Campus to demonstrate emergency preparedness Sept. 8-12

Storms that ripped through north Lake County with a vengeance Aug. 4 left much of Purdue University Calumet without power.

The morning after, the campus was left to pick up the pieces.

Would the campus be open for business? Where would offices, services and units affected by the outage be relocated? What if the power outage continued into the next day?

Assessing damage and outages; making decisions; developing and executing contingency plans; and communicating those decisions, plans and updates to constituents in an accurate, timely manner are part of a Purdue Calumet Crisis Management Plan that was implemented, in part, Aug. 4-5.

Since March, 2006, a Purdue Calumet Campus Crisis Management Team has met regularly to plan, anticipate, prepare for and manage various aspects of a possible emergency, crisis or other interruption of normal campus operation.

Along with a Campus Crisis Management Team that conducts regular tabletop training exercises of emergency scenarios, Purdue Calumet’s emergency preparedness effort includes:

• development of Campus Crisis Management and Campus Crisis Communication Plans;
• creation of an Emergency Preparedness web page – www.calumet.purdue.edu/emergency;
• development of an “Emergency Alert” for publishing on the Purdue Calumet web site home page urgent announcements and status updates;
• establishment of a public address Emergency Notification System for communicating urgent messages within campus buildings;
• posting of emergency preparedness information in each classroom and office;
• development of contingency relocation plans for key campus business operations in the event of a power outage;
• investment of $1.4 million in emergency generator capabilities around campus;
• partnerships with community organizations to facilitate emergency training drills; and
• review of advanced communication technology.

In conjunction with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s observance of National Emergency Preparedness Month, Purdue Calumet takes its emergency preparedness commitment to the campus next week (Sept. 8-12).

Scheduled presentations for students, faculty and staff include a Workplace Violence seminar Tuesday (9/9). Also taking place will be tests of various components of the campus’ Emergency Notification System and a “lessons learned” debriefing of the Aug. 4-5 campus power outage.

“While we are unable to prevent emergencies, crises and other unfortunate occurrences that may adversely affect our campus, we can take proactive steps to manage risks and consequences,” Purdue Calumet Chancellor Howard Cohen said.

Purdue Calumet Assistant Vice Chancellor of Administrative Services and Emergency Preparedness Coordinator Mike Kull added, “Purdue Calumet’s emergency preparedness observance is a great opportunity to involve, inform and familiarize our campus community with various aspects of our Campus Crisis Management Plan. Preparation drives emergency response.”

Additional information about emergency preparedness at Purdue Calumet is available at www.calumet.purdue.edu/emergency.

News Release Date: September 3, 2008