Emergency Plans
Posted by Rebecca Wed, 16 Apr 2008 13:06:00 GMT
In light of recent petty thefts that have been rampant in my building, I asked our head of administration what kind of emergency plans we have in place.
Apparently there are none. Or if there are, none of them have been communicated to the staff.
I don’t know what to do if there is a fire. Run to the nearest stairwell? What if it is blocked? Go to the other one? If I don’t know what to do and I’m the staff person for my area, I can bet you no one else in my area knows what to do.
What if there is a tornado? It’s a rare occurrence in Austin, I know, but that doesn’t mean it can’t happen. I’m on the 8th floor. I doubt I can get to the basement in time to take cover. Does that mean I herd everyone into the interior of the building on my floor? You know, the room where all the labs with glassware and dangerous chemicals is located?
Somehow, I don’t think so.
What if there is a shooting? Will I even know if there is an attacker on another floor or my building? Will I just hear gunshots and not know where they are coming from? What am I supposed to do in that kind of situation?
As a result of me thinking that hey, any of these could happen and we’d be screwed, the head of administration appointed me to come up with the plans.
Gulp.
I plan to contact the UT fire chief and UTPD for advice. After a strategy has been developed for each of these situations, I will then “train” the rest of the staff on them, and those staff will then communicate these plans to the students and faculty whom they serve.
It’s funny, the timing of all this, because when I watched the news last night, this was the first story that aired.
Maybe this guy was up to no good, or maybe he’s just a stupid kid. Stupid kids are often found in abundance on university campuses.
However, the point is that it really could happen here, and we should be prepared.
I certainly plan to be.
I meant to tell you this when I initially read this post...
McCombs has a Safety Officer Group that, I believe, is the first of its kind on UT Campus. If you're looking for some information in how we (I'm a back-up officer for our department) run things, I can put you in touch with those in charge.