In the event of a disaster such as an earthquake or fire at
UCLA, students may be at a loss about how to react, but university
officials have extensive response plans.
At least for most foreseeable events.
“If it’s the doomsday earthquake, then obviously we
have problems,” said Rick Greenwood, director of the Office
of Environment, Health and Safety.
Though UCLA officials may be unsure how to respond in the event
of a catastrophic disaster ““ such as one on the scale of
Hurricane Katrina ““ plans are in place to deal with a wide
range of events.
Response to a disaster “would be dependent upon the nature
and extent of the calamity we’re confronted with,” said
Joe Mandel, vice chancellor of legal affairs.
If the UCLA campus were to be compromised by a disaster, UCLA
and the University of California would do “everything
conceivable” to care for students and their education, Mandel
said.
“No one is going to abandon the students,” he
added.
Above all else, safety is the top priority of UCLA’s
campus emergency and departmental response plans.
“In a disaster, the main focus is safety and the life,
health and safety of the individuals on campus,” said Janina
Montero, vice chancellor of the office of student affairs.
If the campus were to be rendered completely inoperable by a
disaster students could probably count on other colleges and
universities, in addition to the UC and California State University
systems, to provide other places of instruction, Mandel said.
“I’m sure there is nothing in writing,” he
said, regarding contracts to allow students to attend other
institutions. But “it’s one UC system, and if unrelated
colleges and universities didn’t (accept students), I’m
sure our nine sister institutions would.”
“If we needed … we know we could count on them,”
she added.
The university’s responsibility to students would be
driven much more by trying to help people in need than by legal
niceties, Mandel said.
A calamity of such magnitude as to take the UCLA campus out of
commission would almost certainly affect the surrounding area,
Greenwood said.
“If in fact we’re knocked out of operation, I think
probably most of Los Angeles would be, too,” Greenwood
said.
UCLA is very well prepared for a disaster, due to extensive
earthquake-proofing of buildings, he said.
“There may be people coming to us for help. We may be
relatively stable because of all the work we’ve done,”
Greenwood said. “That’s part of our plan, how do we
handle an influx of individuals.”
UCLA’s disaster plan emphasizes preparation, both in how
to respond and in taking steps to minimize the extent of the
damage.
It is primarily tailored toward earthquakes, since earthquakes
are the biggest threat in southern California, Greenwood said.
Other potentially high risks for the campus include terrorism,
violence in the workplace and fires.
Gearing the plan toward earthquakes allows the campus to be
prepared for the most likely disaster while putting in place the
basic infrastructure for dealing with any campus-wide problem,
Greenwood said.
UCLA has a Disaster Immediate Response team comprised of more
than 150 electricians, carpenters, and campus fire fighters and
hazardous materials specialists trained to immediately respond to a
disaster and evaluate the damage to campus, Greenwood said.
The campus emergency management team, including Chancellor
Albert Carnesale and other senior campus executives, would meet at
the emergency operations center on campus to get information on a
disaster situation, Greenwood said.
Both the Disaster Immediate Response team and an Operations
Group made up of campus police, fire fighters, the hazardous
materials team and administrators involved in housing would make
recommendations to the emergency management team as to the damage
and what needed to be done, Greenwood said.
UCLA would also work closely with the Red Cross, FEMA and city
traffic control. Currently, the hazardous materials unit drills
with the Los Angeles Police Department and the FBI.
“One of the things we have planned for is that we
won’t have help for two to three days, and so we have food
from our restaurants and the hospital cafeteria and the
dorms,” Greenwood said.
Bottled water is also stockpiled in the dining facilities and
the dorms, he said.
Pauley Pavilion would be available for sheltering displaced
students if necessary, as would Royce Hall, Montero said.
The UCLA Medical Center has its own elaborate plan, as part of
the Los Angeles County Emergency Trauma network, Greenwood
said.
Campus-wide efforts to preclude earthquake damage have included
putting a substantial amount of money into making the buildings on
campus more seismically stable.
This program has spanned over a decade, as engineers have looked
at buildings to determine what they need to be able to withstand a
fairly substantial earthquake.
Buildings have been closed for up to two years as steel
structures and foundations have been integrated and reinforced.
More fire sprinklers have also been installed in all remodeled
buildings. Also, seismic anchorage within the buildings has been
implemented so that objects won’t fall off of the walls and
bookshelves will stay standing.
“Anything that will mechanically make a building able to
withstand an earthquake” has been implemented, Greenwood
said. “Basically, we have hardened the campus.”
Another important aspect of campus disaster preparation involves
the ability to communicate emergency information to students and
the broader campus community.
“Our role is to communicate the emergency management
decisions of the emergency management team to the campus community
and the community at large,” said Lawrence Lokman, assistant
vice chancellor of university communications.
University communications has the ability to inundate the campus
home page with emergency information. The department also has
access to the UCLA Cable 3 television channel, the campus radio
station at 810 AM, the emergency mass e-mail system, and the MyUCLA
Web site in order to convey emergency information to students,
their parents and campus staff, Lokman said.
Another method of accessing emergency information includes a
UCLA phone number with pre-recorded emergency updates from campus
communications.
Additionally, the radio station broadcasts road closure and
other emergency information for a 5 to 6 mile radius around campus,
Greenwood said.
In an effort to inform students of the different ways to access
information in an emergency situation, and in the wake of Hurricane
Katrina, the office of environment, health and safety recently sent
50,000 cards with emergency numbers to the student population.
The university does not expect individual students to be
prepared for a disaster.
“We see the students as what we call a dependent
population,” Greenwood said. “Preparing for an
earthquake isn’t usually high on a student’s mind. And
that’s why we focus a lot of our attention on the departments
and basically the infrastructure.”
Professors have information in class on where students should go
in the case of an emergency, and every building on campus has an
emergency bulletin board.
“No one pays attention to this material until something
happens, and then they keep saying, “˜Why didn’t someone
tell us about it?'” Greenwood said.