Safety and Security: Adverse Weather Conditions
Purdue's primary concern during adverse weather conditions is its employees' safety. The University's secondary concern is ensuring that its facilities are maintained during adverse weather conditions. The following sections summarize the University's policies relating to adverse weather conditions. For more details, see Executive Memorandum No. C-35, "Adverse Weather Conditions," dated December 12, 1994.Hazardous Driving Conditions
If an employee is absent from work, arrives late, or leaves early due to hazardous driving conditions (e.g., fog, ice, or snow), the employee must request authorization for their absence under a University paid leave of absence policy, unpaid leave policy, or the personal holiday policy. Under these conditions, there will be no change in regularly scheduled activities or parking regulations.
Snow Emergency
After an unusually heavy snowfall, severe drifting, or when either of the foregoing is certain and imminent, the vice president for physical facilities may declare a "snow emergency." If an employee is absent from work, arrives late, or leaves early during a snow emergency, the employee must request authorization for their absence under a University paid leave of absence policy, unpaid leave policy, or the personal holiday policy.
Snow Recess
If most roads and streets are virtually impassable, the University president, or in her absence, the executive vice president and treasurer and the provost, may declare a "snow recess."
When the University declares a snow recess, students should return to their residences and not report for classes until further notice. The University will ask most staff members to leave the University and not to report for work until further notice. However, the University will request that essential personnel report for work or remain at work to ensure the continued operation of the University's essential services. The Department of Human Resource Services will notify departments of pay practices during a snow recess. The University will provide emergency housing and meal facilities at University expense to essential personnel.
Parking Regulations for Snow Emergency or Snow Recess
When a "snow emergency" or "snow recess" is declared, parking on campus will be restricted to facilitate snow removal.
Signs will be posted in parking lots where parking is prohibited. The lots will be reopened as soon as snow removal is completed. Parking will be permitted in the parking garages under normal parking regulations applying to the use of garages.
Tornadoes
The University's exterior warning sirens are an integral part of the Tippecanoe Emergency Management Agency's siren system. As such, they are used to alert people to not only tornado warnings, but also other potentially life threatening disasters (i.e., chemical releases). Consequently, when the sirens are activated for other than test purposes, employees should quickly tune to local TV and radio stations for further information as to what action is required.
Employees should be familiar with the terminology used on weather bulletins broadcast by radio and television stations. A "tornado watch" is issued when atmospheric conditions are favorable for the formation of tornadoes in a given area. Under these conditions, keep informed by listening to radio or television. A "tornado warning" indicates that a tornado has been sighted and poses a definite threat to a given area.
When a tornado warning has been announced for Tippecanoe County, the following activities should be interrupted and the necessary safeguards initiated immediately. Employees may have only a few minutes in which to act.
Classes should cease immediately. Students and faculty should shut off lab equipment for which they are responsible and proceed to the closest sheltered area.
All University business and activities, except for emergency services, will terminate. Students, staff, and faculty should proceed to the closest sheltered area until the warning expires.
All normal activities in University residence halls will cease. The building occupants should proceed to sheltered areas.
In seeking a sheltered area people should:
* Proceed to the basement of any building that has a basement or subwalk. Position yourself in the safest portion of the area away from glass. Be prepared to kneel facing the wall and cover your head.
* In high-rise buildings (four stories or more), vacate the top floor and move to a lower floor or to the basement. Position yourself in an interior corridor away from glass. Be prepared to kneel facing the wall and cover your head.
* Occupants of wood-frame buildings or brick buildings with wood floors should leave the building and go directly to a more substantial concrete building, preferably with a basement.
Wind Chill
When existing or predicted low temperatures and wind conditions pose a severe health threat to students walking to and from class, the University president or, in her absence, the designee, may declare a "severe weather emergency." When a severe weather emergency has been declared, classes will be suspended. However, because most employees have short walks from the parking lots or garages to their buildings, all University employees who can do so safely should report to work. Those who do not report to work when scheduled, must request authorization for the absence under a University paid leave of absence policy, unpaid leave policy, or a personal holiday.
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