Tornadoes can impact our Lives In Significant Ways
On Sunday, Mother’s Day 2008, two campuses experienced some tremendous damage due to tornado weather, North Georgia campus And Macon State College were both hit hard by a string of tornadoes that came through their campuses. Macon State Director of Plant Operations, Mr. David Sims stated that they lost approximately 3600 trees. Other damages included roof damages and his heartfelt comment was “thank goodness it was a Sunday!”
Mr. Sims credited the quick response cleanup to several things which I think we should note as a University System. First he stated the NIMS training prepared everyone for how to delegate and negotiate the team effort. Second, he commended Mr. Bruce Holmes for being a strong USG advocate and supported during the process. A contract had been signed and ready to go on the Monday after the damage to have the trees removed and the area cleaned up. USG had taken care of this issue and it save the campus from taking more time and paperwork to get this accomplished.
One great surprise and overwhelming response that wasn’t expected was the fellow campuses that came to assist with the clean-up and to serve as safety officers too. He said he couldn’t remember all the different schools and he didn’t want to leave anyone out but Gordon College, Georgia College & State University, ColumbusState and Georgia Southern were just a few crews that were there to assist.
As a result of the response, the campus only delayed Maymester one day and it was already able to be made up so no class time was compromised by this disaster. His one lesson learned was to have a “scribe” right by his side (I believe this is NIMS training terminology!) and that he would have benefitted from remembering all that was happening since things moved so fast.
We have a lot to be proud of when it comes to assistance we have within our system. The pictures shared are just a few from the before and after cleanup. The campus certainly has lost a lot but it gained a lot in terms of collegial support and gaining knowledge about the challenges that can be faced by any of us on a college campus in the future.