PEMA hands out metro emergency plan, kits

Susan A. Baird

09/04/2008

FIFTY BAGS containing pharmaceuticals and other medical supplies to protect first-responders so they can treat others were distributed to ambulance, fire and other emergency personnel from the nine communities that make up the MMRS. /

PROVIDENCE – Emergency personnel from across the Greater Providence metropolitan area gathered at Providence City Hall this afternoon to receive what city officials described as “life-saving tools” to help them cope with chemical or biological attack.
First-response personnel from the nine communities that make up the local Metropolitan Medical Response System (MMRS) – Providence, Central Falls, Cranston, East Providence, Johnston, North Providence, Pawtucket, Warwick and West Warwick – assembled in the Aldermen’s Chambers to receive copies of the new Greater Providence MMRS emergency response plan from Mayor David N. Cicilline; Peter T. Gaynor, director of the Providence Emergency Management Agency, which helps administer the Greater Providence MMRS; and Dr. Kenneth A. Williams, an emergency medicine specialist at Rhode Island Hospital.
Fifty “front-line medical bags” containing medications and medical supplies – intended to protect the first-responders themselves, so they can remain able to treat victims of an attack or other emergency – also were distributed.
The MMRS program was established by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to improve local communities’ preparation for, response to and recovery from terrorist attacks and other mass-casualty emergencies. (READ MORE)
The Greater Providence MMRS is made up of the same nine communities – the City of Providence and eight other communities within 10 miles of the metro region’s urban core – as a more-recent Homeland Security program, the Providence Urban Areas Security Initiative (UASI), which last fall received a DHS grant of $5.17 million to support projects that include improving the safety of the local water supply. (READ MORE)

Additional information about the Providence Emergency Management Agency (PEMA) and local disaster-preparation efforts, including the Greater Providence Metropolitan Medical Response System (MMRS), is available from the City of Providence at providenceri.com/pema.

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