By In the past few months, Cal State Long Beach has been working to ensure the safety of students and faculty during El Niño.
December 2015 saw one of the worst El Niños in history.
CSULB has implemented a number of upgrades around campus to prepare for more El Niño weather, according to Mary Stephens, Vice President of Administration and Finance, in an email.
El Niño is the result of warm ocean currents near the equator that result in altering weather patterns every two to seven years.
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Mary Stephens, Vice President of Administration and Finance, explained some of the precautionary steps that have been taken to ensure the safety of all the students:
– purchased 1400 sandbags and are pre-deploying several in known flood zones
– testing all water pumps and hoses on campus
– performing required maintenance on all portable emergency generators
– inspecting and cleaning as necessary campus storm water catch basins
– testing all campus sump pumps
– sweeping streets of debris that may otherwise end up blocking storm drains
– ordering backup radios for emergency communications
– ongoing roof and rain gutter inspection and cleaning throughout campus
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Among other steps, Stephen said CSULB has purchased 1,400 sandbags and are pre-deploying several in known flood zones, testing all water pumps and hoses on campus and ordering backup radios for emergency communications.
Stephens also suggested that students create an emergency kit and keep it in places they visit often and keep their phones close in order to receive any BeachAlert notifications.
Stephens explained that these steps were planned months in advance and had the safety of the students in mind.
In addition to these measures, facilities manager Phil Dostalek said that “K-rails have been set up in front of Brotman Hall and a list of faculty phone numbers will also be available soon. In the event of a flooding at night someone will answer.”
CSULB last experienced heavy flooding in 1997 when storms flooded areas in front of Brotman Hall and several other places around campus. The flooding was a result of a full water basin that had been plugged by debris at the veterans hospital and flooded the areas below according to Dostalek.
Dostalek said that this time, “[he] and a special task force that includes Parking, Administration and Finance, Environmental Health and Safety and Emergency Operations do not anticipate as much flooding.
“We have been in constant communication with the veterans hospital, and they’ve taken measures as well to hold back the debris. There’s been a lot more communication between inside the campus and outside the campus.”
While El Niño will remain strong in January, it will gradually decrease in the coming months, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
