"Save the athlete!" joked our class when the softball player was the only person in the room at that point to receive a text message from the Office of Emergency Preparedness regarding the tornado. In all seriousness though, the Office of Emergency Preparedness did what they should have done before and during the drill.
According to city-data.com, Charlottesville has only had two major tornadoes in the past half-century. One was in 1959, and the other was in 1985 when a tornado struck 12 miles from the city.\nThe Office of Emergency Preparedness must have known that the likelihood of a major tornado coming through Charlottesville is fairly low and responded adequately without going overboard. There was an e-mail sent out on March 11 indicating that there would be a drill on March 16. On March 16, the alarms went off and the message was played. Although some people could not decipher the words, there were other means of finding out the information, such as the e-mail sent at 9:52 a.m. stating that "this is the test of the U V A emergency notification system," as well as an additional e-mail sent out 10 minutes later stating the conclusion of the notification system.
The e-mail also instructed readers to visit the University's home page, where a notification was posted about the drill. All these measures - the alarms followed by the announcements, e-mails, notification on the home page, as well as text messages - were enough to alert people, but not so much as to unnecessarily frighten them.
However, some questioned what the alternative alert system to e-mails would be if the tornado took out the power lines. When this was brought up during class, another student quickly and rightfully replied that loss of internet connection, along with the alarms and texts should be enough of an indicator that something out of the ordinary was occurring.
Some might argue that participating in the drill was nothing more than going through the motions on the part of the announcers, as nothing was done by students, faculty, or staff. However, the purpose of the drill was not to educate people on how to handle a tornado, but rather to simulate the notification process. The fact that it occurred on statewide Tornado Preparedness Day should be enough to at least invoke curiosity and hopefully further actions such as prompting Virginia residents to research methods for keeping safe during a tornado.
Had the announcer given instructions on how to keep safe, there might be some panic among people who had not gotten the e-mails or text messages or heard the part at the beginning indicating that the announcement was only a drill. Some might have assumed that these instructions were a result of an imminent tornado and might have overreacted.
These instructions were not even necessary since one of the e-mails from the Office of Emergency Preparedness gave directions on how to handle a tornado. It read: "If you are not in a meeting, a class, or engaged in a critical activity, practice moving to a safe location or take a minute to plan how you would shelter from a tornado. This minute of effort may save your life one day." The only thing people inside had to do was sit and the only thing people outside had to do was go inside.
Overall, the drill proved to be a useful experience. More people should now be aware of the tornado warnings, as well as what to do during a tornado. The drill successfully served its purpose. It was enough to be a drill but not so much as to cause unnecessary panic. One can only hope and wonder what would happen if only the Office of Emergency Preparedness conducted "Final Exams" drills.
Hung Vu's column appears Tuesdays. He can be reached at h.vu@cavalierdaily.com.
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