By Audrey Galo | Program Coordinator
Tommy Stewart, long-time collaborator with Architecture for Humanity, attended the last of five training sessions for the Oklahoma Safe Schools 101 program, held March 25 to 28 with a site assessment training exercise on Saturday, March 29. Approximately 150 participants took advantage of this pilot program designed to train architects, engineers, and related professionals to assess school buildings for refuge inventory and planning.
The program was developed by the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management (OEM) in cooperation with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), to create an extensive network of trained individuals to assess every public school building in the state of Oklahoma and to identify the best areas of refuge in case of tornadoes and high wind events.
Tommy describes his experience after the training,
“I was privileged to attend this interesting program and participate in an assessment training exercise at Norman High School. Having been involved in storm damage assessments, the back side of the storm so to speak, this proactive review provided a different way to think about the affects of tornadoes. Rather than what happened, we were taught to think about what could happen; where the safest place to be is and in some cases how long you might have to get there.”
This program will help the State of Oklahoma identify those existing places to best protect one of most valuable assets - our children while they are at school.
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