VA Tech creates comms team in wake of tragedy.(Virginia Tech)

BLACKSBURG, VA: The massacre at Virginia Tech University that left 33 people dead last Monday created a crisis communications situation of unprecedented scope for the institution.

In less than 24 hours, the school's communications staff was forced to devise a contingency plan that would enable it to manage the US' largest gathering of national and international media in recent memory.

Within hours of the news, media from all over the world were arriving on the campus. Jeffrey Douglas, communications director of the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine, which is located on the Virginia Tech campus, was one of the first communications pros working the scene.

'In the earliest moments of the crisis, while our president and leadership team were trying to get their arms around what was happening, the media were just pouring in,' Douglas said. 'And the few of us that were there did the best we could to triage this massive influx of reporters, satellite trucks, and producers. I was stunned at the speed with which the media descended upon this place. Katie Couric was already here by the early evening. It was instant.'

Leading the effort was Larry Hincker, AVP of university relations.

Douglas estimated that there were four or five acres of satellite trucks and nearly 600 reporters on campus at the peak of it all.

'This thing very rapidly grew beyond our capability to manage it on-site,' he said. 'Gov. Tim Kaine (D-VA) declared a state of emergency, activated the Virginia Department of Emergency Management, and that instantly engaged some state resources.'