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Evacuation Procedures

Building Evacuation

Evacuation drills on campus are conducted annually. Facilities such as the University Village Apartments and the Children’s Center have a more frequent drill schedule. Notice may or may not be given in advance of a drill; however, all building occupants are required to evacuate during a drill.

General

Prepare: determine in advance the nearest exit from your work location and the route you shall follow to reach that exit in an emergency. Emergency evacuation signage is posted in buildings. Building occupants should become familiar with evacuation routes and assembly points. Establish an alternate route to be used in the event your route is blocked or unsafe.

During an evacuation:

  1. If time and conditions permit, secure your workplace and take with you important personal items such as car keys, purse, medication, glasses.
  2. Follow instructions from emergency personnel.
  3. Check doors for heat before opening. Do not open the door if it’s hot.
  4. Walk, do not run. Don’t push or crowd.
  5. Keep noise to a minimum so you can hear emergency instructions.
  6. Use handrails in stairwells; stay to the right.
  7. Assist people with disabilities.
  8. Move to your assembly point unless otherwise instructed.

If relocating outside the building:

  1. Move quickly away from the building.
  2. Watch for falling glass and other debris.
  3. Keep roadways and walkways clear for emergency vehicles.
  4. If you have relocated away from the building, do not return until notified by University Police or safety personnel that it is safe to do so.
  5. Whenever the fire alarms/strobes are activated, occupants must evacuate the building and reassemble at your designated assembly point. Occupants on floors above the ground floor must use emergency exit stairwells to leave the building. Do not use elevators!
  6. For certain emergencies such as a bomb threat or a natural gas leak, the fire alarms/strobes may not be activated. Instead, Building Marshals shall move through the building and order the occupants to evacuate.
  7. Emergency evacuation signage is posted in buildings so that occupants can become familiar with the evacuation routes and assembly points for their area.

Access and Functional Needs

Evacuation of person with Access and Functional needs should be given high priority in all emergencies. In an emergency situation, it is important that you are familiar with the needs of our disabled community during the evacuation process. Persons with access and functional needs are encouraged to self-identify and convey any special needs that may be required. Become familiar with the building and its exits.

 The following guidelines are important to follow:

  • Always ask how you can help before attempting any emergency evacuation assistance.
  • For safety reasons, try to avoid evacuating people who use wheelchairs while they are still in their wheelchair. Try to evacuate disabled persons without the wheelchair, empty wheelchairs will be evacuated later if possible. If not, move the disabled person to the nearest stairwell landing and shout for help. It may be necessary to leave the person in the stairwell and retrieve assistance from emergency personnel.
  • Establish a buddy system to assist persons with disabilities, those who self-identify and communicate their needs, can be assigned a buddy to help during evacuations. 

 Tips to Remember When Interacting with Persons with access and functional needs

Blindness or Visual Impairment

  • Provide verbal instructions to advise them regarding the safest routes or directions.
  • Ask if he or she would like to hold onto your arm as you exit.
  • Give other verbal instructions or information

 Deafness or Hearing Impairment

  • Gain attention by establishing eye contact or tapping on shoulder. Clearly state the problem. Gestures and pointing are helpful, but be prepared to write information out if needed.

 Relocation of Persons with Disabilities

  • Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to self-identify and provide assistance instructions, this will be helpful to co-worker during the evacuation process.
  • If assistance is not available, go to nearest stairwell landing and shout for help. It may be necessary to leave the person in the stairwell and retrieve help from emergency personnel.

Persons using crutches, canes or walkers

In emergency evacuations, these individuals should be treated as if they were injured. Have the individual sit on a sturdy chair, preferably a chair with arms, and follow the procedure for non-ambulatory persons discussed below.

Non-ambulatory persons

Evacuation may not be necessary or advisable. Many stairwells are designed to provide temporary protection from fire or other danger. An able bodied volunteer shall stay with a wheelchair user on the stairwell platform while a second person notifies emergency personnel or paramedics of the exact location of the wheelchair user. If immediate evacuation is necessary, be aware of the following considerations:

  1. Wheelchairs have movable parts; some are not designed to withstand stress or lifting.
  2. You may need to remove the chair batteries; life-support equipment may be attached.
  3. In a life-threatening emergency, it may be necessary to remove an individual from their wheelchair. Use caution, as lifting persons with restricted mobility, may cause them bodily harm or injury.
  4. Wheelchairs should not be used to descend stairwells. Use an emergency evacuation chair.
  5. Non-ambulatory persons may have respiratory complications. Take them to a location away from smoke or fumes. Ask them if they have any needs or preferences.
  6. Check the evacuation routes for obstructions before assisting the person to the exit.
  7. Delegate other volunteers to collect the wheelchair.
  8. Return the person to their wheelchair as soon as it is safe to do so.

Providing Assistance

Always consult with people in the wheelchairs, asking them how you might assist them; i.e.,

  1. The number of people they require for assistance.
  2. Methods to remove them from the wheelchair.
  3. Taking precautions for pain, catheters, catheter-bags, limb-plasticity, braces, etc.
  4. Whether to carry them face-forward or -backward down a flight of stairs.
  5. Whether a seat cushion or pad shall be brought along, should the wheelchair be left behind?
  6. In lieu of a wheelchair, ask if they prefer a stretcher, cushioned- or padded-chair, or car seat.
  7. Whether paramedic assistance is required.

Campus Evacuation

Authority to Issue Closure or Evacuation Order

 The University President or designee may authorize a closure or evacuation of the campus due to a disaster, life safety and/or health concerns, interruption or failure of a utility such as electricity or water service.

Closure and Evacuation

Campus Closure occurs when a decision is made to close the campus because of a specific event, such as power or utility outage, which makes normal campus operations impossible or unsafe. These are not considered to be immediate emergency situations.

Evacuation occurs when it is essential to clear the campus as quickly as possible as in the case of a wildfire, earthquake or emergency situation threatening life safety.

In either case, Office of Communications or the emergency notification system, to the extent needed, will be used to notify the campus community and provide specific instructions on the closure or evacuation.

Campus Closure

There are two types of campus closures.

  •  Hard Closure – Full closure of campus to restrict all persons from campus unless responding to the incident, including residential students and employees. All entrances into campus will be closed.
  •  Soft Closure – Partial closure of campus; all persons not performing duties related to the incident are restricted. Roads and/or pathways may be closed based on the condition. The residential community will generally remain open and supported.

In the event that suspension of non-essential activities and instruction is ordered by the President, consideration must be made for the manner in which to announce and support a campus closure. When a closure is pre-planned and there are no active hazards threatening the campus, the following order will be observed to best manage traffic in and around campus: 

  1. Non-residential students
  2. Employees (not requested to remain on campus as responders
  3. Residential students

Unless otherwise noted, classes already in session shall continue until their scheduled conclusion, at which time students will be asked to leave the campus in a safe and orderly manner.

Employees will be instructed to remain on campus until after students have exited the campus. Employees will then receive information/notice regarding when they should leave.

Campus Evacuation

There are two types of evacuation orders:

  1. Full Campus Evacuation (Immediate threat to life safety)
    • Evacuate immediately (depending on threat to campus)
    • To include residential students
    • In the event of a "full evacuation", all students, faculty and staff, with the possible exception of those personnel responding to the incident, will be asked to evacuate campus immediately.
    • Students being relocated to shelters or hotels are instructed prepare an overnight bag, gather essential items and to report to UVA Building A and await further instruction on transportation. Transportation pick for student relocation will be parking lot K and will be coordinated with EOC and Housing officials.
    • Students awaiting personal transportation (POV) off campus are instructed to prepare an overnight bag, gather essential item and report to UVA Building A. Pick up for POV’s will be in parking lot O.
    • Residential Housing staff must make accommodations for students who are not on campus at the time of evacuation. This could be a several hour window before students arrive on campus (due to off campus jobs etc.) and require transportation or alternate housing.

  2. Staged Evacuation (Advanced notice of potential threat to life safety)
    • Non-residential students will be asked to leave campus immediately.
    • Employees and Residential students will be instructed to remain on campus until commuter students have exited. Employees and residential students will be instructed to leave campus immediately thereafter.
    • Students being relocated to shelters or hotels are instructed prepare an overnight bag, gather essential items and to report to UVA Building A and await further instruction on transportation. Transportation pick for student relocation will be parking lot K and will be coordinated with EOC and Housing officials.
    • Students awaiting personal transportation (POV) off campus are instructed to prepare an overnight bag, gather essential item and report to UVA Building A. Pick up for POV’s will be in parking lot O.
    • Residential Housing staff must make accommodations for students who are not on campus at the time of evacuation. This could be a several hour window before students arrive on campus (due to off campus jobs etc.) and require transportation or alternate housing.

Notice will be provided on when the campus will reopen (please check campus website, social media and media outlets for additional information on reopening)

Evacuation Routes 

There are three major arteries in and out of campus, Twin Oaks Valley Road, Barham Drive, and La Moree Rd. Service road, which may be utilized to help relieve traffic from parking lots E, H and F. However, the use of the service road should be coordinated with the incident commander.

Once the campus is cleared and secured by University Police, entrances to the campus will be closed, barricaded and security posted to restrict access to campus. (See Map: Appendix B)

Priority Traffic Locations to Consider 

  1. Craven Drive and Twin Oaks Valley Road
  2. Campus Way and Barham
  3. Parking Structure One and Campus View Drive
  4. Palm Canyon and Craven Dr.
  5. La Moree Road and Barham Dr.
  6. Twin Oaks Valley Road and Barham Dr.
  7. Barham Dr. and Woodland Parkway
  8. Twin Oaks Valley Road and 78 east and west interchange

Contracted Transportation 

Cal State San Marcos has established contracts with multiple bus companies within the San Diego County area that may be activated at any time in order to aid in the evacuation of community members without vehicles. Although this is heavily dependent upon the severity of the disaster and competing interests with other entities within the County. Requests to activate these contracts will be coordinated through the Cal State San Marcos EOC Logistics Section.

Traffic Congestion

The most congested areas on campus, during mass egress, are Craven Road, between Palm Canyon Drive and Twin Oaks Valley Road. The goal of the controllers shall be to keep traffic moving in a manner that will favor traffic flow on these streets:

  1. Vehicles heading northbound on Twin Oaks Valley Road shall be directed towards Highway 78. Traffic being directed onto the freeway shall be directed onto all three northbound lanes to assist in congestion of the right lane; even if cars miss the freeway entrance. Traffic will be able to enter the freeway, southbound via a “u-turn” at San Marcos Blvd.
  2. When the northbound lanes of Twin Oaks Valley Road become congested, traffic will be directed westbound onto Craven Road.
  3. All Vehicles exiting Campus View Drive shall be directed to exit either Campus Way or La Moree Road.
  4. Vehicles leaving Parking Structure 1 should be directed eastbound on Campus View Drive and exit onto La Moree Road.
  5. Vehicles at Campus View Drive and La Morree shall be directed southbound onto La Moree to keep traffic flowing from PS-1.
  6. Vehicles at Campus Way and Barham Drive shall be directed eastbound down Barham Drive.
  7. Facilities staff shall report to the Incident Commander, to receive their work location. These personnel shall then be deployed into the structures to direct traffic to the exits with the least congestion and close all necessary exits to maintain the traffic plan.