Ames, Iowa — A class in disaster preparedness is being offered at Iowa State University for the first time this fall to ready students for everything from severe weather to hazardous materials spills.
ISU’s emergency manager Clayton Oliver is teaching the course to students in the Honors Program who need to pass special classes as part of their requirements to graduate with honors.
As part of the course, an Ames apartment was turned into a simulated tornado disaster area as students learned how to respond to and manage an emergency.
The seminar is built around Community Emergency Response Team, or CERT, training. It includes academic elements like studying reports from disasters like the 1993 Iowa floods and the 2011 tornado that hit Joplin, Missouri.
Besides the tornado drill, students are also learning about disaster medicine and stabilizing victims with Thielen Student Health Center staff, search and rescue and extrication with the Ames Fire Department, and disaster psychology for victims and responders with ISU Student Counseling.
