It is impossible to tell when an emergency situation may happen, so it pays off to be prepared.
For students at Brigham Young University, numerous resources are offered by BYU Emergency Management to help them do just that.
BYU Emergency Management specialist Susan Mason shared what the department’s role is.
“In summary, our role is to protect BYU's campus through mitigating, preparing for, responding to and recovering from emergencies,” Mason said.
She shared how the scriptures foretell tumults, earthquakes, fires and other difficult things before Christ’s second coming.
“It's fun because every day that we come to work, yes, it can be just basic tasks of writing reports, maintaining AEDs. But it's more than that because it's a preparation for the coming of our Savior,” Mason said. “As we know, dark days are ahead.”
Reuben Juarez is one member of the BYU Emergency Management crew tasked with upkeeping AED machines and bleeding control kits.
“I think it’s so important to know where they are,” Juarez said.
With more than 120 AEDs on campus, he explained they are in almost every building at BYU. There is an AED locator on the BYU app.
So, students may be provided with the resources they need, but how do they learn how to use them?
Not only does BYU Emergency Management offer an array of videos that give guidance about handling urgent situations, but it also offers free training.
Mason shared what these training sessions look like.
“We can come and present to you and your group, to you as an individual,” Mason said. “You pick a date, you tell us your intended audience, fill out some information so we can be prepared and we can do that training. What we really want students to do is we want them to take ownership of their preparedness.”
BYU student Emily Huffmire said she realizes the importance of preparing for emergencies.
“The world is going absolutely insane, and there are emergencies all over the place, so we're bound to have one soon,” Huffmire said.
BYU Emergency Management also provides information and checklists on its website to prepare individual 72-hour kits for students in their dorms.
These are just a few of the efforts that the emergency management team takes to prepare students so that they feel confident in critical circumstances.
Its next event will be held March 4, at 6 p.m., where members will explain what to do in the case of an active shooter.