Preparedness drill meets its goal

WASILLA SPORTS COMPLEX, 7 p.m.--The volunteers in the mass dispensing drill met their goal of vaccinating participants at the rate of 500 per hour. The final tally at the end of the four hours reached 774 residents, of those 694 residents actually got free flu shots. Many children were among those who got vaccines.

"We were ready for more people to come through, but we gained a lot of information," Planning Chief Sarah Sanderlin said. "We could have handled 660 people per hour at the rate we were going in the first 20 minutes," she said.

If an infectious disease arrived, research shows that our community would need treatment within 48 hours to prevent an outbreak.

About 122 volunteers helped with the drill.

"The goal is to create a process we can duplicate in a moment's notice," said David Harbour, operations chief. "I would feel confident calling these volunteers in a disaster."

Incident Commander Mike Gibson thanks the many volunteers as well as businesses and churches who supported the drill.

This event had support from KMBQ Radio, The Salvation Army, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Wasilla, the Sacred Heart Catholic Church, the Sunshine Clinic, Spenard Builders Supply, and Wal-Mart.

The Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Alaska Department of Health & Social Services, the American Red Cross, MAT-SU Regional Hospital, MASCOT, the City of Wasilla, and UAA sponsored the event.