By Joseph Laungayan
Recently an earthquake drill called The Washington Shake Out was conducted on Oct. 16 at Peninsula College. According to Operations Manager Marty Martinez, participation was mostly successful with the exception of the students in the Pirate Union Building. “It was surprising that a lot of students didn’t take effort to ‘drop, cover, and hold,’” said Martinez. According to Martinez the majority of students in the PUB did not participate until security directed everyone to move out of the building. Martinez said that not very many people took the drill seriously.
Student Grayson Porter claims he received no alert in any form other than word of mouth after the fact, to evacuate the premises, at which time he preceded to evacuate with everyone else in the PUB. Another student Sarah French said that she did receive an alert via her cell phone, “ I noticed everyone else leaving to the parking lot and I followed the group” French said.
According to Director of Physical Plant Rick Croot the last earthquake that occurred on the PC campus was the 2001 Nisqually Quake. The Little Theater and a few of the hallways in the J-Building were affected by the quake. The Little Theater was closed down for almost a whole year and to this day there is still a crack in the wall of the gym. If students do not take into account the potential danger of earthquake unpreparedness then they are as Martinez said, “leaving an opportunity” for dangerous situations to occur.
Despite the negative outcomes, the drill was still very successful. One exception to the non-participation phenomenon was student and firefighter Donovan Christie. When questioned about this year’s drill Christie stated that he was alerted via the “PC Alert Me System” and that as soon as he saw the PC security begin to direct the people in the PUB to “drop, cover, and hold,” he alerted everyone around him and took cover himself. “When they do what they do, I do what they do because through the fire department I basically become a first responder in a natural disaster situation,” said Christie. Last year PC participated in the 2013 Washington Shake Out. On October 17 at 10:17 an alert was sent from every participating college to warn students and staff about the WSO. According to Martinez there were so many schools using the system last year that the cell tower jammed. This year in order to prevent any incidents Martinez made sure to send the first of the alarms, making PC the first college to respond to the drill this year.
Even with earthquake possibilities the security at PC has and continues to keep campus safe. “We have building surveillance and burglary alarms to help us maintain a safer campus” said Martinez. Crime at PC is low, “Often we see petty theft as crimes that present themselves,” Martinez said. Martinez cautions students to keep their personal belongings secured with them so that they don’t give thieves the opportunity. “You don’t leave an opportunity for crime to happen,” said Martinez.
