Alert and Warnings

It is Elgin Community College’s duty to provide timely alerts and warnings to persons that are on campus, such that recipients can take protective actions. The Alert and Warning Annex provides the details on alert and warning components within the Campus Emergency Operations Plan.

Other entities will also provide alerts and warnings to the campus community. The City of Elgin, Kane County, and other organizations all maintain and are expected to provide timely notifications to the campus community.

Alerts

Elgin Community College maintains three alarms to notify the campus community of emergencies on campus.

Fire alarm

A blaring alarm will repeat inside buildings with flashing blue strobes until shut off. The fire alarm is used to communicate the need to evacuate a building.

Tornado Alarm

Three tones followed by a short message asking people to seek shelter from severe weather. The alarm will repeat until it is shut off. In the event of a sustained warning, the alarms will be turned off, immediately followed by a PA announcement. The PA message will be repeated every 10 minutes until the National Weather Service Tornado warning has expired. The tornado alarm will only be used during severe weather warnings issued by the National Weather Service.

Lightning Alarm

A horn will blare for 10 seconds, followed by an automated message stating that lightning has been detected in the area. A yellow strobe will flash continuously.

Warnings

Elgin Community College maintains several warning systems to communicate emergencies.

Rave Alerts

Rave Alerts allow alerts and warnings to be sent to text messages, emails, voice calls, alerts (desktop computers on campus and ECC TV), ECC Twitter, and ECC Facebook. Rave Alerts allow multiple ways for a person to receive information about a situation on campus. More information and how to update your contact information can be found in the Rave Alert section on Elgin.edu.

Because of the capability of Rave Alerts, it is ECC’s primary warning system. However, ECC maintains other methods such as public address systems, all emails, radios, etc. For a full description of all warning systems, please refer to the Alert and Warning Annex of the Campus Emergency Operations Plan - PDF.