Temple University will conduct a shelter-in-place drill on Thursday at 10 a.m. to assess the university’s preparedness for environmental emergencies, wrote campus safety services officials in an email to the Temple community.
TUsiren, a system of outdoor warning sirens, will sound for 10 to 15 minutes on Main Campus and the Health Sciences Campus, wrote Charlie Leone, the executive director of Campus Safety Services, in Tuesday’s email. Building Emergency Management Teams, university employees wearing red vests, will instruct students to take shelter indoors and assist them inside.
Students, faculty and staff should find shelter inside as quickly as possible in real shelter-in-place situations, Leone wrote. For the drill, students will be encouraged to practice the safety procedure.
“If there are no BEMTs present, or you are outside when the siren sounds, practice seeking an indoor space that is away from external windows and doors,” Leone wrote.
The emergency management teams are mostly made up of administrative staff and some faculty on campus who are trained to assist during drills and real emergencies, wrote Sarah Powell, Temple’s director of emergency management, in an email to The Temple News.
“They help direct occupants in a building during drills and real world emergencies,” Powell wrote. “It is important to have designated people who are trained to help out and know what to do.”
Shelter-in-place drills differ from lockdowns, Leone wrote, which address violent human threats like an active assailant situation. For a shelter-in-place drill, building doors should not be locked.
TUalerts will be sent to the Temple community before and after the drill to notify students, faculty and staff of its beginning and end.
“We are testing mass notification on two fronts: TUalert and TUsiren and the coordination of both systems,” Powell wrote.
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