Campus Preparedness and Mitigation

(2008-03-11 10:55:00.0)

Brown, Vincent. A Campus Plan for Natural and Man-Made Disasters. The Police Chief, Vol. 75, No. 2, February 2008. Accessed at: http://policechiefmagazine.org/magazine/index.cfm?fuseaction=display&article_id=1421&issue_id=22008 Academic institutions in the eastern and southern United States are at risk from hurricanes and floods; the eastern and Midwestern parts of the country, from tornadoes; and the West, from earthquakes and wildfires.. almost all of the regions of the United States are subject to flooding and fires, and some areas also may be at risk of landslides, severe winter storms, coastal erosion, avalanches, hailstorms, tsunamis, heat waves, and dam failures-plus man-made emergencies such as terrorist acts and campus shootings. Natural disasters frequently lead to significant financial losses and disrupt an institution's teaching, research, and public service missions. After Hurricane Katrina flooded New Orleans, the campus of the historically black Dillard University was devastated, and tuition had to be refunded for the fall semester. Two months after the hurricane, the university was forced to reduce its faculty and staff by two-thirds due to lack of funds. In 1994, California State University in Northridge shut down for weeks after an earthquake, costing the school an estimated $380 million. In 2001, a tropical storm left 22 feet of water in the medical school at the University of Texas at Houston, which caused the hospital to close for the first time in its history. In 1997, the University of North Dakota had to relocate critical functions, such as its computer center, after the Red River inundated the campus... A 2001 tornado killed two students at the University of Maryland. In 2000, a fire at Seton Hall University in New Jersey killed three students and injured many others. Irreplaceable university archives, research laboratories, and college libraries containing rare volumes are at risk if campus buildings housing these facilities are located in a flood hazard area... Decreasing the vulnerability of a campus to natural and man-made hazards through systematic predisaster planning and long-term mitigation actions can reduce loss of life and property damage...A study by the Multihazard Mitigation Council reported that "[each] dollar spent on mitigation saves society an average of four dollars. Through the Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000, FEMA provides an array of funding for planning projects and mitigation activities, including two grant programs: the Pre-Disaster Mitigation Grant Program and postdisaster Hazard Mitigation Grant Program. States are the conduit through which most FEMA funds flow and set the priorities for allocating funds for mitigation projects; for these reasons, state hazard mitigation officers should be considered valuable resources for obtaining additional information on FEMA's grant programs. Without a mitigation plan, some smaller academic institutions may be unable to recover from a major disaster. Institutions that have developed a plan and implemented mitigation actions are able to resume operations more quickly, thereby helping them retain their students and faculty. Mitigation activities, which some universities have adopted, include improved building practices, sound land-use management, and flood insurance that protects financial investment in flood-prone buildings.