To:       All Faculty, Staff and Students

From:   Baker Pattillo, President

Date:    October 6, 2008

I would like to express my appreciation to the campus community for your assistance during Hurricane Ike.

After monitoring the initial track and progress of the storm, the Emergency Operations Center, led by Steve Westbrook, vice president for university affairs, opened Friday, Sept. 12.  The EOC remained open on an around-the-clock basis throughout the storm and for several days afterward. The EOC team worked to finalize storm-related preparations, implement and activate emergency sheltering; respond to resource requests from units engaged in storm response; communicate with students, faculty, staff, parents and the public; coordinate response to reports of damage and outages that might impact safety; and coordinate initial recovery efforts, including facility assessment and debris removal.

The EOC also participated in statewide emergency management conference calls to maintain awareness of the state’s response effort and how it might impact SFA and our students and employees. The entire response team attended regular briefings at 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. during the days of operation.

The committee communicated with the campus community through the Campus Alert system, and we were pleased that many people registered during this time to receive alerts. On Aug. 13 of this year, we had 1,609 registered users; as of Sept. 22, that number had increased to 5,015.

During the event, 15 updates issued by the EOC were posted on the Web site and were viewed 58,725 times by 16,177 unique users. The updates also were sent to 202,980 registered e-mail addresses. Four messages containing the most critical information were delivered via the active alert system to 6,901 registered devices belonging to 4,828 registered users.

The EOC Call Center, operational around the clock from noon Thursday, Sept. 11, through 7 a.m. Tuesday, Sept. 16, answered 1,484 calls for information or assistance.

The EOC committee devised a registration system for each residence hall to ensure the safety of students who planned to stay on campus during the storm and plan for food service. Almost 70 percent of resident students remained on campus during the weekend, and food service hours were expanded to accommodate these students.

In addition to 417 Lamar students, shelter was offered during the storm to students, faculty and staff at the Norton HPE Complex. More than 15 SFA employees took shelter on campus during the storm.

SFA employees answered the call to keep the campus safe and ensure that it was operational when classes resumed after the storm. Many times, these employees were working while their family members were at home dealing with storm damage and/or power loss.

SFA students also rose to the occasion. In addition to the 96 SFA students who worked at the call center, another 320 students assisted at the shelter, and more than 250 SFA students volunteered to help clean up the campus. 

Almost 29,000 meals were prepared on the Stephen F. Austin State University campus by Aramark. More than 17,000 of these meals were served at Red Cross Shelters throughout the city. Lamar evacuees received 6,820 meals during their stay, and students residing at the University Woods apartments received 1,200 meals during the extended power outage they experienced.

The Columbia Regional Geospatial Service Center also was involved with supporting the Nacogdoches County and City of Nacogdoches Emergency Operations Centers with geospatial data before and during Hurricane Ike. In addition, the Columbia Center published regular updates of storm conditions through its Web site and supported mapping functions for post-event damage assessment with the Sheriff’s Office and the Nacogdoches Emergency Management Director’s office.

The storm tracking information was developed in collaboration with the National Weather Service Shreveport station. During the event, two important Web applications utilized for public safety and information purposes were launched. The applications were road blockage (accessible to the public) and gas availability (accessible to priority users), and they were updated on a regular basis.

At the request of the Texas Natural Resources Information System, four Columbia Center System GIS analysts embedded in Dickinson at the Galveston County Emergency Operations Center to support search and rescue operations.

For a more detailed summary of the SFA response to Hurricane Ike, log onto http://www.sfasu.edu/campussafety/ike.asp

I am grateful that no one was injured during this event and that our campus was spared from serious destruction. I’m also grateful to each of you who assisted in the response and recovery. The spirit of compassion and stewardship I saw demonstrated by SFA’s faculty, staff and students was truly inspiring.