Plan Ahead, Be Prepared
All members of the University community are encouraged to become more informed and take proactive steps to plan ahead in the event of an act of terrorism, national emergency, or other emergency situation.
Here is a list of suggested preparatory steps and actions for your consideration:
- Take time out to familiarize yourself with building evacuation plans.
- Keep a flashlight handy if you are in an area without natural lighting.
- Create an emergency communications and disaster plan to contact parents and family members. Make an emergency contact list of family members and keep it in a readily accessible location. This list should contain names, addresses, telephone numbers (home, office, cell), e-mail addresses and pager numbers.
- Keep a copy of your contact list with you wherever you go, in case you need to make contact when away from your residence. Share your plan with your roommates, co-workers, and/or close friends.
- Carry your UT ID with you wherever you go. You may need it to enter certain areas.
- If you live off-campus, prepare a personal emergency kit to sustain you for three to seven days. Your kit should contain water, food, a flashlight and batteries, a battery-powered radio, a first-aid kit and medicines, a change of clothing, an extra set of keys, and important documents.
- Be prepared to do without services you normally depend on that could be disrupted (e.g., electricity, telephone, natural gas, gasoline pumps and Internet transactions).
- Use the buddy system. Never go somewhere alone, especially at night.
- Know the location of fire extinguishers.
- Talk with your family about how you’ll communicate with one another in an emergency.
- Keep the gas tank full if you have a car.
- Avoid passing on unsubstantiated information and rumors.
- Use care, caution, common sense and control.
- Identify critical equipment and operations that should not be left unattended within your work area. Assign primary and secondary on-site staff to shutdown critical equipment or operation prior to leaving in a building evacuation.
- Be informed and stay informed. Consider monitoring news media reports and subscribing to news web sites offering free e-mail news notifications. You can check for any important changes to campus conditions at this site. Battery-powered radios are another information source, particularly if there is a power outage.