By Claire Galvin

News

Monthly Reminder Small steps toward being prepared for an emergency Do 1 Thing is a 12-month program that makes it easy for you to prepare yourself, your family, and your community for emergencies or disasters.

Do1Thing in December: First Aid Be prepared to give first aid while waiting for an ambulance. Tasks Know what to do while waiting for an ambulance to arrive. Call 911 instead of trying to take an injured or ill person to the hospital yourself. It seems like waiting for an ambulance will make it take longer to get help, but ambulance crews can start providing care as soon as they arrive. Make or buy first aid kits for your home and car. Ready-made first aid kits are available at most department stores or your local American Red Cross chapter. Take training in first aid, CPR, AED, or pet first aid. Knowing how to apply a bandage, identify the signs and symptoms of shock, perform CPR or use an automatic external defibrillator (AED) can save a life. News from the 12/01/2016 edition: First Aid

Excerpts:   First Aid Be prepared to give first aid while waiting for an ambulance. Read on »

Release Date: 11/2016

 

For Immediate Release

 

The UConn Office of Emergency Management is proud to announce our partnership with the public awareness campaign of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), “If You See Something, Say Something™.”

 

“If You See Something, Say Something™” campaign materials will be visible throughout the UConn community, which includes the regional campuses.  Community members are encouraged to contact the UConn Police Department with information on suspicious activity at 860-486-4800. For an emergency, dial 911.

 

The “If You See Something, Say Something™” campaign—originally implemented by New York City’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority and now licensed to DHS for a nationwide campaign—is a simple and effective program to engage the public and key frontline employees to identify and report indicators of terrorism and terrorism-related crime to the proper law enforcement authorities.

 

The Department launched the “If You See Something, Say Something™” campaign in conjunction with the Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting Initiative—an administration effort to train state and local law enforcement to recognize behaviors and indicators related to terrorism and terrorism-related crime; standardize how those observations are documented and analyzed; and ensure the sharing of those reports with the Federal Bureau of Investigation-led Joint Terrorism Task Forces for further investigation and fusion centers for analysis.

 

For more information on the campaign, visit http://publicsafety.uconn.edu/emergency/resources/see-something-say-something/. All UConn campaign materials are available for download on our website.

Monthly Reminder Small steps toward being prepared for an emergency Do 1 Thing is a 12-month program that makes it easy for you to prepare yourself, your family, and your community for emergencies or disasters.

Do1Thing in November: Emergency Supplies Remember important items that may be overlooked when leaving your home in a disaster.   Tasks Gather your emergency supplies in an accessible place.   Have a go bag ready if you have to shelter in place or evacuate your home. Your go bag can be part of your emergency kit, just make sure it is in a bag or easy to carry container and that it is easy to get to.   Create an emergency supply kit for your pet, your car, and your workplace or school.   Disasters can strike when you are away from home. If your office or school does not have an emergency kit, offer to help make one.   Stash some cash in case ATMs and credit card machines are not usable in a disaster.   Some experts say you should have at minimum $150.00 in cash stashed away. Realizing this may not be possible for everyone, any amount is good to start with.   News from the 11/01/2016 edition:     Emergency Supplies

Excerpts: Emergency Supplies Remember important items that may be overlooked when leaving your home in a disaster. Read on »

To the University Community:

 

With the winter storm season approaching, we’d like to refresh your knowledge about UConn operations during inclement weather.

 

The safety of our students, faculty, and staff is paramount. At the same time, the University has important teaching, research and service missions to carry out, and must maintain effective operations. With all due consideration to safety, the University’s goal is to maintain normal operations to the greatest extent possible.

 

We therefore make decisions about cancelling classes or curbing business operations very carefully, with full consideration of all available information about weather predictions and road conditions.

 

We encourage you to read UConn’s Emergency Closing Policy for details about how these decisions are made, expectations of employees, and other information.

 

The following guidance applies to all UConn locations except UConn Health.

 

How you’ll know the status of the University during inclement weather:

 

• In the rare cases when we determine it is necessary to cancel or delay classes or to close business operations at the University, the community will be notified as quickly as possible.
• When storms occur overnight, we aim to make this notification by 5 a.m. Sometimes conditions change rapidly, however, and we may need to adjust decisions about class schedules and business operations on short notice.
• UConn’s Alert webpage (http://alert.uconn.edu) is the definitive source of information about the University’s operating status and should be your primary source.
• UConn community members at all locations, excluding UConn Health, are encouraged to also check the University’s 24-hour emergency closing information number: 860-486-3768.
• Although the University makes every effort to notify the news media about operating changes at UConn’s campuses, we cannot guarantee that details provided by news outlets represent the most current or complete information.

 

What closes, what stays open:

 

• UConn acts accordingly if the governor closes state agencies, releases state employees from work, or restricts road travel due to weather conditions.
• Certain operations must continue even in severe weather, including University Safety, residential and dining services, health services, animal care, facility maintenance, and other critical services.
• Decisions about whether to continue or cancel particular services, such as transportation, are made on a case-by-case basis depending on existing conditions and needs.
• The Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts, UConn Athletics, and other units that sponsor events and activities decide independently whether to continue or cancel their events, and you should contact them directly with questions.

 

Who reports to campus, and when:

 

• Emergency Support Services/Essential Staff are expected to remain at or report to work as directed. Supervisors must make themselves aware of and follow the applicable policies and procedures for their units. Guidance in the University’s emergency closing policy will be particularly helpful in understanding these expectations.
• If the University has not announced a delay or cancellation of classes, faculty are expected to hold classes as scheduled.
• In exceptional circumstances when a faculty member determines he or she is unable to travel safely to campus, the faculty member must notify his or her dean and department head, and must also notify all students in the class. Faculty must not, however, cancel class prior to the University’s decision about whether the University will alter its normal schedule.
• Faculty may elect to hold classes virtually using online methods at any time.
• Faculty should respect the decisions of commuting students who decide not to travel to campus, or to leave class early in order to get home safely, and provide options for them to make up missed work.
• Students should contact their professors as soon as possible if they must miss a class or other activity due to weather conditions.

 

Keep safety first when traveling:

 

• Always consider your safety first. Weather and road conditions may vary considerably across the state, so all members of the University community must evaluate the circumstances they face, plan extra time for their commute if necessary, and take other common sense measures.
• Even when the University remains open for business, individuals may appropriately decide not to come to campus or to leave campus early.
• In these situations, employees may use a vacation day, personal time, or other accrued time without advance approval, but they must notify their supervisors that they are doing so.

 

The University continues to emphasize the paramount importance of safety. Faculty, staff, and students should evaluate their own circumstances carefully, exercise appropriate judgment, and take responsibility for their safety when making decisions during inclement weather.

 

We wish you a productive semester.

 

Sincerely,

 

Mun Y. Choi

Provost and Executive Vice President

 

Scott A. Jordan

Executive Vice President for Administration and CFO

Friday, October 28, 2016

Gov. Malloy: After State’s First-Ever Drought Watch Issued, Residents Asked to Voluntarily Reduce Water Use When Possible

Drought Watched Issued for the First Time Ever in Six of Connecticut’s Eight Counties

 

(HARTFORD, CT) – Governor Dannel P. Malloy today announced that in response to the decision made by the Connecticut Interagency Drought Workgroup to issue the state’s first-ever Drought Watch, he is advising residents to be mindful of their water consumption and to limit unnecessary water usage when possible.

“After three years of precipitation shortfalls, we are moving to a Drought Watch and it would be extremely helpful if residents could be mindful of their water consumption and take sensible steps to help stretch our water supply,” Governor Malloy said.

The Drought Watch applies to counties in western and central Connecticut, including Fairfield, Hartford, Litchfield, Middlesex, New Haven, and Tolland Counties.  The Interagency Drought Workgroup is requesting residents, businesses, and local governments in these counties to voluntarily reduce their water use by around 15 percent.  The previously announced Drought Advisory that went into effect statewide in June will remain for New London and Windham Counties, where residents, businesses, and local governments are asked to reduce usage by around 10 percent.

The Governor has directed the Connecticut Department of Administrative Services to review and implement areas where water usage among state government facilities can be reduced when possible.

Unlike a Storm Watch that is issued when bad weather is possible, a Drought Watch means that the state is already experiencing moderate to severe drought conditions.  A decision to issue a Drought Watch is based on an assessment of indicator data monitored by state and federal agencies, including precipitation, stream flows, groundwater levels, reservoirs status, soil moisture, vegetation, and fire danger conditions.  This data is available to the public on the Interagency Drought Workgroup’s website.

Paired with historically warm temperatures, precipitation in Connecticut ranged from 60 percent to 73 percent of normal conditions between June and September.  Drinking water reservoirs have continued to decline, and average levels statewide were at less than 80 percent of normal as of the end of September, with some reservoirs less than half full.

Residents and businesses served by public water suppliers are urged to follow any advice or requests from their supplier and municipalities, as conditions will vary across the state.  Residents and businesses supplied by groundwater wells should be aware of any local ordinances in place regarding water usage restrictions, and should conserve water to reduce the potential stress on their wells, neighboring wells, and on the environment.

To date, 20 water companies have requested voluntary conservation or imposed mandatory restrictions.  A continually updated list of these water companies is available on the Department of Public Health’s website.

While this is the state’s first Drought Watch, lower-level Drought Advisories were previously declared in 2002, 2007, 2010, and earlier this year.  A Drought Watch is the second of four stages of drought defined in the Connecticut Drought Preparedness and Response Plan.

The Connecticut Interagency Drought Workgroup consists of state officials from the Department of Public Health, Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, Department of Agriculture, Office of Policy and Management, and the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection.  It will continue to monitor conditions across the region and will provide updates as needed.

On Wednesday, September 28^th, 2016, UConn’s President Susan Herbst signed the new UConn Emergency Operations Plan, authorizing its implementation throughout the University. The Office of Emergency Management has spent the last two years completely revamping the emergency management program at UConn, which included rewriting the Emergency Operations Plan. To develop this new plan, the Office of Emergency Management met with planning teams from many essential divisions, departments and offices at UConn, all regional campuses, UConn Health and John Dempsey Hospital. In addition, the Office of Emergency Management met with local emergency managers across Connecticut and state-level emergency management officials.

The Office of Emergency Management maintains UConn’s Emergency Operations Plan with active involvement from the UConn community. The Plan is an all-hazards based which details the procedures for planning, response, recovery and mitigation of hazards and threats to the University of Connecticut at all campus locations, including considerations for Education Abroad programs. Essential University of Connecticut personnel should review the document to become familiar with its guidelines prior to an incident or event. The EOP is reviewed and tested annually to ensure effectiveness and compliance with state and federal regulations.

For more information and to view the EOP, visit www.publicsafety.uconn.edu/emergency/uconn-emergency-operations-plan/.

On Saturday, September 10^th, 2016, UConn’s Office of Emergency Management (OEM) attended the Town of Mansfield’s Emergency Preparedness Day. Located at the Mansfield Community Center, local agencies advocated emergency preparedness tips, offered resources and provided educational materials to attendees. Participants included, but were not limited to:

• Mansfield Fire Department
• Mansfield Emergency Management
• UConn Emergency Management
• UConn Police Department
• Mansfield Public Works Department
• CT State Police
• Eversource
• American Red Cross
• Eastern Highlands Health District
• Natchaug Amateur Radio Club

OEM introduced Mansfield community members to the Seconds for Safety campaign, the Emergency Hazard Guide and other resources available on www.oem.uconn.edu.

By Mark J. Roy ’76 (CLAS)

 

Connecticut has largely escaped damage this week from Hurricane Hermine, but back in 1938, the state of Connecticut and the campus of Connecticut State College, as UConn was known at the time, suffered extensive hurricane damage. Students returning to campus for the start of classes found a campus without electricity, phones, or water, and hundreds of trees blocking roads and walkways.

Sept. 21, 1938, the day of ‘The Hurricane,’ must have been a busy day for Jerauld Manter. The Connecticut State College faculty member was the official photographer for the campus, and he spent much of the day getting photos of storm damage around eastern Connecticut after five days of torrential rain.

Throughout the region and the state, rivers and streams were near flood stage. Dams were overflowing, some were breaking. Barns and homes were badly damaged. Livestock had been killed.

Manter wanted to document as much of this as possible. But, like everyone else that last day of summer in 1938, he didn’t know the region’s troubles were far from over.

One group [of students], after traveling 50 extra miles to get across the raging Connecticut River, was forced to remove shoes, socks, and trousers to wade across the Willimantic River, on their way to Storrs. — Connecticut Campus

As the hurricane approached, students were heading to Storrs for the beginning of fall classes. Registration for new students was the day of the hurricane, and freshmen had been arriving since Monday, Sept. 19. Returning students were to register Sept. 22 and classes were scheduled to begin Friday, Sept. 23.

The hurricane took local residents by surprise.

“In retrospect, what strikes me the most about it is that, at that time, there was no warning,” said Rodman Longley, Class of 1940, when interviewed in 1998, although he noticed that the wind was very strong. “We didn’t know what had happened on the shoreline. The hurricane hit all of a sudden, taking us quite by surprise. It seemed like a hard rain, and then all hell broke loose.”

On the day of the hurricane and the following day, about 300 students arrived on campus.

“One group [of students], after traveling 50 extra miles to get across the raging Connecticut River, was forced to remove shoes, socks, and trousers to wade across the Willimantic River, on their way to Storrs,” according to an article in the first regular issue of the student newspaper, the Connecticut Campus, for the fall semester, published on Oct. 4, 1938.

What students found as they arrived was a campus without electricity or telephones, no water, and hundreds of trees blocking roads and walkways. There was also a concern about food shortages, but the campus managed with a delivery of meat from the Norwich area.

With no telephones, one student rigged up a ham radio and a generator to get messages out of Storrs to students’ worried parents. Using the one antenna on campus that had not been blown over, and two batteries – one pulled out of a car – Ronald Rast, a senior from Terryville, worked into the night after the hurricane to set up his amateur radio. He then sent word to the state’s disaster headquarters about the campus’s need for water, and sent a story on storm damage to The Hartford Courant. The message was relayed via a shortwave station in West Hartford that picked up the signal of Rast’s 10-watt transmitter.

At least 40 messages were sent by Rast. More than half the messages went to parents as far away as the Maine coast and York, Penn.

By Saturday, the main power lines to the campus Dining Hall and the Fenton River pumping station were restored. Most power was restored to the campus by Oct. 1. But by Oct. 4, although calls could come in to the main switchboard in Beach Hall, there was still only one other working phone on campus, in Holcomb Hall.

With telephones down, campus communications continued through special editions of the Connecticut Campus, normally a weekly during the semester. Following the hurricane there were several extra editions, printed on a hand-cranked mimeograph machine. The first is dated Sept. 22 – the day after the hurricane.

Sometime on Thursday, the day after the storm, two students undertook to catalog the damage. Longley and Barbara Everett (Fitts), Class of 1939, split up the campus and recorded every fallen tree – 42 species in all.

On the north end of campus, Everett counted 1,112 trees down. At the south end of campus, Longley’s total was 650.

Longley recalled that two areas of campus were hit very hard. A grove of red pines between the Duck Pond (now known as Swan Lake) and Storrs Hall, and another pine grove just north of Mirror Lake. Even some very large white oak trees were felled by the storm.

“With 14 inches of rain in the days just before the hurricane, these trees just blew down,” Longley said.

Combined, Everett and Longley cataloged 1,762 trees, only a few of which would be saved. A series of photos by Manter shows one uprooted birch tree, located on the front campus, being pulled back into place. And Longley recalled that some blue spruce trees near Koons Hall were pulled upright. But most of the trees were total losses. An oak honoring alumni and students killed during World War I was destroyed. At the Valentine Grove, an area that included many oaks and in which early commencements were held, 116 trees were demolished.

There was no loss of life at the college, and no severe injuries recorded (throughout the Northeast, however, hundreds lost their lives and thousands were injured). But there was quite a bit of damage to facilities: the estimated cost in 1938 dollars for damage to dormitories, barns, and other property, excluding trees, was put at $87,065. Including the trees, the loss was later said to be nearly $250,000.

The Connecticut Campus reported that years of research in the Animal Diseases Laboratory was lost: 300 chickens were killed, and 600 to 800 suffered from exposure. Eleven wooden research structures used by the laboratory were destroyed.

Albert Moss, a professor of forestry, later noted that he had found salt spray from Long Island Sound as far inland as 45 miles, damaging a large number of trees.

A short item in the Connecticut Campus gives a chilling glimpse of the strength of the storm. It noted that slate, which “hurtled from roofs like machine gun bullets, is being withdrawn from walls.” Those walls were made of brick.

Yet despite all the damage, the loss of electricity and telephones, and hundreds of trees down, classes for the Connecticut State College student body of 1,050 began as scheduled at 8 a.m., on Friday, Sept. 23.

Adapted from two articles in the UConn Advance newspaper, dated Sept. 21 and Sept. 28, 1998.

Sources: Issues of the Connecticut Campus, Sept.-Dec., 1938; special editions of The Hartford Courant and The Hartford Times, October 1938; Jerauld Manter photograph collection for the Hurricane of 1938. “Trees Destroyed by Hurricane, Connecticut State College Campus, September 21, 1938,” by Barbara Everett and Rodman Longley. All these materials are in the Archives & Special Collections of the University Library.

Bruce Stave’s history of the University through 2006, Red Brick in the Land of Steady Habits, notes that in September 1985 another hurricane, Hurricane Gloria, “swept the campus and caused an unprecedented closing.”

 

Link to original article: UConn Today – Hurricane Season: One Storm’s Impact on UConn