MU to Participate in Tornado Drill

Faculty, staff and students encouraged to review emergency procedures, update or download GoMizzou app

March 2nd, 2015

COLUMBIA, Mo. ­— At 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday, March 3rd, the University of Missouri will test all components of its Mass Alert and Warning System. The upcoming drill will be the spring semester test of MU’s full emergency alert system while students are on campus.  This test is in cooperation with the Boone County/Columbia Office of Emergency Management and will coincide with the sounding of county/city outdoor warning sirens. In the event of bad weather, the test will be postponed until 1:30 p.m., Thursday, March 5.

During the test, ALERTUS beacons will sound an alert and flash for 30 seconds. ALERTUS beacons are located in lecture halls as well as common areas and hallways of most MU classroom buildings and student unions. The drill will test the systems’ features, including:

• Text message alerts to students, faculty and staff who have elected to receive warnings by text.
• A mass alert email to all university email accounts.
• Desktop notification to computer screens that have MU’s alert software installed.
• Messages posted to MU’s Facebook and Twitter accounts.
• An advisory notice on the MU Alert webpage.

Cell phone users will receive a text alert message that will read: “This is a test of the MU Mass Alert and Warning System.” Alert emails will include the following subject line: “This is a TEST of the MU Mass Alert and Warning System.”

Students, faculty and staff are encouraged to update or download the GoMizzou app, which now features a crisis/safety module, and to visit http://mualert.missouri.edu/ for instructions on how to receive emergency messages. This website also contains a summary of MU’s Emergency Operations Plan and evacuation procedures.