Severe weather season is upon us at Wayne State College, and the college has already started preparing for it by participating in a statewide tornado drill on Wednesday, March 25.
The National Weather Service issued the statewide drill to ensure safety if such an event were to occur. This drill would test the sirens in each town and emergency alerts that the citizens would receive during an event. These alerts inform the public about the danger and what to do for the specific place that you may be when an event like this might happen. Being a college campus and having a lot of moving parts, it is important to prepare and know what to do when getting caught in a situation like this.
“The purpose of the drill is to ensure Nebraskans can adequately receive a tornado watch and warning and to practice any actions that could protect your life in the event of an actual severe weather,” WSC College Relations Director Jay Collier said via campus-wide email.
The drill began at approximately 10:15 am on March 15, when the sirens in the town started to sound. The sirens functioned on schedule, but the other emergency alert systems failed to sound. There were no phone warnings and no building announcements around the campus.
“During this test, we learned that even though this was a scheduled statewide drill, that notice did not go out before the sirens went off,” Dean of Students Cody Westerhold said.
After the drill, the staff went to plans B and C to see if the warning could still be accomplished. Even though the test did not go to plan, the staff still thought this test was good to ensure next time there is a drill that the plans are in order.
“These systems are tested periodically and worked prior to the drill,” Collier’s email said. “We are examining our systems and their response to ensure we learn from this drill.”
With the system tests done and knowledge of what the campus needs to be fixed, the campus is now focusing on future tests.
“The main goal is to ensure that we are able to keep the student body safe and informed, that we will continue to ensure all our systems are working properly,” Westerhold said.
