With an active hurricane season in the Gulf of Mexico, Loyola’s administration tested out its emergency preparedness plan.
Loyola already has an emergency preparedness plan, though Meredith Hartley, director of public affairs, said, it is “a working document that is always changing.”
New to the plan is an off-site recovery center that allows the university to be functional away from Loyola’s main campus. Ric Bell, risk management director said Loyola has a new contract with Sungard, a disaster recovery center. In the event of an emergency Sungard would provide Loyola with office spaces, computers and phones in an area away from New Orleans; most likely Dallas.
“After Katrina we identified that we obviously needed a center of operation outside of the area so that we could keep administration together, make decisions and handle the requests and information that comes through,” Bell said.
If a hurricane poses as a threat to the city, Loyola’s president would decide when to activate phase one of the plan. Phase one consists of evacuating the president, the president’s cabinet, all of the deans and a few others to Dallas. During this time, they will monitor the situation. The second phase takes place 14 days after a suspended operation of the main campus. Bell said this is the administrative part where they actually bring people that can answer phone calls and run the university, such as keeping Blackboard and student records operating.
Bell said this plan was used for Hurricane Gustav last fall and it worked out well. There is also a new off-site facility for students who need help evacuating.
Every student is responsible for their own evacuation in the event of a hurricane and students living in the residence halls are required to fill out a personal evacuation plan before moving in, according to Marcia “Cissy” Petty, associate provost and vice president of student affairs. However, Petty said international students and those with extreme circumstances will now be evacuated on buses provided by Jesuit High School to Wesley College in Florence, Miss., about four to five hours from New Orleans, instead of Baton Rouge, La., like for Hurricane Gustav.
“Wesley has graciously allowed us to use the floor of their gymnasium in case of evacuation,” said Petty.
In a campus wide e-mail, Rev. Kevin Wildes, S.J., university president, said, “While no one likes to think of these things happening to our campus, I want to provide you all with great assurance that Loyola University New Orleans is prepared to manage these types of crises, and others, should they occur.”
John Adams can be reached at jradams1@loyno.edu
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