Months after Hurricane Isaac and the bomb threat, the LSU Emergency Operations Center took responsibility for its mistakes handling the incidents and elicited feedback from an audience of about 50 faculty, staff and students about how to improve emergency procedures.
The LSU EOC hosted an after-action review of Hurricane Isaac and the bomb threat Tuesday morning in the Student Union Atchafalaya Room.
“We have no preconception that we are perfect,” said EOC Core Team Chair D’Ann Morris. “We have a lot to learn, and who better to learn it from than the people that experienced it?”
After a brief introduction, Morris began the forum by hearing from the audience about Hurricane Isaac and the bomb threat.
Discussion of both topics focused on better communication, which faculty and students said needed the most improvement.
Audience suggestions included utilizing a campus-wide PA system, training more faculty to inspect buildings for anything out of the ordinary, having bomb threat drills, using phone calls in addition to text messages and sending emergency text messages in other languages for ESL students.
While Morris said better communication is needed, she emphasized that students share the responsibility to keep themselves safe by heeding all warnings and staying up to date with information provided on the website and through other media.
“We use a multitude of communication devices, but some of this has to be on the students to check the website,” Morris said.
Morris said although text messaging is effective at getting news out, the small amount of space it provides necessitates checking other sources for more information.
The University has experienced its share of hurricanes, but the bomb threat presented a new challenge.
“Although this was not the first bomb threat we’ve received, it was the first one of its nature,” Morris said.
Sociology junior Claire Strickland, who experienced both LSU and Texas A&M’s bomb threats, said there was a stark difference between each university’s reaction and suggested LSU consider adapting initiatives she saw while on Texas A&M’s campus.
LSU Chief of Police Lawrence Rabalais said overcoming the bomb threat was a difficult task that included evacuating campus and securing the campus with limited resources.
“We have to look at our procedures, look at our responses and our resources,” Rabalais said. “We’ll have to address more specifics.”
Rabalais said what matters is nobody was hurt, and the focus is now improving the current procedures for future incidents.
At an EOC panel discussion Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2012 in the Atchafalaya Room in the Union Executive Assistant to the Chancellor and Head of the EOC, D'Ann Morris, blames herself for the not being specific in the emergency text message for the bomb threat, as the bomb threat text message template was not specific. Morris said the EOC has since developed templates for a variety of situations during a bomb threat.
