miniscule chance, that someone could have a reaction. We want to have medical personnel on sight just to avoid a tragedy."
Steve Schulwitz can be reached via e-mail at sschulwitz@thealpenanews.com or by phone at 358-5689.
