NEWS RELEASE

March 6, 2019

For Immediate Release

City, County, CEMA Collaborate for Emergency Management Exercise

SAVANNAH, GA (March 6, 2019) — The City of Savannah, Chatham County and Chatham Emergency Management Agency (CEMA) collaborated on a Point of Distribution (POD) exercise Wednesday morning. Nearly 200 civilian vehicles drove through a makeshift disaster distribution line behind the Savannah Police Department – Northwest Precinct on East Lathrop Avenue receiving water, tarps and disaster preparedness information.

“We had the support from City departments, the County, the National Guard, the State of Georgia as well as the Federal level,” says City of Savannah Emergency Management Director David Donnelly. “This was a National exercise. There were other venues and facets going on but here in Savannah it was the Point of Distribution exercise.”

Final count shows civilians collected 100 cases of water courtesy of Coca Cola, 192 plastic tarps and disaster preparedness information put together by CEMA.

“The exercise went better than we anticipated,” says CEMA director Dennis Jones. “We expected to be here until 2 o’clock, but the outpouring of support from the community we finished early.”

The exercise began at 10 a.m. and the collaborative effort helped distribute all the commodities within an hour.

This was conducted as part of the National Guard Patriot South Exercise.