Sacramento State’s Risk Management Services is hosting an Emergency Preparedness Fair from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Friday in the University Union Redwood Room.

National Preparedness Month is a nationwide effort held each September to encourage Americans to take steps to prepare for emergencies in their homes, businesses and schools, whether it be from disasters, man-made or otherwise.

National Preparedness Month 2006 is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The goal of the month is to increase public awareness about the importance of preparing for emergencies and to encourage individuals to take action.

According to Risk Management Services, addressing the events as expected would ease the impact of disasters. Taking proper steps before a disaster would reduce the damage and give the campus a chance to bounce back to normal operations faster.

Stacie Louie, administrative analyst and specialist for Risk Management, and Occupational Safety Specialist Kirtland Stout is coordinating the event.

Louie said she wants students and staff to be aware of what they need to do in the event of an emergency on campus.

“Circumstances differ from case to case,” Stout said. He added that the University Police Department handles the preparation of evacuation plans.

Campus police have an entire response manual entirely devoted on what to do during an emergency.

Lt. Dan Davis of campus police will also be providing information at Friday’s fair.

“The fact is, during an emergency, not many of our plans include evacuating the entire campus,” Davis said. He added that if the campus were to completely evacuate, panic would probably ensue.

Emergency plans vary from simple day-to-day emergencies to explosions and riots on campus.

“The first step would be to quarantine the area,” Davis said. There is always the chance that a curious student or reporter might stray a little too close to the action to get a better look, he said. “If someone was to go past the police tape, there is a chance they may be arrested.”

As for notifying students and staff about on-campus dangers, building coordinators and floor marshals are present in each building throughout the day who would respond to the calls from police and then alert professors and students about evacuation procedures.

Additional plans are in the works to possibly install hotlines that would notify every phone on campus to possible threats on campus. Other plans include P.A. systems.

Information from different organizations in Sacramento and California will be provided at the event.

For more information on emergency plans, contact the University Police at 278-6581 or visit www.csus.edu/police/.

Editor’s note: Stacie Louie, administrative analyst and specialist for Risk Management, provided a time for the event different than the time which ran in the print edition. The Sacramento State Campus Calendar, to which the detail was fact checked, continues to display the original, incorrect printed time frame.

Josh Staab can be reached at [email protected]