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On Tuesday April 17 at 10:15 a.m. Utah participated in “The Great Utah ShakeOut,” a statewide earthquake drill to provide practice for state agencies as to how they would react in a real life earthquake of a magnitude 7.0 event.
Salt Lake Community College participated mainly through emails and voice messaging to students and staff alerting them to the drill and referring them to the ShakeOut website for information and details on how to be safe and prepare for an earthquake.
“I got a text message,” said Emma Jackson who works for SLCC financial aid office. “I’m thinking it’s working pretty well.”
Some students received emails or direction from their professors about the drill and what to do in a real life emergency. SLCC students didn’t drop, cover and hold on though as it was business as usual at the college.
Offices at the college were ready to get under desk if need be, but 10:15am came and went with no bells or alarms.
“It’s not going to be earth shattering,” said Dennis Klaus, Vice President of Business Services at SLCC, about the drill. “Because we are in the middle of a school term and we have a psychology lecture going on, we just wanted to make people aware of earthquake safety and so we’ve been sending out some earthquake awareness month safety tips.”
With finals coming up, lectures going on and weather issues it was a relief to some that the school wasn’t evacuated for a drill. Information was sent out by email through the Emergency Alert System to students about the drill. Vibrating phones were probably the only shaking that occurred during this event.
In a real emergency access to email may be limited, the school would then send a short text message to the students and staff with concise instruction as to what to do during an emergency.
“The biggest thing we wanted people to be aware of is their surroundings and what they would do if there were a real earthquake,” said Klaus.
Information can be found on ShakeOut.org for emergency tips and how to be prepared.
