Run of the drill - Southeast evacuates 6,400 successfully

No one screamed. Emergency officials didn't rush to the scene. No one was injured in Tuesday's evacuation drill at Southeast Missouri State University that forced 6,400 students and employees to briefly exit all campus buildings.

Most people were prepared for the school's first campus-wide emergency evacuation exercise. The university sent a letter to students and school employees alerting them to the drill and posted signs around campus to add emphasis.

The 14-minute drill began at 11:05 a.m. when the university's department of public safety sounded seven outdoor warning sirens followed by a verbal message that it was a test. Fire alarms sounded in a dozen campus buildings, including residence halls.

Regardless of the event's novelty to Southeast, there was little drama. Faculty, students and staff calmly exited buildings.

Students and employees huddled in groups outside academic and office buildings, and residence halls. At Academic Hall, the administrative nerve center of the campus, employees gathered at various designated spots on the sidewalks bordering the stately building.

Getting everyone out

When it was all over, everyone went back inside the buildings -- back to work, back to class, back to the dorm rooms.

Doug Richards, Southeast's director of public safety, pronounced the drill a success. "Overall, it went extremely well," he said. "The key thing is people got out."

People ended up in their designated assembly areas and building coordinators properly accounted for them, he said.

"People exited the buildings better than we anticipated," said Richards.

In addition to sounding seven outdoor alarms, the public safety department also sounded fire alarms in 12 campus buildings, including all the residence halls.

"Basically, the campus shut down and people stayed in their assembly areas," Richards said.

Things went so smoothly, he said, that everyone was evacuated within 10 or 11 minutes.

Some students defended the drill, others criticized the evacuation.

"It should be done," said Billy Husher, as he waited outside Carnahan Hall with others in his medieval history class. He said the drill would have been more effective if students and staff hadn't been notified in advance.

Husher and other students said they had trouble hearing the outdoor sirens, even though one siren stands near Carnahan Hall.

Bobby Brown was in his freshman political science class when the drill began. "Our class didn't know it had started," he said.

They exited their ground-floor classroom after being notified by Dr. Peter Bergerson, who chairs the political science department.

Exiting by wheelchair

Brown, who gets around in a wheelchair, said he had no trouble exiting the building.

He welcomed the evacuation drill. "The state our country is in right now, we need to be prepared for anything," Brown said.

Richards said the drill could prove useful in the event of an earthquake, hazardous chemical spill or even a terrorist attack. But Richards said it's unlikely every campus building would be evacuated at once in any real emergency.

Bergerson, wearing an orange vest, served as building coordinator at Carnahan Hall, making sure that everyone exited the building.

Afterward, he said the warning system needed to include more verbal instructions at the front end to alert students and staff.

Katie Vandagriff, a senior at Southeast, saw no need for the drill as she stood outside Dempster Hall. "We have been doing fire drills since elementary school, but we are not elementary kids anymore."

Loni Sterzik, a junior, thought the drill was a waste of time. "It was stupid," she said as she waited for the all-clear sound outside Carnahan Hall.

"We didn't hear the siren. A faculty member told us to leave," Sterzik said.

She said the drill benefited students only in that they got a few minutes break from class.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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