Emergency Response and Evacuation Procedures Test - Do You Know What To Do During a Community-Wide Chemical Emergency?

Know Your Zone and ESIP Buildings

Emergency Response and Evacuation Procedures Test on 9/20/2021 from 10am to 11:30am

CSEPP (the Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program)

Would you know what to do during a community-wide chemical emergency?

The Madison County Emergency Management Agency / Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program (EMA/CSEPP) normally conducts its annual disaster exercise on the third Wednesday of September around 9am. Due to COVID-19 concerns, Madison County, Kentucky Emergency Management, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, decided to conduct a limited exercise this year. Exercise play focused on activity at the Emergency Operations Center in Madison County. EKU normally participates by running an on-campus Incident Command Center, asking our schools at Model Laboratory School and Burrier Child Development Center to practice sheltering in place, and offering a voluntary shelter in place drill for the rest of the Richmond Campus community. Considering the current public health recommendations, and out of an abundance of caution, EKU did not participate in these traditional activities, this year. For the purposes of an exercise, we did not ask any of our populations to conduct shelter in place drills, but as we emphasize every year, September is an excellent month to consider how you might protect yourself from a community-wide chemical release, such as what could occur at the Blue Grass Army Depot. September is National Preparedness Month.

While we did participate in the annual exercise, by sending our Environmental Health & Safety team to the County EOC, on Richmond Campus, we did not participate in our traditional ways. Rather, we conducted a virtual seminar and tabletop exercise, to cover our established plans for a community-wide chemical release. The seminar included a viewing of two video segments ([1] for Madison County in general and [2] for EKU Richmond Campus specifically), and then [3] reviewing the Housing Protocol as well as the [4] Chemical Release Response Manual and the [5] Public Safety Protocol. This was followed by a short tabletop where we discussed our actions in the event of a chemical release.

We invited EKU Housing & Residence Life, the University Crisis Management Team, and local Public Safety Officials. We had a total of 27 attendees from Housing & Residence Life, the Crisis Management Team, Public Safety, Model, and some of our student employees. EKU President David T. McFaddin gave us a great introduction, and we reviewed, and discussed the application of our plans, from there.

You too can be more involved in providing for your own safety, by exploring the EKU Emergency Management webpage, and reviewing the training video links provided below.

EKU Emergency Management

EKU Community-Wide Chemical Release Response Video (What you should do on the EKU Richmond Campus)

Madison County Shelter In Place Video (What you should do off the EKU Richmond Campus elsewhere in Madison County)

Emergency Management wants to remind all Colonels to be Healthy at EKU.

Wear a mask while indoors (regardless of vaccination status).

Wash hands and use hand sanitizer frequently.

Do not enter EKU premises if you are or have felt sick in the last 24 hours.

Thank you all, for all you do, to help keep our students, faculty, staff, and visitors, safe and healthy.

Published on August 24, 2021