Michael Proctor is a man who knows the importance of practice. In his view you will never be able to know the extent of your skills and improve on your weaknesses if you do not drill.That bit of wisdom takes on even more importance when you realize that Proctor is an emergency room physician. This is a man who wants to have his ducks and his medical team’s ducks, if you will, in a row.
We are lucky to have him. We are lucky to have him as a doctor who tends to the day to day challenges of an emergency room, but we are also lucky to have him because he is as a man who is willing to prepare for the unthinkable.
That’s exactly what he and a lot of other people were doing on March 6 when the Army held a mock disaster that was aimed at giving Army officials and local hospitals a chance to practice what to do in case there is an accident at the chemical stockpile stored at the Anniston Army Depot.
Sadly not every agency in the area participated in the exercise. Some, including our local emergency management agency, chose to opt out to the exercise, saying that a load of promised money from the federal government for emergency preparedness was being held up by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Well, we certainly need the money and items such as protective hoods and suits that FEMA has also promised in the past. But we also need our local officials to be as prepared as possible in case of an accident.
That’s certainly the way Proctor feels about it.
“We’re going to exercise every chance we get,” he told The Star. “We don’t care about the politics and the agendas.”
Sounds like we would all be a lot better off if more people had that kind of attitude.
