A city in the east has a new medical unit that can transport more than 20 people at a time.

Morehead City has a $357,000 medical ambulance bus they bought with a Homeland Security Grant.

Morehead City Fire and EMS designed it to transport 12 patients on stretchers and 10 in wheelchairs at one time.

Morehead City Police Chief Wes Lail says the bus has four primary missions- respond to a mass causality, assist in an evacuation, be a special standby at a large event, and be used for rehabilitation for on-scene responders and as a command center.

The grant was originally awarded to Carteret County. When they turned it down the city worked to get it.

The bus will eventually be used throughout the region- not just the city.