MORGAN -- When lightning struck a major power line in Morgan County this week, school administrators discovered deficiencies in the districtwide emergency plan.
With the electricity out and students arriving, schools were without landline phone service because the systems depend on power.
"Communications between parents and the schools were affected. Calls were not going in or out of the buildings," said Superintendent Ken Adams. "Unfortunately, the communication element of the plan was not effective."
Without power, the district's automated computer system, capable of calling the homes of all students in a matter of minutes, was rendered useless.
The district's emergency preparedness team is now reviewing its handbook and planning to make revisions. The team works closely with city, county and state emergency personnel and prepares drills for area schools.
"The schools are committed to preparing and training the staff and students in regards to emergency preparedness and being ready if and when a crisis arises," Adams said.
Other elements of the emergency plan did work, however. Personnel took the actions necessary to keep all schools open and prepare lunchtime meals.
Morgan is unique in its need for an emergency plan, Adams said.
"Morgan city has the distinction of being one of the few cities in the country that has five reservoirs feeding into its drainage area," Adams said. "East Canyon, Lost Creek, Echo, Rockport, and Smith and Morehouse reservoirs are all upstream of the city."
In addition, the county is bisected by railroad tracks, an interstate highway, airline traffic routes, natural gas and petroleum pipelines, fiber optic lines and microwave towers.
"All of these add risk and potential hazard," Adams said. "On any given day, something could occur that might place the health and safety of residents in jeopardy. A train derails upwind of the city, a major earthquake rattles the Salt Lake Valley and Echo Reservoir is compromised, or a semitrailer rolls and the contents spill onto the interstate."
The district's emergency plan addresses response in the case of a bomb threat, earthquake, emergency school closure, fire, flood, hazardous material spill, intruder/violence, power outage, utility problems, and serious injury or death. The district's four public schools conduct regular fire drills and at least one earthquake drill each year.
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