Yesterday, right smack dab in the middle of a busy morning at CE, alarms started sounding and lights started flashing. I heard a few of the veteran employees groan "not a fire drill- I have way too much to do right now", and even heard some say they may just stay at their desk. Well, not possible, in that seconds later the floor admin was shepherding us all toward the stairway. From my previous post about my first day at CE, you probably know I work with over 1,000 people. Have you ever had to evacuate with that many people? It's a slow process, to say the least.
As we were heading down the flights of stairs (sure feel bad for those on the 9th and 10th floors), I'm sure some others like me wondered- for just a moment- if it was a real emergency, rather than just a drill. I couldn't help but think about 9/11, and what the occupants of the World Trade Center were thinking on that fateful day when their fire alarms went off. Did they think it was a joke? Did some of them want to stay behind, or did they stay behind, because they had too much work to do as well? For those who did evacuate, what were they thinking during their loooonnnggg walk down? Were people panicking? I can't even imagine the pandemonium that would have ensued yesterday should everyone have been pushing and shoving to get out.
While we lost a precious hour of the day, I'm thankful CE took the time to do the drill. Now, in the event of a real emergency (especially if the power goes out), I'll at least know where the stairwell is.
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