In about six weeks, the G8 summit is to be held at Sea Island, Georgia. That’s about 40 miles south of Savannah. At my monthly department meeting at the hospital, we were informed that we will go into disaster mode because of this. There’ll be no temps or new hires that week and employees are asked to not schedule vacations during those few days. The Secret Service and Homeland Security have set up shop on the campus. During the summit, the National Guard will be protecting the hospital since the local police department will have their hands full (and then some) with the media. The estimated 6000 members of the mdeia will be housed at the convention center on Hutchinson Island (which sits just across the Savannah River from historic River Street). They also estimate over 60,000 protesters will come to town to “celebrate” the meeting of the leaders of the most powerful economic powers on the freakin’ earth.
In the event of some nastiness, our hospital and the big one in Jacksonville have been assigned to handle the casualties. Brunswick’s hospital will simply not be able to handle the potential nightmare although I’m sure they’ll get their share.
Having seen what happened to Seattle, I am not looking forward to this.
Just what I’ve always wanted - a potential front row seat for insanity.
If all hell does break loose, everyone will be required to pitch in and help, even if it’s nothing more than fetching supplies for the medical staff.
The last summit was wisely chosen for a rural town in Alberta, with little to no access. it helped to eliminate the protests disrupting the meeting. Of course, they still staged their protests, only 60 miles away.
I understand your concern WTO met in Seattle in 1999.
My husband is a firefighter. He and all of his co-workers were called into service to help with the riots. It was the one time in a 22 year career, he was required to carry a gun.
Its been said that Seattle lost its innocence that week.
It was the first week in December. Seattle has a great downtown. Christmas shopping is a real treat. We have an antique carousel, and horse-drawn carriages.
The year of WTO the downtown economy took a major hit. People were afraid. They went to the over-crowded malls instead, because visions of riots danced in their heads.
It took over a year to completely recover.
I worked in Pediatric ICU at Children’s Medical Center at the time, so we weren’t really impacted, but the adult trauma center was hopping. I had worked there years before, and still had friends there. It wasn’t pretty.
Good Luck. (are you due for vacation?)
Picunurse, I remember that (all too) well. Idiots smashing windows, stealing merchandise, setting dumpsters on fire in the middle of streets, ruining the holiday mood for folks who had only wanted to bring their kids downtown for a fun time and causing them to fear for their lives instead. I’d still like to knock some of those jerks’ heads together. Argh!
Mr. Blue Sky, I hope the authorities in your town don’t put up with any nonsense at all. If they do, they’ll find that some of the locals, the immature ones, will want to join in the fun, even though they have no interest in G8 or anything beyond their own self-interested noses. That’s when things really start getting out of hand.
Good luck to you and the good folks of Sea Island.
Hopefully it will go well - having the G8 at Kananaskis worked really well.
Places in downtown Calgary certainly got prepared for the worst but fortunately nothing of note happened.
In fact - it was pretty interesting. A bunch of us headed down the street one lunch to watch people get naked to protest the Gap. It was amusing.
Hope it goes as quietly for your area.