Left to right, Tom Sheppard, Postal Inspection Service; Kellie Barnett, San Diego District Postal Plan Coordinator; Marti Aiello, San Diego District Emergency Team Manager; and Rick Sullivan, Kentuckiana District Postal Plan Coordinator during San Diego’s simulated anthrax response exercise.
The National Postal Model — a federal program sponsored by USPS and the Department of Health and Human Services — helps prepare major cities in the U.S. to respond to large-scale public health emergencies such as bioterrorism attacks.
The plan is a blueprint for distributing oral antibiotics to the public using letter carriers to speed delivery to residential addresses. Currently, five cities have operational emergency plans, or “Postal Plans,” based on this model.
The Postal Plan model is a part of a larger Cities Readiness Initiative federal program, which helps cities develop plans to provide medicines to their populations within 48 hours of a biological attack.
The San Diego District Emergency Management Team recently participated in a Postal Plan exercise that simulated response to an anthrax emergency. The exercise tested the resourcing and execution processes required for the five components of the plan, including activation, command, distribution and delivery/delivery unit management, security, and public messaging.
Throughout the exercise, protocols and procedures outlined in the Postal Plan were evaluated to identify strengths and possible areas for improvement.
via USPS News Link