Emergency exercise brings rapid, sustained response

UB’s Emergency Management Department, in collaboration with multiple university units and local, state and federal emergency responders, delivered a rapid and coordinated response to a full-scale exercise simulating a complex campus crisis.

The exercise, which took place from 7 a.m. Aug. 1 through noon on Aug. 2, simulated a mass shooting in and around Hadley Village, a student apartment complex on the North Campus.

“This is the largest full-scale emergency exercise we have yet staged,” said Jay Roorbach, UB’s senior emergency planning coordinator. “A wide-ranging group of 200 people responded to the scenario at Hadley Village, and represented an unprecedented level of collaboration for an extreme event.”

“In the exercise, there were 52 casualties resulting from gunshots, including seven individuals who were killed, 15 who were seriously injured and another 20 who were critically injured,” said Joshua B. Sticht, deputy chief of University Police, who also served as a co-director of the exercise.

“As part of this scenario, the suspected shooter remained at large for nearly 24 hours before being fatally shot by NFTA Police in an NFTA Metro Rail station, ending the first phase of the exercise,” Sticht said.

“We were pleased that every agency that signed on to work with us showed up,” Roorbach said. “In addition, there were many actors/volunteers who participated with us, as well as observers from law enforcement, Roswell Park and other Western New York institutions of higher education.”

Roorbach extended his thanks to members of the newly formed UB Incident Management Team, a group of senior leaders who coordinate resource management at the university level on a wide range of critical issues during a crisis. “The role they play is vital to the success of emergency planning, response and recovery at UB,” he said.  

For the exercise, the Emergency Management Department and University Police collaborated with Environment, Health and Safety; Student Life; University Communications; the School of Nursing; the School of Public Health and Health Professions; and the Behling Simulation Center of the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.

“One of the things we learn from conducting full-scale emergency exercises is how important it is to involve all emergency-service partners,” Roorbach said. “These exercises provide an opportunity to build critical relationships between our local, state and federal emergency responders, and also between these outside responders and a variety of UB departments.”

The emergency exercise was simulated to take place during UB’s annual Welcome Weekend, when students move into housing assignments for the fall semester, and new students attend fall semester kick-off events on campus with parents and families. Roorbach said the simulated crisis could cause UB administrators to delay starting the fall semester. Also as part of the scenario, Hadley Village, the site of the crisis, could be closed indefinitely to student residents.

“The mission of the UB Incident Management Team is to assess the situation and determine what actions and decisions are needed to continue university operations, or resume them as soon as possible,” Roorbach said. “Their efforts will be critical to keeping the university afloat in that type of situation.”

“As part of our emergency-management plan, Student Life serves as liaison to hospital staff with students, families and the university,” said Barbara Ricotta, senior associate vice president for student life.

“Depending on the scenario, classes could possibly be delayed, and we would explore creating a central, expanded location to provide information for students, parents and their families, as well as assistance in locating transportation and medical care,” Ricotta said.

“Also as part of the exercise, immediate accommodations would have to be found for the 600-plus student residents who may have been displaced from Hadley Village.”

As part of the scenario, Roorbach said other IMT members would search for solutions to multiple post-crisis operational challenges, such as maintaining access to power for computers; ensuring students displaced from Hadley Village would be able to fill medical prescriptions and have access to health care; and planning a memorial service for those who lost their lives.

Working in close coordination with campus departments and outside responders during a crisis is a key component of University Communications’ emergency planning.

“Keeping UB students, concerned parents, faculty and staff, and other stakeholders informed with accurate, up-to-date information during a major emergency is a top priority for the university,” said John DellaContrada, UB associate vice president for media relations and stakeholder communications.  

During the exercise, University Communications worked with University Police and Student Life to develop and simulate dissemination of UB Alerts, social media postings and media releases providing critical health and safety messaging to the university community and members of the public.

In all, 25 staff members from University Communications took part in the exercise, implementing very specific crisis communications roles — ranging from public information officers to social media coordinators — and serving as members of UB’s Incident Management Team.  

“Working shoulder to shoulder with colleagues, as together you respond to a large-scale simulated incident, is an incredibly helpful way to prepare for a real-life emergency,” DellaContrada said. “During the exercise we were able to test and improve upon UB’s crisis-communications plans, procedures and messaging.”

The exercise was also important to the School of Nursing, said Joann Sands, clinical assistant professor of biobehavioral health and clinical sciences, who served as actor controller.

“By participating in a full-scale emergency exercise, we have a chance to collaborate and work as part of an interdisciplinary team with others we might not typically work with,” she said, “such as university and local police, local EMS agencies and other first responders.

“Making up the largest health care occupation in the U.S., nurses are so instrumental in caring for victims of these types of crises.”

The School of Public Health and Health Professions and Environment, Health and Safety also participated in the exercise, providing exercise controllers and overseeing the safety of the participants.

For the exercise, the Behling Simulation Center provided high-fidelity training simulators — mannequins capable of simulating scenarios ranging from delivering babies to resuscitating injured patients — which were effecting real-life gunshot-related trauma conditions.

Simulators were placed in the Emergency Department of Oishei Children’s Hospital during the exercise, with Tom Cotter, lead simulation tech specialist and facilities operations manager of the Behling Center, serving as controller for the units.

“The exercise provided an opportunity to examine the types of operational challenges that can come to light during a crisis of this type,” Cotter said.

“Having a trauma team perform acute care in an emergency scenario was invaluable to everyone who participated. The units are programmed to simulate the exact physiological conditions resulting from gunshot wounds, with members of the trauma team working directly on them,” he said.

“That is crucial because that process is not something you can do with real patients. Everyone learned a lot.”     

Outside agencies participating in the exercise included Buffalo Fire Department; Erie County Emergency Services; Amherst Police; Town of Amherst Emergency Services; Getzville Fire Department; Erie County Medical Center; Erie County Department of Health; and Kaleida Health, including DeGraff Memorial Hospital, Buffalo General Medical Center, Oshei Children’s Hospital of Buffalo and Millard Fillmore Suburban Hospital.

Additional participants included New York State Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services; New York State Department of Health; Federal Bureau of Investigation; American Medical Response; and Twin City Ambulance.