SUNY Plattsburgh holds crisis drill
By: Gracie Lewis
Beat: Fire/Rescue
Story type: Localized news feature
PLATTSBURGH, N.Y.—SUNY Plattsburgh recently participated in a full-scale crisis drill,
complete with campus officials, ambulances and volunteer victims dripping in fake blood.
The drill was held as so the campus could practice what to do in a real crisis. The
emergency plan that the school has is designed for any crisis—from a fire to a school shooting.
Bryan Hartman, VP of Student Affairs at SUNY Plattsburgh, said it was good to remind
the campus that they are not immune to tragedies, and that campuses all around the country do
these drills about every five years.
The crisis SUNY Plattsburgh chose to act out was an explosion in a lab in Beaumont
Hall, a science building on campus, on Oct. 26 at 8 a.m. An explosion in a lab was chosen
because a lot of people could be involved and the building was available to use. Volunteers got
their makeup done by the SUNY Plattsburgh theater department and Homeland Security to make
it look like they were wounded.
When the "explosion" occurred, volunteers had to find their way out of Beaumont Hall,
where the fire alarm and smoke machines were going off to make it seem like a real
explosion. As soon as the volunteers got out of the building, they were either taken to the SUNY
Plattsburgh Student Health Center or CVPH depending on the seriousness of their injuries.
Volunteers were also encouraged to post on a fake Facebook site and Twitter page so the
college could practice responding to social media during crises.
Mike Caraballo, Emergency Management Director at SUNY Plattsburgh and designer of
the crisis drill, said, "Some of the things we practiced were evacuation of a building,
communication to the campus communication to our incident management team and dealing
with response and recovery.”
According to Hartman, the crisis drill went extremely well. "People from Clinton County
Emergency Services were impressed. They're involved in things like this all the time and they
thought we did well. The plan we have in place is actually used by all types of emergency
services, such as fire departments and EMTs.”
Although the drill went well overall, Hartman said it highlighted some problems that the
college needs to work on. The first problem was the Emergency Operations Center on campus
has very old equipment, which prevented them from getting the most updated information on the
crisis. Hartman said the college is going to have to find the money to get new equipment.
Another dilemma the college had was they realized Caraballo had been given too much
to do during a crisis. Caraballo's main role is to make sure the Emergency Operations Center is
open, and bring people in to start to get things rolling. He said he expected to be the only one at
the Emergency Operations Center, but when the time came for the drill, he got overwhelmed.
"I started getting things ready for the activation of our emergency plan, but at the same
time I was getting paged and answering phone calls," Caraballo said.
One thing that the college did well was respond to the fake social media posts from the
volunteers. Michelle Ouellette, Director of Public Relations and Marketing at SUNY
Plattsburgh, diffused rumors started by the volunteers and removed content that was
inappropriate.
"We want to make sure that what is getting out on social media isn't hindering our
process for recovery or starting rumors. Michelle put out what was truthful and stomped out
what was inaccurate." Caraballo said.
Olivia Cahill, a volunteer who was "burned" so bad she had to be taken to CVPH, said
she was impressed at how quickly the college was responding to social media.
"I was posting on the fake Facebook page that I heard there was a bomb in Beaumont
Hall, which I completely made up, but I knew that if this were actually happening that’s
something students would be saying. Right after I posted it the SUNY Plattsburgh account had
responded saying people had searched the buildings and there was no bomb found," Cahill said.
Cahill was also surprised at how realistic the drill was. "It was scary to try and get out of
Beaumont. I’ve been through regular fire drills all the time where the fire alarm goes off and we
have to evacuate the building, but having the obstacles like the smoke machines made it seem
real," she said.
Overall, the crisis drill was successful and a good learning experience to prepare campus
officials and students for real emergencies.
"There wasn't anything that went terribly wrong, and we got a lot of takeaways from it,"
Caraballo said.
Source List:
Bryan Hartman: (518) 564-2280
Mike Caraballo: (518) 564-4850
Olivia Cahill: (631) 902-9259
Make-up on one of the volunteers victim, Mitch Falanga’s,
arms, along with an instruction tag on what his injuries were.
“Dying” victims outside of Beaumont Hall.
Campus officials and police officers meeting outside
of Beaumont Hall.
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Evacuation from SUNY Plattsburgh buildings:
Buildings must be evacuated when a fire alarm sounds or upon notice from University
Police or authorities.
Close all doors and use nearest exit.
Tell others to exit the building.
When outside, be at least 50 feet away from the building.
Keep streets, fire lanes, hydrant areas and walkways clear for emergency vehicles and
emergency personnel.
Do not return to an evacuated building.
In addition, dial 911 from a campus telephone for any fire, medical, or police emergency in order
to be directly connected to Clinton County Office of Emergency Services.
Safety tips from Mike Caraballo, Emergency Management Director at SUNY Plattsburgh.