Free tools, plus seasoned expertise available for plan development engagements.
6 minutes on the value of readiness »Attributed to Dwight EisenhowerPlans are nothing. Planning is everything.
Sherry Colgan-Stone, EdD (colganstone.com)When the time to respond has come, the time to prepare is gone.
UnknownA command post is no place to exchange business cards.
November 13, 2008The image behind this text is of Westmont burning. The 2008 Tea Fire destroyed eight campus buildings, a million square feet of landscape, and 200 neighboring homes.
November 13, 2008Westmont College formed the eastern boundary of the Tea Fire you see in the background. Fifteen faculty homes were demolished. It cost over $50 million to replace the college's lost buildings.
November 13, 2008Because Westmont had planned and trained for wildfire, there were no human casualties. Over 800 people sheltered in our gym as the wind-driven flames raged to within 10 feet of the building.
We have used Smartsheet since 2011 to help us get farther faster in our emergency plan development. You might love it, too.
Westmont College (Santa Barbara CA) and
Troy Harris, Asst VP for Institutional Resilience
Troy Harris developed the college’s wildfire response plan, which is credited with saving the lives of students and employees in the Tea Fire of 2008, as 100 foot flames fed by 70 mph winds devoured eight campus buildings and over a million square feet of campus landscape—with zero human casualties. More than 200 neighboring homes were destroyed, including 15 owned by faculty members.
Some 800 people hunkered down in the gym …
More about Troy »
Westmont College is a private, four-year, residential Christian liberal arts college with a global perspective. With its selective 1,350-student population, it is consistently ranked in the top 100 liberal arts schools nationally.
Westmont operated the ReadyTracker non-profit venture as a service to, and for the benefit of, the higher education community. Troy Harris remains employed by the college and all services are engaged under the college’s auspices.
More about Westmont »Here are some more interesting tidbits that you can tap to help advance your work.
Take advantage of three highly useful resources available for your benefit.
1) Disaster Resilient Universities (DRU) Listserv
Subscribe to the listserv and join a community of hundreds of higher education emergency management practitioners. You can pose questions and receive input from seasoned professionals, and from others in the same boat who are glad to collaborate with you on solutions. There is no charge to join, and …
Read full article »Troy Harris serves as chair of the Standards Work Group for the Universities & Colleges Caucus of the International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM-UCC). The work group adopted the allocation of the plan standards elements at the Category level (what ReadyTracker calls the Ten Steps to Ready), and then ReadyTracker further parsed each standard to apply it to its corresponding Topic among the 35 Topics.
Work Group members have included:
Troy Harris, …
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