By snoadmin
Passenger and freight airplanes pass over the heads of thousands within the Cal State Long Beach community each day. The campus is situated in the flight path of many approaching and departing flights of both commercial and military airplanes, most of them from the Long Beach Airport. Some, however, also come from Orange County, Ontario, Burbank and LAX.
But what if one were to somehow crash on the campus of CSULB?
In the event that an airplane crashes at CSULB, university officials suggest common sense. Find shelter and stay away from the location of the crash; if you cannot get away from the crash, duck and cover; for those inside buildings that have not been affected by the crash, stay indoors, group together, and stay away from windows.
“A lot of disaster response is common sense,” said Sgt. Scott Brown of University Police. Brown has been the emergency services coordinator at CSULB for five years, and teaches university police officers emergency preparedness.
“Our police are very well-trained in this,” said Brown. “We have the tools, but we hope to never have to open the tool chest.”
The campus emergency plan also states that University Police would direct the response effort, with priority for the rescue of injured or ensnared individuals, the treatment of such individuals, and protection from any further property damage.
If a crash were to affect one or more of the buildings on campus to the point of evacuation, access to those buildings would not be allowed until the university decides that the building is safe for occupation, and that the police have completed response actions and investigations.
The Volunteer Crisis Resource Team will also respond if an emergency occurs, and will meet at a designated location to form additional teams. From there, the teams will disburse over campus to the areas where students, faculty and other members of the CSULB community congregate. VCRT members would also help debrief and diffuse emergency situations, as well as help individuals or groups deal with stress and other concerns.
One of the first steps of emergency volunteers would be to “seal off the area, keep helping those in need, and wait for the [Federal Aviation Administration],” said CSULB President F. King Alexander.
In the future, CSULB emergency plans and actions will be more technologically advanced, and, according to Alexander, there are plans to institute a campuswide emergency text-messaging system.
“When the text-messaging system is fully functional, [we would] use this technology to inform the campus,” Alexander said.
