UConn’s Office of Emergency Management (OEM) recently hosted a Sport and Special Event Evacuation Training and Exercise course at the Storrs campus on March 8 and 9. The course was put on by TEEX, Texas A&M Engineering’s Extension Service. This branch of TEEX is federally funded by the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The multidisciplinary audience spent two days reviewing best practices regarding the preparation and implementation of a venue evacuation plan. The following topics were covered:

• The importance of a well-defined approach to planning and managing an evacuation using the Incident Command System (ICS) within the National Incident Management System (NIMS) framework
• The essential components of developing an evacuation plan
• The concepts of planning and implementing an evacuation plan for sport venues
• The effective measures that ensure the evacuation emergency plan reflects the current operation strategies, organizational structures, and methodologies utilized by evacuation personnel
• Participation in a training exercise involving key partners and evaluate outcomes in order to address gaps and ensure an increasing level of preparedness for evacuations

UConn’s OEM was excited to host this training and is always exploring new educational opportunities for the Division of University Safety and the rest of our University partners.

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