The Evacuation Situation

Students from the buildings in the College of Natural and Health Sciences exited their classes in a gas leak evacuation drill on Friday, Nov. 15 conducted in the Science and Technology Building, Wentworth Hall, the Life Sciences Buildings, and the Marine Sciences Buildings.

Kaleihiʻiikapoli “Kalei” Rapoza, UH Hilo’s Interim Vice Chancellor for Administrative Affairs, broke down the timeline of the drill for Ke Kalahea. “The drill started at 2:41 p.m.,” he says. “It was good, because we never know where we’re going to be. The drill was a gas leak, so we evacuated those buildings and people headed over toward the dorms away from the Science and Technology Building. On site, the all-clear was given at approximately 2:55, but we didn’t send the alert out to campus until about 3:24 p.m.”

Initiated by the Campus Crisis Management Team, the purpose of the drill was to get people more practiced in knowing emergency procedures, and the campus community was urged in an email sent out by the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Administrative Affairs to review UH Hilo’s Emergency Response Guide.

Once the all-clear signal is given by the staff on-site, the message is relayed to Rapoza, and he issues the notice to the rest of campus via email. Rapoza hopes to make this a more regularly enforced process moving forward. Rapoza explains that the Campus Crisis Management Team has been talking about what kinds of emergency exercises should be conducted on campus, and these may lead up to larger, campus-wide drills.