Make a personal evacuation plan
Messiah University expects each student to have a Personal Evacuation Plan. In short, here is what's expected of you: with your family, determine a plan for how you will leave campus and where you will go in the unlikely event that we need to evacuate the entire campus.
You have three options:
- Drive your personal car. Think about your friends who are very far from home and consider whether you can take other students with you.
- Ride with a friend or sibling. Identify who that person is and ask them in advance if you can count on them to provide your transportation away from campus. If you're plugged into a local church or service organization, think about whether someone there could offer you assistance, and ask them in advance to be your evacuation contact. Make sure your family knows the name of the person you intend to ride with and your intended destination.
- Wait for a parent or relative who lives nearby to pick you up. This is a good option if your family or relatives live relatively close to Messiah—no more than 100 miles or so.
Still not feeling motivated to have this important conversation with your family now? Imagine cell service is down and you don't have a means of talking to your family to make a plan on the fly. You need to leave campus and your family has no idea where you are headed, and you have no way to tell them. Instead, make a plan now. You most certainly won't regret planning ahead.
Of course, none of us can begin to predict all the details of a situation that would warrant a campus evacuation, so we recognize that even the best-laid plans could be challenged by road closures, mandates from authorities or the sheer magnitude of the emergency. We commit to working with you to alter your plans, if necessary.
Messiah also acknowledges that some students will simply have no way to leave campus on their own. The Crisis Management Team can help make alternate arrangements. However, this should be considered a last resort for students. So please plan ahead if you are able. The safety of students is an utmost priority at all times.