Valley's Disaster Plan Needs Work

A group of about 35 Valley College administrators, faculty and staff met recently to review the disaster preparedness team's strategy, discuss concerns and begin to organize a disaster plan.

"We need to get the people on top to understand what their roles and responsibilities will be to implement the plan," said Lou Albert, director of staff and operational planning.

Many of the prospective team members left during intermission and didn't return. They missed key elements of the meeting, including the guest speaker, Ben Elisondo, safety training coordinator for California State University, Northridge. Elisondo presented strategies based on his experience at CSUN as disaster chief during and following the 1994 Northridge earthquake that destroyed about 95 percent of the school's buildings.

"There are many different components in putting it together," Elisondo said. "It really comes down to cooperation."

Albert defined disaster as something that takes away all resources. "We need to train to be on our own for 72 hours," Albert said. "The school shouldn't depend on outside help in a disaster that affects the community. We may not be top priority.

"You have all been deputized whether you like it or not," Albert said. Tom Jacobsmeyer, vice president of administrative services and coordinator of the emergency response plan, spoke of the necessity to be self-contained and the urgency of communicating who will be on the teams.

"This is a huge training nightmare," Deputy Sheriff Sgt. Eric Hartman of campus security said. "The building marshals will have to be identified and trained or retrained every semester." Hartman said it will be necessary to have annual training drills.

"Disabled students are the most difficult," Hartman said. "It's going to take some hefty coordination to get them out of there." Valley does not have adequate resources to transport disabled students with motorized wheelchairs, according to Kathleen Sullivan, administrator of disabled students program.

"This is a consciousness-raising talk," Sullivan said. "It's important to have DSPS accessibility built into all emergency technology." She took the opportunity to speak about the necessity of developing better resources for disabled students. She requested that anything related to the technologies be made accessible to them.

"In actuality, for the campus to be structured to meet disaster planning, each department should have a formal plan," health and science department chair Judy Holton said. "Then they need to bring these people together. Otherwise you've got people working in separate directions when they should be working together."

It took 40 minutes to evacuate buildings during Valley's Sept. 13, 2001, bomb threat, four times as long as it took Northridge to evacuate students during the 1994 quake. "We did some things right, we did some things wrong," Hartman said. "We did things wrong because we didn't have a plan."

"Preparation and planning is key to avoid a lot of the catastrophes that we see when the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing," Vice President of Student Services Yasmin Delahoussaye said.

"If there is a serious emergency there will be thousands of incidents, and there are very few people to help with traffic problems," Albert said. "Don't tell your students to leave right away, the way people try to get out - it could be fatal."

"I think the preparation should continue into more workshops, one time isn't going to be sufficient," said Annie Goldman, director of community services and extension.

The effectiveness of the plan depends on what follows after the meeting. Although no teams were set up, the night-time deans were instructed to keep contact with the campus sheriff's department regularly. Identification of teams, and training is scheduled for May 3. The emergency preparedness team will schedule drills in July and in November.