On Tuesday, March 20, a siren signifying a tornado drill was to be sounded at exactly 9:45 a.m. The drill at Longwood University was part of a statewide tornado preparedness effort. The day of the drill, however, the alarm did not sound until 9:56 a.m. due to a miscommunication between Longwood University and the Wireless Emergency Notification System (WENS).
Jim White, director of environmental health and safety and emergency management, recalled the mishap of the siren delay as a "human error." When the siren did not sound off the first time, a second message was sent through the system to sound off the alarm. When the alarm still didn't sound, action was taken to find the source of the problem.
Sergeant Russell Dove, administrative sergeant from the Department of Public Safety, called WENS at 9:47 a.m. to find out what was wrong. According to White, WENS did not realize the university was scheduled for a drill. Instead, the company had taken Longwood off the system completely to load updates. WENS also failed to put the university on a back-up server, so the alarm would sound despite updating the system.
White said Longwood had been corresponding with WENS weeks before the drill to ensure there would not be any problems the day of the drill.
"Somebody in the company didn't get the message," said White. At 9:52 a.m. the day of the drill, WENS sent an email to White saying "We are making some emergency updates to WENS, which is causing intermittent outages" and to please use their "secondary environment." Because White received this message when the drill was supposed to be occurring, it was of no use to White or the university.
At 9:56 a.m., the siren test finally sounded for the university. According to White, this was the first time this has ever happened at Longwood, and WENS did not notify the university properly. His concern stemmed from the tornado that touched down just miles from campus last April, and what would happen if a similar situation had occurred the day the siren was supposed to sound.
The purpose of the drill was to meet the preparedness initiatives of the Virginia Department of Emergency Management (VDEM) and for White to see if the buildings on campus had the capacity to hold everyone present on campus during a specific time. Unlike last year, when the system was tested while students were on spring break, the drill was held while students were back and in the full swing of school. Helping White with the preparations were 32 volunteers from a number of various coordinators who are trained to handle the drills.
A number of other students commented on Facebook that they received the text message alert and email notifications late on Thursday. Some did not receive an "all clear" message until 10:20 a.m. or later, such as Jessica Stanley. She received an email at 10:20 a.m., and the first text after the drill was over.
Soon after the mishap, White composed an email to President Patrick Finnegan, LUPD Chief of Police Bob Beach and several others for a call to review the contract between WENS and Longwood University. One of the things White called for was for the university to have the back-up system at their disposal. He also included three goals he would like to see the university accomplish by 2014, the first being an intercom system in the hallways of university buildings and residence halls.
"While people are waiting on that text message about the alert, an intercom is immediate," White commented. He also touched on the issues with hearing the speaker of the alert system around campus where the sound is sometimes muffled. Lizzie Bloom wrote on The Rotunda's Facebook wall, "Could barely hear it in the Landings. Could not understand the words the alarm spoke."
White suggests the university switch to the blue phones located all over campus. Finally, White wants specific signs for approved safe areas on campus in the event of an emergency.
White wanted to give a special thanks to Grant Avent, director of Longwood Dining services, and his staff for evacuating all of the students out of Dorrill Dining Hall and into the underground garage on time.
