Lampasas County residents assisted in Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center’s treatment of several victims of the shootings Thursday at Fort Hood.

Stephen R. Ellison, an emergency medicine specialist who teaches at Darnall, treated victims of the shooting.

Anne Lowe, a registered nurse who works in the Darnall emergency room, received two automated telephone calls Thursday at 2 p.m. from Fort Hood’s computerized “high alert” roster.

“Mass casualties ... 30 gunshot wounds ... this is not a drill,” the messages said.

Because she lives about 30 minutes from Fort Hood, Mrs. Lowe called Darnall to make sure she needed to report. When George Hennard fatally shot 23 people on Oct. 16, 1991, at a Luby’s cafeteria in Killeen, Mrs. Lowe was notified but informed she did not need to report to the medical center, as authorities believed they already had enough personnel on site.

On Thursday, however, Mrs. Lowe learned she did need to drive to Darnall.

A sense of shock settled in when the registered nurse later learned the shooter was identified as Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan. The nature of the shooting gave her a much different feeling than what she usually experiences when responding to gunshot wounds, she said.

“It’s one thing when people get shot because of gangs or drugs,” Mrs. Lowe said. “It’s quite a betrayal feeling of, ‘Why would a service person choose to attack his [military] family?’”

All Fort Hood gates were closed when the nurse arrived, as the post was locked down until about 7 p.m. She went to the emergency entrance at the Santa Fe gate, showed her identification and used her emergency flashers as she drove to Darnall.

Mrs. Lowe arrived at the medical center about 2:30 p.m. The medical center received no additional victims after Mrs. Lowe arrived, she said.

All beds were occupied in the large emergency room, as teams of physicians, nurses and medics tended to patients. A “teaching hospital,” Darnall employs more than 30 emergency room physicians — including staff, residents and interns — Mrs. Lowe said.

The nurse, who was assigned to run errands and provide other assistance to the “charge nurse” at the emergency room, noted that soldiers’ training in combat lifesaving helped them respond quickly when shooting began at Fort Hood’s Soldier Readiness Processing site.

Many Darnall physicians, nurses and medics have experience serving the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well, Mrs. Lowe said.

“I was impressed with the teamwork with all emergency respond- ers: EMS, air transport teams, blood banks, pharmacy and even food services feeding people who were locked down,” Mrs. Lowe said.

Darnall had plenty of transport aircraft on site to attend to victims, she added.

“I did hear wonderful things about air support because of the helicopters needed to transport people,” she said.

Department of Defense dining facilities sent sack lunches and cases of water and soft drinks to Darnall, as people were not allowed to leave the building during the lockdown. In addition, a local fast-food restaurant donated fried chicken and pitchers of tea.

When the lockdown was lifted, traffic jams on Fort Hood delayed many drivers longer than an hour, Mrs. Lowe said. She eventually left about 9 p.m. to return to Lampasas.