Buried in the Public Safety Building, nestled between the LSU Police Department and the Office of Parking, Traffic and Transportation lies a converted classroom once used for employee training. But the room, full of computers, fax machines, TV screens and numerous phone lines, is no longer used for trainees. Instead, highly-trained University representatives from across campus use this command station as their headquarters. This room, the Emergency Operations Center, houses the University’s response team when disaster strikes. “The EOC serves as a force multiplier,” said D’Ann Morris, interim director of Emergency Operations. “We provide situational awareness and improved coordination of public safety activities in order to enhance the safety and security of students, faculty, staff and visitors on the LSU campus.” Morris assumed the role of director when Eric Monday, then-associate vice chancellor for finance and administration, left the position to become the interim vice chancellor for Student Life and Academic Services earlier this month.
Morris said she will hold the position until the new chancellor names a permanent director. Morris’ role with the EOC stems from her primary job – assistant to the chancellor.
Morris began working in the Chancellor’s Office when current acting Chancellor William Jenkins served as interim chancellor in 2004. She then worked with former Chancellor Sean O’Keefe during his tenure and is now assisting Jenkins a second time.
While working with O’Keefe – serving as a liaison between Student Life entities and the Chancellor’s Office – Morris’ role at the University suddenly changed. Hurricane Katrina required her focus to shift.
O’Keefe asked Morris on the day following Katrina’s landfall to help officials from the Department of Social Services temporarily setup in the Huey P. Long Field House on campus to provide shelter for special-need evacuees.
Morris immediately recognized the dire situation.
Realizing that evacuees housed in the field house needed additional supplies, she requested aid from Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals officials who were using the PMAC as a Temporary Medical Operations and Staging Area. Morris asked these officials to share supplies provided to them by the federal government.
They told her no. Morris was not going to settle. She demanded cooperation.
“I clearly communicated that although I had no real authority, this is how we’re going to do it,” Morris said. “We then transformed the field house into a 500-bed field hospital.”
Morris began organizing volunteers and creating a structure for their service. She communicated with officials to assess their needs and provide appropriate workers.
When Morris realized one evacuee needing medical attention could not speak English, she raced to the phone to find a foreign language professor to provide translations. She tirelessly coordinated answering the needs of doctors and authorities running the field house and PMAC operations.
“D’Ann did an excellent job,” said LSUPD interim chief of police Gary Durham. “She was able to convert that field house into a rather large hospital.”
Morris’ organization of DHH and DSS’ cooperation allowed the PMAC to be used as an emergency room and the field house to shelter patients discharged from the PMAC.
This leadership provoked O’Keefe to ask Morris to serve on the EOC’s core council when it was created during the summer following Katrina’s aftermath. O’Keefe recognized the need for a permanent center and created the 24-hour EOC to respond during future crises.
Two teams – the purple team, lead by LSUPD’s Maj. Lawrence Rabalais and the gold team, lead by Maj. Helen Haire – work in 12-hour shifts, if necessary, to respond to natural and manmade disaster, acts of terrorism and no-notice events. These teams are comprised of University officials serving in different capacities.
Durham said they are currently working to add a third team to alleviate shifts to eight hours. The EOC’s structure is similar to the EOCs in each Louisiana parish and comparable to the EOCs for most states, Durham said. University team members complete the same training through the Federal Emergency Management Agency as government EOC members.
On Dec. 13, Morris received notification of the on-campus double homicide, and she was in the EOC’s headquarters in less than 20 minutes.
In the hours following the murder of two doctoral students, the EOC sent an emergency text message and assisted LSUPD with media inquiries, grief counseling for those affected and aid for the victims’ families.
“Their work took a big load off law enforcement’s shoulders,” Durham said.
Durham said the EOC took care of essential duties sometimes carried out by LSUPD allowing officers to focus on the investigation and implementation of a task force.
After a permanent director is appointed, Morris plans to continue serving on the EOC core council.
“We’re not here to be law enforcement,” Morris said. “We’re here to deal with surrounding events and the University’s response to a disaster’s aftermath.”
—-Contact Nicholas Persac at [email protected].