People who were stranded in Cookeville due to the major crash that shut down I-40 on Thursday were taken care of, thanks to an emergency plan implemented by Putnam County EMS.
Putnam County Mayor Randy Porter said EMS has a mass casualty bus that was used to load those stranded and take them to the county convention center for shelter. Porter said Thursday was the first time the plan was put into place, and it passed the test.
“Our EMS rescue folks all did a great job getting on the scene and getting everybody loaded up and transported, and then of course they were able to stay there until family members came and got them from other places and picked them up. But it went flawless.”
Porter said it can be an afterthought of getting people out of the cold while working to clear up a wreck. Porter said the county learned to have this kind of plan from past experiences.
“When I was still the director at EMS and 911, we had a blizzard, I think it was 1993, where the interstate was shut down, and we had a lot of people that got stranded up in Monterey and here in Cookeville,” Porter said. “And then we had other incidents. We had a major wreck almost in the same place that was on the interstate yesterday, caused by fog, and we had a bunch of vehicles piled up. So we kind of have learned over the years and developed emergency plans to take care of all those kinds of instances.”
Porter said the convention center was partially designed to be an emergency shelter. Porter said it was crucial to have that space available on Thursday.
“Before that, we didn’t have a space,” Porter said. “We would have tried to use a school or some other building somewhere. But having that space, knowing it is sitting there 24/7 if we need it just means the world.”
Porter said Director of Tourism Shan Stout and her team at the convention center did an amazing job. Porter said it was great to see the plan work well, but hopes an incident never happens to where the plan has to be implemented again.