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770 Converse Street, Longmeadow, MA 01106 (413) 567-6211
News & Publications JGS Tornado Command Center
We are accredited by the Joint Commission.JGS Tornado Command Center
The tornados that roared through our area spared Longmeadow and our beautiful JGS campus the devastation that has so drastically changed the lives and landscape of much of Western Mass, but that doesn’t mean local organizations weren’t affected.
Massmap establishes detailed action plans based on a mutual commitment among participating nursing homes, assisted living residences and residential care facilities to help each other as needed in the time of a disaster.
“Assistance may come in the form of providing pre-designated evacuation locations for residents during a disaster; and/or; providing or sharing supplies, equipment, transportation, staff or pharmaceuticals to a facility when a disaster overwhelms their own community or exceeds the capability of internal emergency preparedness plans,” according to the Massmap website.
“We drill for a night like this twice a year,” said Wade Williams, Director of Safety and Security and Senior Engineer at JGS. “We were ready for whatever we would have to do.” Massmap works in conjuction with Russell Phillips, an emergency and fire preparedness consulting firm for healthcare facilities.
Williams was barely home from an already long day at work when his cell phone went off. It was Tom Accomando, head of the Massmap Steering Committee for Region 1 (which extends from Stockbridge, Mass to Longmeadow, Mass) Williams returned to the JGS campus and put the action plan into effect. “We called every nursing home and assisted living facility in all four regions of the state to see how they were, if they needed help, what we could do,” said Williams. If they couldn’t reach a facility, police and fire departments were alerted.
“We had our whole staff ready to accommodate any residents from other facilities if necessary,” said Williams.
JGS arranged for batteries and flashlights to be delivered to a nursing home in Springfield and were prepared to offer laundry services to another in Wilbraham, but they got the power back on before that was necessary.
“We want to thank the Region 1 volunteers on the Steering Committee for staffing the Regional Control Center at Jewish Geriatric Services in Longmeadow until 1:00 AM before standing down. This was a substantial regional disaster,” read a blast email from the Massachusetts Dept of Public Health’s Health and Homeland Alert Network the next day. At 1 am, the disaster relief operations than moved to state-wide control out of Boston.
© 2011 Jewish Geriatric Services, Inc. | 770 Converse Street, Longmeadow, MA 01106 | (413) 567-6211 