Italy Earthquake Emphasizes The Need For Mobile Hospitals

KIRKLAND, Wash., Aug. 24, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- A strong 6.2 magnitude earthquake struck central Italy early Wednesday morning. The extent of the devastation and death toll are still being realized. Most of the deaths are being reported from the town of Amatrice, near the epicenter of the earthquake. There are many surrounding towns also affected by the earthquake in Italy, which was felt 100 miles away in the city of Rome. Officials expect the death toll to continue to rise as search and rescue activities are being conducted by Italy's Department of Civil Defense and Department of Civil Protection, along with local fire, police, and medical teams in an effort to locate survivors.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160824/401063

The shallow quake caused vulnerable old stone buildings to collapse while most people were sleeping. Subsequent and numerous aftershocks have further weakened already damaged buildings. Patients from the Amatrice hospital were transferred to a nearby hospital in Rieti as the hospital was severely damaged during the earthquake and was rendered unusable.

The director of Italy's Civil Protection Agency, Fabrizio Curcio, has activated national emergency procedures and noted the Norcia / Amatrice earthquake is on par with the 6.3 magnitude L'Aquila earthquake that occurred in 2009, which resulted in more than 300 deaths, more than a thousand injuries, and left 50,000 people homeless. Responding to the L'Aquila earthquake, CEO and founder Richard Hotes of Alaska Structures and the Hotes Foundation, donated a four-shelter 25-bed BLU-MED mobile hospital to the Italian government. Volunteers with the Hotes Foundation worked alongside members of the BLU-MED team and the Italian government to construct the 3,000 square foot mobile hospital.

The BLU-MED mobile hospital donated to the Italian government was part of BLU-MED Response Systems' Disaster Response Stockpile. This program maintains an emergency supply of mobile field hospitals, medical shelters, command centers, office and work space, mobile trailer systems, as well as housing accommodations for up to 10,000 people capable of being deployed to any location in the world within 48 hours or less.

The recent earthquake in Italy, followed by the 6.8 magnitude earthquake in Myanmar, emphasize the need for mobile hospitals to care for victims of such disasters.

The BLU-MED^® team thoughts and prayers go out to the family's affected by the earthquakes in Italy and Myanmar.

BLU-MED Response Systems^® (BLU-MED), a division of Alaska Structures, Inc., is The World's Leader in Deployable Medical Facilities^™. BLU-MED provides turnkey, portable shelter-based solutions for a wide range of applications including full service hospitals with alternate EOC, CBRNE, triage, isolation, immunization, decontamination, emergency rooms (ER), operating rooms (OR), intensive care units (ICU), burn unit, and mortuaries, mobile field hospitals, alternate command centers, temporary housing and base camp requirements for hospital expansion, surge capacity, and emergency disaster preparedness and response. BLU-MED also offers support services including a full range of medical equipment packages, vendor managed inventory, field deployment, and training & exercise support. For more information, visit www.Blu-Med.com

If you would like more information or to request access to the BLU-MED Disaster Response Stockpile, please call +1-425-739-2795 or visit our website: http://blu-med.com/disaster-response-stockpile/

Alaska Structures^® designs, engineers and delivers the highest quality fabric building systems for extreme environments. Since it was founded in 1975, more than 55,000 Alaska Structures have been tested and proven in over 65 countries around the world, including more than 30,000 Alaska Military Shelters and 17,000 Alaska Environmental Control Units in Afghanistan and Iraq. For more information, visit www.AKS.com.

Contact:       

Don Diesel
Email
+1-314-565-8248 

SOURCE BLU-MED Response Systems

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