In the event of a magnitude 7 earthquake hitting the U, cell phones would buzz with alert messages and the police would roam campus to inform people of safe places to relocate or tell them if they need to hold tight.
Beyond that, U emergency services haven’t laid out specific plans.
“It’s hard to know who will have access to computers,” said Les Chatelain, U special assistant for emergency management. “It’s hard to pre-plan an earthquake scenario, because we don’t know what will be functional.”
After a magnitude 3.5 earthquake, there wouldn’t be much damage, so students would be asked to leave campus by any means available, including their cars, Chatelain said. However, after a magnitude 7 earthquake, students would be asked to evacuate buildings as quickly as possible but to remain at the U.
Seismologists predict the “big one” to cause extensive damage around Salt Lake City, and students are safer at the U, away from buildings, than driving out into a dangerous situation, he said.
Chatelain said he hopes the plan works out better than the campuswide evacuation two weeks ago.
When road construction ruptured a major gas line March 24, the campus should have been evacuated in approximately 30 minutes, Chatelain said. In reality, the unmediated parking lot exodus during the evacuation put many students, faculty and hospital staff in stop-and-go traffic on the north side of campus for more than an hour.
The recent gas leak evacuation was an example of what should not happen, Chatelain said.
“The Salt Lake City Fire Department sent out the evacuation message,” he said. “We would have sent people by groups.”
During the gas leak, the fire department wasn’t aware that the U had it’s own alert system, said spokesman Scott Freitag. They met with emergency management after the leak and decided that from now on, the fire department will call the U during an emergency and allow the school to send out its own evacuation alerts while the city handles the rest, he said. There is “no need to send out duplicate or even conflicting information,” he said.
Two agencies sending out evacuation messages also put a significant strain on the phone system and could have potentially crashed it, he said. Delegating the alert system will help avoid such a potential risk the next time.
“It’s more an issue of coordination, not what should or shouldn’t have (been) evacuated,” Freitag said.
If the U had been in charge of the gas leak evacuation, the Office of Emergency Management would have identified which sections of campus were in need of immediate evacuation and provided those evacuees with a staggered exit route to avoid traffic jams, Chatelain said. The Office of Emergency Management, which coordinates campus-wide emergency strategies, plans to take a few hours to evacuate students, faculty and staff in the event of a major earthquake.
Aida Kerimova, a junior in international studies, waited to evacuate when the gas line ruptured to avoid getting stuck in traffic. Kerimova said although she only waited in traffic for 20 minutes during the leak, she’s not sure if she would want to wait during an earthquake.
“If the building is shaking, I’m leaving campus as quickly as possible,” she said.
Chatelain said there is a tentative plan with the Utah Transit Authority for getting people home after an earthquake.
“The problem is not getting people off campus,” he said. “It’s getting them to Sandy or Herriman. We’ve identified coordinators with UTA. They will call us, or we will call them.”
UTA spokeswoman Carrie Bohnsack-Ware said UTA has coordinated with the U and has an independent plan to provide evacuation service during major emergencies.
Chatelain recommends that everyone on campus keep 72-hour emergency kits in their offices or cars.
“If you drive, it’s not a bad idea,” said Zack Heern, a graduate student in history, regarding the 72-hour kit recommendation. “If you are riding your bike or walking or taking the bus to school every day, it’s not feasible.”
Michael McFall contributed reporting.
Erik DaenitzTraffic delays on North Campus Dr. ranged from 15 minutes for some vehicles to over one hour for others when the campus was evacuated during the gas leak. If a magnitude 3.5 earthquake were to hit the U students would be instructed to leave campus any way they could including in their cars.