Campus to participate in an emergency drill
By: Sara Irvin
Issue date: 10/9/09 Section: News
|
The disaster drill will be a county-wide exercise involving the San Angelo Police and Fire Departments, Goodfellow Air Force Base, Shannon and Community Medical Centers, San Angelo Independent School District and city/county Emergency Operation Center.
University Police Chief James Adams said campus emergency management has been a top priority to ASU and his department for the past two years.
Senior Edda Bellman said she thought the drill would be an opportunity for the campus to learn what to do in case of a real emergency.
Though the police department has been doing simulated, interactive table-top exercises in preparation for disaster for years, this will be the first county-wide exercise of its kind since he joined the university police, Adams said.
"You can only do so much when you do a table top," Adams said, "but this will be an actual hands-on drill where we will walk through a scenario and see how we handle it."
A call to the university police dispatch will be made from a call box on campus, which will set off the event, Adams said.
Adams failed to disclose specifics of the event to avoid outside interference that would disrupt the exercise.
The efficacy and efficiency of the university's response will be evaluated, he said, to see how well all involved respond.
Adams said he wanted to get word of the drill out ahead of time so as not to alarm students, faculty and staff with the arrival of police, fire and ambulance vehicles, and possibly a Medivac helicopter.
The impact on the campus should be minimal, he said, though a portion of South Jackson Street will be closed during the exercise, and ASU involvement will be limited to the east side of campus.
While the drill will be a county-wide exercise, Adams said the ultimate goal is to determine what ASU needs to do to become self-sufficient in times of crisis.
"Right now if ASU has a minor incident, it has the resources of the city and the county that it can call upon," he said. "What happens if there is an area-wide disaster in which there aren't any city or county resources available?"
Thursday morning ASUAlert will be activated, which will notify those in the ASU community who have signed up for the service. Students may submit ASUAlert contact information in RamPort by going to the Self-Service channel in the Student Services tab and clicking "Edit ASUAlert Contacts."
Be the first to comment on this story