Building Emergency Response Team (BERT)

Website:

www.bert.siu.edu

Contact person:

Jim Hancock
Center for Environmental Health & Safety
(618) 453-5186
e-mail

Summary:

Southern Illinois University Carbondale (SIUC) has developed a network of volunteer personnel to assist with the creation of emergency response plans and procedures. These personnel work not only as a large team, but also as individual building teams to develop, implement, inform, and test emergency procedures in all buildings on campus.

In the event of an emergency, the BERT team will provide information relevant to your building, including evacuation, assembly, and SIUC Alerts.

SIUC Alerts are messages about an emergency. The message may alert you to an emergency situation, ask you to take action, or both. Some weather warnings including flash flood, severe thunderstorm, winter storm, and tornado warnings will also be sent as an SIUC Alert. The messages are short (only 160 characters long). For more detailed information, you may need to go to another source of University emergency information.

Before an emergency occurs, please take time to learn who the BERT leader is for your building. This information is on the BERT website and on the Emergency Response Posters located in your building. To download an SIUC Emergency Response poster and the Emergency Response Guide, click here.

Please note that no communication distribution method, including BERT, is infallible. For that reason, SIUC uses redundant systems of emergency communication, including telephone, web, e-mail, radio, and text messaging, to distribute news and instructions during an emergency. Before an emergency arrives, please make yourself aware of all of the distribution methods by visiting our Emergency Communications website at www.siuc.edu/emergency.