WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — As spring approaches, Purdue emergency preparedness officials are urging the campus community to review the university’s severe weather procedures and know their shelter-in-place locations.

March 15-21 is Severe Weather Awareness Week, and tests of the all-hazards warning sirens, along with a pair of free tornado awareness training sessions, are scheduled on campus.

The Tippecanoe County Emergency Management Agency will sound the sirens between 10-10:30 a.m. and between 7-7:30 p.m. March 18. The tests’ objectives are to ensure the sirens are operational, to allow the community to hear what they sound like, and to emphasize severe weather awareness and the need to prepare. If there is a threat of severe weather during that day, the tests will be postponed. The tests coincide with statewide siren testing.

Tornado awareness training sessions are scheduled for 10:30-11:30 a.m. March 27 and April 3 in the Terry Memorial Conference Room at the Purdue Police Department.

The tornado awareness training sessions are scheduled for 10:30-11:30 a.m. March 27 and April 3 in the Terry Memorial Conference Room at the Purdue Police Department. The training, offered through the university’s Emergency Preparedness and Planning Office and facilitated by Purdue fire safety specialist Tom Cooper, is free and open to faculty, staff and students. The training is designed to provide tornado awareness information and recommended response actions during and after the incident. Those interested in attending one of the sessions should contact Mary Stair at 765-494-1424.

Cooper also is available to speak in campus offices or departments. For more information, contact him at 765-494-1432 or at tncooper@purdue.edu.

Ron Wright, director of Campus Emergency Preparedness recommends that the campus community review severe weather response actions. Information is available on the Purdue home page weather link at http://news.uns.purdue.edu/weather.html. Links on the Web page provide awareness pointers and recommended emergency kits. Each Purdue building should have a building emergency plan that provides specific evacuation and shelter-in-place procedures, and the awareness week provides an opportunity to review those plans, Wright said. The plan is normally developed and maintained by the building deputy or the Building Safety Committee.