IHCC training for what if ...

By SCOTT NILES Courier staff writer

August 12, 2008 12:41 am

— OTTUMWA — Indian Hills Community College is in the process of preparing for the worst.
“We are aware that every place is vulnerable to crises, small or large communities, metropolitan areas, malls, universities ... I think everyone has been touched by some event and has been made aware of how critical it is to have a security plan in place,” said IHCC Dean of Students Kelly Conrad. “We wanted this grant to help us evaluate our security plan in all of our areas.”
The college recently received a $32,000 grant to be used for equipment to do vulnerability assessments.
“This is for the local community, as well as training and materials for training,” said National Domestic Preparedness Coalition Instructor Steve Thomas. “This equipment can be used on a day-to-day basis, as well as for emergency management use.”
Thomas and fellow instructor Rob Atkinson were at IHCC Monday to talk about what determines a community and what threats face that community. They are also there to provide information about what resources are available in each community that groups can utilize in case there is an emergency and how to deal with vulnerable areas.
“We try and get people to look at the community through the eyes of the good guys and through the eyes of the threat group,” Thomas said. “A threat can be a terrorist, a gang, weather phenomenon or pretty much anything that has a potential threat to that area.”
As an example, Thomas used a pandemic as a threat and how the community could pull its resources together in a time of need — the local hospital, law enforcement, public health, campus officials and all emergency responders in order to help one another.
Conrad said Thomas and Atkinson have provided IHCC with a lot of information.
“We already have a security plan in place, but with this additional information and resources, we will be looking it over and adding more to it,” he said. “These guys know what they are talking about, being police officers they have witnessed a lot of what they are talking about.”
Part of the emergency management plan already in place at IHCC is an alert system that notifies every student and staff member in case of an incident, through phone and text message or e-mail.
“This could be because of a school cancellation, because of a gunman on campus or any incident,” Conrad said. “It’s an alert system called “Connect-ED.”
“In order to have a good plan of action you have to reach out to a lot of resources you might not have thought about before,” Atkinson said.
“Most people don’t think this way. We try and help them broaden their thinking. Most people think emergency disasters only happen in big cities, not anywhere like Ottumwa,” Thomas said.
“Our biggest message is networking,” Atkinson said. “You have to have those connections established and a drawn up plan of action. You need to establish those connections with local nursing homes, doctors in the area and anyone else who could help in case there ever is a trauma one emergency.”
He said everyone should be aware of what is happening nationally, as well as locally, so they can be prepared.
“We need to keep on top of this,” Atkinson said. “Someone in the department should always have a TV on or a radio or something in case something big happens. What if we had another 9/11, would that impact you? Of course it would.”
Scott Niles can be reached at (641) 683-5360 or via e-mail at sjniles@mchsi.com.