Emergency Response Plan

Overview

Everyone in a University of Idaho facility – students, faculty, staff, and visitors – must take appropriate and deliberate action when an emergency strikes a building, a portion of the campus, or the entire U-Idaho community.

Careful planning, with an emphasis on safety, can help the University handle crises and emergencies with suitable responses, and may save lives. Supervisors are responsible for ensuring all employees are familiar with and will follow this emergency plan. Where appropriate, unit members will be assigned emergency preparedness and response duties to assist in the implementation of our emergency response plan.

Follow these important steps when there is an emergency:

• Confirm and evaluate conditions.
• Report the incident immediately.
• Follow instructions from emergency staff precisely.
• Follow this emergency response plan.
• Issue clear and consistent emergency notifications. Use all available communication tools.
• If there is no power and/or telephone systems are not functioning, emergency communications will be profoundly restricted and the University of Idaho will use messengers, radios and cellular phones.

The Department of Chemistry’s Emergency Response Plan is an adjunct to the University of Idaho Emergency Management Plan, as are the other unit plans. Together they provide the overall emergency plan for the entire campus. The University of Idaho Emergency Management Plan establishes an emergency leadership and organizational structure. A copy of this plan can be found here.

The primary goals of the University of Idaho Emergency Management Plan are:

• To protect lives, intellectual property and facilities.
• To prevent or minimize the impact of emergencies and to maximize the effectiveness of the campus community in responding to inevitable occurrences.
• To provide for the continuity of campus operations in pursuit of the University of Idaho’s mission of teaching, research and extension.

Emergency Occurrence After Hours

There is a significant chance an emergency may occur outside regular University of Idaho office hours.

While the structure of this plan remains precisely the same, its implementation may vary depending upon available resources and manpower until the proper officials can be notified.

Until that time, the individuals assuming the most responsibility will be those officials/individuals of highest rank who are available at the time. These individuals should seek to follow, as nearly as possible, the guidelines of the plan while simultaneously making an effort to notify University of Idaho administrators of the situation to obtain verification or advice on their actions.