Don't Panic, It's a Mass Casualty Drill at Peconic Bay Medical Center on April 14

Peconic Bay Medical Center (PBMC), in conjunction with a large number of local, county and state agencies, is conducting a mass casualty drill at their hospital facilities in Riverhead (1300 Roanoke Ave, Riverhead) on Saturday, April 14.

The event, known as Operation Black Swan 2018, is a full scale mass casualty exercise and will include numerous professionally moulage-covered (meaning they’ll have fake wounds and injuries applied with makeup and effects) “victim actors,” who will be triaged and transported to area hospitals as part of this exercise. This training exercise will test the public safety response to a simulated active shooter incident at PBMC in Riverhead.

With the victim actors and heavy presence of emergency personnel, this exercise will look very real and could be quite frightening if someone unknowingly comes upon it without prior notice.

Weekend morning commuters in the area should plan to take alternate routes, as there are going to be road closures at Roanoke Avenue and Middle Road southbound to the traffic circle on Roanoke Avenue from 7 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

The list of participating agencies joining PBMC includes Northwell Health Emergency Management, Riverhead Police Department, Riverhead Volunteer Ambulance, Suffolk County Police Department, Suffolk County EMS, Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office, Suffolk County Correction Officers Association, Suffolk County Department of Rescue & Emergency Services, Suffolk County EMS, Nassau & Suffolk Hospital Council Inc., New York State Police, NYS Division of Homeland Security & Emergency Services and NYS Department of Health.

If you happen to witness this event, please do not panic. No one is actually injured, and no one is in any sort of danger.

To learn more about Peconic Bay Medical Center, visit pbmchealth.org.