LM May 2023

Natural Disaster Recovery Checklist Helping Superintendents Plan for a Tornado and Other Worst-Case Scenarios

As superintendents, we are trained to prepare for events leading up to natural disasters. We develop crisis plans, conduct mandated drills and make preparations to protect our students to be safe in the event that something of great magnitude occurs. This preparation typically takes us through the events leading up to the occurrence of a serious incident, such as a fire, flood, tornado, etc. But in the days, weeks, months and years following a natural disaster, we tend to be woefully unprepared to see long into the future and to anticipate what issues and obstacles will face us both personally and from an organizational standpoint. In my own experience in having dealt with a tornado in the Elmwood school district, and an unanticipated flood, it became evident that clearly-identifiable processes and procedures in the days following natural disasters, and in the long term, were simply not part of my administrative training and preparation. I strongly feel that having a working document or resource, as well as some amount of professional development, would assist us in our efforts to recover and would be incredibly beneficial to our students, districts and communities.

Dr. Roger Alvey was superintendent of Elmwood CUSD #322 when that district was struck by an EF2 tornado in 2010. In 2014, in the wake of the tornadoes in Washington, Illinois, he wrote this article for the Illinois Association of School Boards. IASA is re-publishing this article (slightly modified) because Illinois is off to a record pace with at least 55 tornadoes to date this year. The article has been cited by administrators as a huge help in transition and recovery efforts following a natural disaster. By Dr. Roger Alvey superintendent of Illini Bluffs CUSD #327

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LM May 2023