"Unfortunately accidents happen, disasters happen," explained Paul Statt '78, Director of Media Relations for the College. "And the College must be prepared with a plan for action when such things happen."
The drill started at 7 a.m., when the College was notified by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health of a hypothetical outbreak of Meningitis in the area. The drill, which lasted until 10:30 a.m., sought to simulate the actual response that would follow such a message.
As part of the drill, emergency personnel had to respond to a mock case in which a student had contracted meningitis the previous night in Stone Dormitory. Furthermore, the scenario called for the diagnosis of two students from Humphries House with the disease the following morning.
After these two students were diagnosed at Health Services, ACEMS was dispatched to Humphries and sought to get students to participate in the drill and receive mock treatment. Seven students agreed to participate and were brought to a staged Emergency Dispensing Site (EDS) in the basement of the Physical Plant building. There, the students received treatment in the form of a jelly bean from Health Services, SHEs and members of the Medical Reserve Corps, a community-based volunteer unit.
Besides the staged EDS, there was also an Emergency Operation Center (EOC) in the basement. The EOC contained the Dean of Students, the Dean of Faculty and representatives from health services, counseling, dining services, campus police, human resources, public affairs, environmental health and safety and the treasurer's office.
In an actual crisis, the purpose of the EOC is to bring together all these different personnel in one location so that the College's decisions are made without confusion or discord.
Within the staged EOC, the various personnel role played and brainstormed ideas on how they would react should a meningitis outbreak actually take place. They asked such questions as: "Should Valentine be closed?" or "Should the entire school be closed?"
According to Rick Mears, Environmental Health and Safety Manager, this staging is "the only way to see what questions will come up."
As in a real scenario, an incident commander was designated-someone put in charge of the entire response. For the drill, Dr. Warren Morgan, Director of Health Services, was given command. According to Statt, a very important lesson learned from the drill is that one person has to clearly be in charge and take control of the situation.
Both Statt and Mears agreed that the biggest lesson learned from the drill was the importance of communication among everyone involved in the response. Everyone has to be on the same page, presenting the same message to all possible audiences-parents, students, staff and the Amherst community. According to Statt, the drill also made them consider the balance between what information should be disseminated or withheld. "We don't want to make people more scared than they have to be," Statt explained.
The College did not get to decide what disaster the drill would simulate. Both UMass and Western Massachusetts Public Health decided that the topic of this year's drill would be a mock meningitis outbreak.
"Meningitis is an infection of the fluid of a person's spinal cord and the fluid that surrounds the brain," according to the Center for Disease Control Web site. In March of 1995, two Amherst students contracted meningitis and one died.
According to Mears, the College came out with an "All Hazards Plan" in Nov. 2003 that outlines responses to 102 potential scenarios, ranging from train derailments to bomb threats to the Meningitis outbreak simulated Thursday.
The drill sought to mimic reality to the fullest extent possible. Statt even produced a mock press release. "Part of the drill is practicing what we preach. so let's do it the right way," Mears said. "The more prepared we can be, the more smoothly things will run."