As a volunteer emergency responder, Eric Hodges was on his way to Tazewell County, after a devastating EF-4 tornado tore through the small town of Washington, lifting and dropping debris as far away as Chicago. But before he could get there, he had to turn around.
The tail end of the storm had impacted Normal, and all power was lost on Illinois State University’s campus. Hodges was Illinois State’s emergency manager, only three months into that role, and it was his job to coordinate the University’s response.
But without power, that was tough.
One light was still working in his building in the lobby of the University Police Department. That’s where he pulled the emergency management team together. Sitting on the floor, they worked for more than an hour to find a way to get a message out to the campus community.
“That was the best we could come up with,” Hodges said. “It was rough. It was not a great way to be as effective as we could in coordinating our response.”
That was in 2013 and a year later, Illinois State’s dedicated Emergency Operations Center (EOC) opened. It’s a “hot” EOC, meaning it’s a space that requires no setup, which makes it unique among state university EOCs.
“You turn on the lights and you are ready to go, and that’s a game changer,” Hodges said.
Hodges created an incident management team, a group of university leaders from across campus who are prepared to respond to everything from weather events and water main breaks to bomb threats, active shooters, and cyber security threats. The EOC also served as headquarters for the University’s COVID-19 pandemic response.
Although the EOC may look like a typical conference room, it’s not. It has its own backup power, heating and cooling, five internet providers, rooftop radio antennas, and a communications suite to allow the team to coordinate with county and state public safety officials. A video wall can display feeds from 22 sources. If something happened to the building where the EOC is housed, the University has a reciprocal agreement with the Town of Normal to move to its emergency operations center.
Eric Hodges
“Ten or 15 years ago if someone had an emergency, they would call 911. That is not the only avenue that people use anymore. If someone posts that they need help, that’s part of our responsibility.”
But the EOC isn’t gathering dust waiting for the next power outage or storm. It’s also used to monitor planned events, from football games to concerts, commencement, and Homecoming. Every call for aid is tracked, from a health emergency to a fire from a tailgater’s grill.
The emergencies Hodges plans for are either likely or the consequences would be high.
“One of them that is very low likelihood but very high consequences is an active shooter,” he said. “We have dedicated a lot of resources to training and preparedness, drills, exercises and outreach all related to that one threat.”
Hazardous materials is another one, not only because of Illinois State’s science labs, but because trains run close to campus. A 17-car derailment in 2021 directly across from Watterson Towers could have been much worse, he said. “If that had had hazardous materials on board and we had a full residence hall, that would have been a very different response.”
Campus is also susceptible to flash flooding, which happened a few years ago when a storm dumped 11 inches of rain, and buildings were inundated. But the most common emergency is winter weather, and the team has had plenty of practice with that one.
Two to three days before a storm, the incident management team gathers for weather briefings and reviews events scheduled on campus. As the system gets closer, they discuss the possibility of closure, late start, or early dismissal. At about 3 a.m. on the day of the storm, there’s a call with the National Weather Service and local government, school, and business leaders. Decisions on late starts or closure are to be made by 5:30 a.m.
But sometimes, the unexpected happens, like the day a few years ago freezing rain didn’t show up on radar but coated the campus in a thin sheet of ice at 7 a.m. Within 10 minutes, the decision was made for a late start. “That was about the worst-case scenario,” Hodges said. “It wasn’t forecasted. It just happened, and we had to react.”
Over the last decade, one of the big changes he’s seen in emergency management is the role of social media. The EOC has a social media analytics and response team that monitors social media and posts messages but also looks for posts from those who might need help.
“Ten or 15 years ago if someone had an emergency, they would call 911,” Hodges said. “That is not the only avenue that people use anymore. If someone posts that they need help, that’s part of our responsibility.”
Hodges didn’t start out at Illinois State in emergency operations. For 18 years, he was in information technology, but he’s been involved in preparing for emergencies for more than three decades. For 25 years, he was a volunteer with the McLean County Emergency Management Agency, and he also serves on the statewide Illinois Incident Management Team.
His experience goes beyond campus. He has responded to state and national emergencies, including Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and Superstorm Sandy in the mid-Atlantic region in 2012.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, he was tapped by the Illinois Emergency Management agency to be bureau chief of operations. That took him away from Illinois State for six months, but he returned in February 2021.
“I was drawn to help on a larger scale, and it was hard to say no to that request,” he said.
In his field, he’s seeing a change in the emergencies he has to prepare for.
“In addition to all the natural hazards and human-caused disasters, some of the big areas of interest for our profession are the impacts of weather and climate, cyber incidents, and pandemics,” he said. “One of the greatest threats any organization faces is a cybersecurity incident. We spend a lot
of time preparing for and exercising that particular hazard.”
It was in college that Hodges first became hooked on emergency management. He overheard students in his residence hall listening to fire calls on a radio scanner, and that was it. He became an amateur radio operator and volunteered to do weather alerts during community events.
Now he’s shifting into another phase—teaching and mentoring. He’s an instructor for Illinois State’s emergency management courses and teaches at the state and federal level. If there’s one message he wants to get out, it’s about the person you really need to count on during an emergency.
“There’s this myth that the few people in public safety are there to keep everybody safe,” he said. “During that bad day, there are not enough of us to help everybody. Our job is ultimately to help prepare people to have some self-resilience in those first few minutes, first few hours, first few days until help can show up. If we can help build those capabilities throughout our entire community, we have done our job.”
