Tammy Weston said a new disaster preparedness class could be offered in the fall – but only if a few more students enroll.
Weston, a researcher in the Southern Illinois U. Workforce Education and Development department, said enrollment is the deciding factor when it comes to new classes.
The class “Disaster Preparation and Emergency Management for Families” teaches students how to protect themselves or their families in the event of a disaster. The class covers events ranging from natural hazards to terrorism, said Terre Eversden, a lecturer in Workforce Education and Development and the class instructor.
Only three students have enrolled so far. If the headcount doesn’t reach at least seven by Friday, Weston said the class would be cut and saved for the spring.
The class was available as an online course last spring as a trial run, Eversden said. She said it wasn’t publicized much, but was successful overall.
“It’s online so anyone in the country or world could take the class and identify what natural hazards are common to their area,” she said.
Patricia Marten, a graduate student in Workforce Education and Development, took the class in the spring. She said the online class worked well with her schedule, but it would be more interesting if it were held in a traditional classroom.
Martens said she felt the need to enroll in the class after surviving the May 8 storm.
“The phone service was out. There was no electricity,” she said. “Nearly every road out of Carbondale was blocked with trees and downed power lines.”
During the May 8 storm, she said she was at work while one of her daughters was at home and her grandson was in school.
Martens said one of the assignments required students to explain how they would connect with family members if they happened to be split up during the disaster.
Students can design assignments specifically to disasters relevant to them, Eversden said. Each student had to create a personalized survival kit and map out an evacuation route, she said.
The most important aspect of the class was the personalized disaster kit, she said.
“Students have to take photos of their survival kit, and post it online to share with the rest of the class,” Eversden said.
Eversden said she hopes the class makes it from the web to the classroom in the spring if the class is offered in the fall.
“If the class takes off and becomes popular, we would make it a classroom setting,” she said.
Eversden said SIUC needs a class like this one, with the weather pattern southern Illinois has had.
“It doesn’t hurt to be prepared,” she said.
She said the area is known for tornadoes, severe weather and is in constant threat of a major earthquake with the New Madrid fault line.
Eversden said the class covers valuable information so someone can survive a disaster before officials can make it out to his or her house or workplace.
“You have the first responders, but ultimately, you’re the one there until someone can come,” she said. “And, it may not be that day … it may be days or weeks.”