The media is invited to attend a brief on 22 April at 5:30 p.m. (EDT) at the South Carolina National Guard Joint Information Center by the mayors of Beaufort and the surrounding locations as part of the current domestic response exercise called Vigilant Guard 08 taking place in the Low Country.
The briefing will provide media an excellent opportunity to do live feeds for evening news and will be an opportunity for both Beaufort Emergency Management personnel and the Beaufort County leadership to discuss their roles in the disaster exercise and to get an update on the current mock disaster.
The National Guard will respond to a call from the various localities including Blufton, Yemassee and Hilton Head, to pick up local government officials and transport them to a central location.
Vigilant Guard is a three-day, National Guard-hosted exercise beginning April 21 in Beaufort, S.C. The exercise is designed to test the ability of the National Guard, along with federal, state, and local "first responders," to react to a domestic emergency. This year's scenario will be a mock 7.3 earthquake centered in Beaufort County.
More than 3,000 participants will flow into Beaufort County and exercise a variety of capabilities to include search and rescue in collapsed buildings, medical triage and evacuation of patients, and the care and feeding of displaced citizens in several outlying Low Country communities. Additionally a C-130 aircraft will land at the Hilton Head airport to test emergency evacuation plans. The exercise will test the capabilities of local first responders to integrate with National Guard troops as they respond to the emergency needs of the community.