Deanna Talamantez
After several years of not being implemented, college employees will be participating in a disaster drill in the Campus Center on May 19.
The training is intended to teach Pierce College’s Emergency Response Team basic information needed to respond to a crisis on campus.
According to the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) training overview, that was prepared by Paul Nieman, director of plant facilities, it will provide “instruction on the use [of] the Pierce College Emergency Operations Plan within an EOC environment.”
Understanding the National Incident Management System (NIMS), The Standardized Emergency Management System (SEMS) required by California and the Incident Command System (ICS), is vital because they are all practiced by the government to respond to emergencies.
According to Nieman, NIMS became effective around mid-year of 2005. After that, Pierce employees had to “rework the plan, add more to it…look for holes [and] fix them,” said Nieman.
With changes made to the plan, the training’s intent is for the college to see if their improved plan will be successful.
The Pierce College Emergency Operations Plan Vol. 1, includes an Immediate Action Checklist showing who is in charge of which duties in the event of an emergency.
The EOC training day is planned to begin with classroom training, scheduled from 8 a.m. to noon.
Classroom training includes a two-hour power point presentation for the emergency response team about appropriate response steps, the NIMS/SEMS/ICS organizations and individual responsibilities.
Practical exercises, where trainees respond to realistic emergency scenarios, will take place from 12:30 to 4:30 p.m., where responsibilities will be divided among four subgroups: operations, planning, logistics and finance.
According to Nieman’s overview, the Table Top Exercise, planned from 12:30 to 2 p.m., allows members of the crisis action team to learn how to use the Immediate Action and Event Specific Checklists to manage an emergency and make the correct decisions relating to the Emergency Operations Center.
Using the information learned during training, the emergency response team will participate in the functional EOC exercise from 2 to 4:30 p.m.
President Robert Garber and the four vice presidents will meet to decide whether or not the EOC should be activated.
“It’s important to do this because there’s earthquakes and other natural disasters that we should be prepared for,” said McCaslin.
Nieman said, the crisis action team, will assess what will be happening during the drill.
“The emergency operations center is designed to manage the disaster and the recovery from the disaster,” said Nieman.
There will be a staging area that will involve mostly staff and volunteers who will carry out those types of responsibilities.
It’s crucial to practice documenting everything done in an emergency and all the costs that are involved in the process of recovering, said Nieman.
The college can easily gain more federal and state funds based on its documentations, he said.
“We’re still going to do more exercises [and] more training because it always needs to be done,” said Nieman.
The Pierce College Policy/Advisory Group will report information about the emergency to the Los Angeles Community College board of trustees.