Emergency Preparedness

Emergency Preparedness • An emergency is: • an unplanned event that can cause death or significant injuries to employees or the public, • or that can disrupt a business or its operation, cause physical or environmental damage or threaten the organization's financial standing or public image.

Emergency Preparedness • Identifying and analyzing the potential events and their impact on the organization are first two steps in planning to manage an emergency. • Emergency management involves, planning then organizing then leading and controlling.

Classes of Disasters • Disasters can strike an organization in many different ways. • Typically, disasters can be classified as: • Natural events • Technological events • Man-made events

Drought Fire Snow/ice/hail Tsunami Windstorm/Tropical Storm Hurricane Lightning storm Biological Extreme heat/cold Flood/wind-driven water Earthquake/land shift Volcanic eruption Tornado Landslide/mudslide Dust/sand storm Natural Events

Hazardous material release Explosion/fire Transportation accident Building/structure collapse Power/utility failure Extreme air pollution Radiological accident Dam/levee failure Fuel/resource shortage Strike Business interruption Financial collapse Communication interruption Technological Events

Economic General strike Terrorism Sabotage Hostage situations Civil unrest Enemy attack Arson Mass hysteria Special events Human Events

Phases of Emergency Management • The activities involved in emergency management can be categorized as follows: • Preparedness: Preparing to handle an emergency • Prevention: Means actions taken to avoid an incident or to intervene to stop an incident from occurring. • Response: Responding safely to an emergency • Recovery: Recovering from an emergency • Mitigation: Reducing the severity

Preparedness • Includes plans or preparations made to save lives and to help response-and-rescue operations. • Evacuation plans and stocking food and water are both examples of preparedness. • Preparedness activities take BEFORE an emergency occurs, such as identifying the hazards and quantifying risks.

Prevention • Includes any activities that prevent an emergency, reduce the chance of an emergency happening. • Means actions taken to avoid an incident or to intervene to stop an incident from occurring. • Involves actions taken to protect lives and property.

Response • Includes actions taken to save lives and prevent further property damage in a disaster or emergency situation. • Response is putting your preparedness plans into action. • Seeking shelter from a tornado or turning off gas valves in an earthquake are both response activities. • Response activities take place DURING an emergency.

Recovery • Includes actions taken to return to a normal or even safer situation following an emergency. • Recovery includes getting financial assistance to help pay for the repairs. • Recovery activities take place AFTER an emergency.

Mitigation • Reduce or eliminate risks to persons or property, or • Lessen the actual or potential effects or consequences of an incident • Mitigation activities take place BEFORE, DURING, and AFTER emergencies.

Emergency Management and Planning • Emergency management is the process of preparing for, mitigating, responding to and recovering from an emergency. • Emergency management is a dynamic process. • Planning, though critical, is not the only component. • Training, conducting drills, testing equipment and coordinating activities with the community are other important functions.

Steps in Emergency Planning • 5 steps in emergency planning • Step 1: Establish a team • Step 2: Analyze capabilities and hazards • Step 3: Conduct vulnerability assessment • Step 4: Develop the plan • Step 5: Implement the plan

Step 1: Establish a Planning Team • The size of the planning team will depend on the facility’s operations, requirements and resources.

Using a Group Approach • Usually involving a group of people is best because: • It encourages participation and gets more people invested in the process. • It increases the amount of time and energy participants are able to give. • It enhances the visibility and stature of the planning process. • It provides for a broad perspective on the issues. • Demonstrate management’s commitment and promote an atmosphere of cooperation by “authorizing” the planning group to take the steps necessary to develop a plan. • The group should be led by the chief executive or the plant manager.

Step 2: Analyze Capabilities and Hazards • This step entails gathering information about current capabilities and about possible hazards and emergencies, and then conducting a vulnerability analysis to determine the facility’s capabilities for handling emergencies.

Analyze Capabilities and Hazards • Review Internal Plans and Policies Documents to look for include: • Evacuation plan • Fire protection plan • Safety and health program • Environmental policies • Security procedures

Meet with Outside Groups • Meet with government agencies, community organizations and utilities. • Ask about potential emergencies and about plans and available resources for responding to them.

Identify Codes and Regulations • Identify applicable Federal, State and local regulations such as: • Occupational safety and health regulations • Environmental regulations • Fire codes

Identify Critical Products, Services and Operations • Company products and services and the facilities and equipment needed to produce them • Products and services provided by suppliers, especially sole source vendors • Lifeline services such as electrical power, water, sewer, gas, telecommunications and transportation

Identify Internal Resources and Capabilities • Resources and capabilities that could be needed in an emergency include: • Personnel — fire brigade, hazardous materials response team, emergency medical services, security, emergency management group, evacuation team, public information officer • Equipment — fire protection and suppression equipment, communications equipment, first aid supplies, emergency supplies, warning systems, emergency power equipment, decontamination equipment

Step 3: Vulnerability Assessment • The next step is to assess the vulnerability of the facility • Vulnerability assessment is the process of identifying and quantifying vulnerabilities in a system. • Vulnerability is the probability and potential impact of each emergency.

Conducting a Vulnerability Assessment • The system being studied could be a physical facility like a nuclear power plant , a computer system , or a larger system (for example the communications infrastructure or water infrastructure of a region). • Vulnerability assessment has many things in common with risk assessment .

Conducting a Vulnerability Assessment • Assessments are typically performed according to the following steps: • Cataloging assets and capabilities (resources) in a system • Assigning quantifiable value and importance to the resources • Identifying the vulnerabilities or potential threats to each resource • Mitigating or eliminating the most serious vulnerabilities for the most valuable resources

Vulnerability Assessment Tools • There are a variety of vulnerability assessment tools available from various governmental agencies. • These tools are typically designed for a specific threat such as chemical facilities, laboratories, transportation, and businesses.

Vulnerability Assessment Methodologies • There are many methodologies that can be used for vulnerability assessment, including: • What-if / scenario analysis • Checklists • HAZOP (Hazard and Operability) Studies • FMEA (Failure Mode and Effect Analyses) • Fault Tree Diagrams • Decision Tree Analysis • Capability Assessment Readiness (CAR) for state and local governments • Some are quantitative, some diagrammatic, some complex and some simple.

FEMA’s Impact Analysis • One technique, explained in FEMA's impact-driven model is known as Impact Analysis. • The Federal Emergency Management Agency emphasizes assessment of the impact in addition to identification of the emergency type.

An Impact-Driven Model • The impact of an emergency on the organization may include the following: • Health and safety of persons in the affected area • Health and safety of personnel responding to the incident • Continuity of operations • Property, facilities and infrastructure • Delivery of services • The environment • Economic and financial condition • Regulatory and contractual obligations • Reputation of the entity

Simplified Impact Analysis • One assessment technique simply constructs tables in which numerical assessments (1 (low) to 5 (high)) of human impact, property impact, business impact and probability are added, and then ranked. • The probability is the likelihood of each emergency's occurrence.

Impact Categories • The human impact assesses the effect on employees, visitors or the public. • The property impact measures the loss of or damage to property (real and personal) -the cost to replace or repair, and the cost of temporary replacement • The business impact considers the effect of business interruption, disruption of critical supplies, loss of market share, etc. • Events or emergency types with the highest total are the ones that should be considered first, as they have the biggest potential impact.

Resource Analysis • In addition to the assessment of the probability of an emergency and the impact on the organization, the organization should consider factoring in the available resources, which will give a head-start on the mitigation program.

Examples of Emergency Management Resources • Equipment • Hazmat teams • Emergency wardens • External Resources • Community emergency responders • Fire/Police/EMT • Hospitals • Utilities • Contractors

Evaluating Resources • Resources can be characterized as strong (1) to weak (5), and added into the Impact Analysis. • Strong resources already in place have the effect of lowering the total score of a given event or emergency type, reprioritizing the need for action.

STEP 4: Develop the Plan • When developing a the disaster plan, the emergency management coordinator along with the management team members must assess and plan for basic elements necessary for the implementation of the plan, protection of life and property.

Emergency Management Plan Elements • The basic elements addressed in the emergency management plan address the minimum activities necessary for successful implementation. • This section of the plan briefly describes the facility’s approach to the core elements of emergency management

Direction and control Communications Life safety Property protection Community outreach Recovery and restoration Administration and logistics Identify Challenges and Prioritize Activities Write the Plan Establish a Training Schedule Coordinate with Outside Organizations Review, Conduct Training and Revise Emergency Management Plan Elements

Emergency Planning • Planning considerations can vary widely. The primary goal is to ensure that all the important activities are included in the emergency action plan and outcomes anticipated.

Continuity Planning • Continuity planning are those activities designed to allow an organization to recover following a disaster. • The activities restore interrupted services and activities in as short of period as possible following the disaster and as a result, minimize losses following the disaster.

Training Planning • Companies, which have experienced major disasters, report that training and testing are the keys to a successful response. • Training must be at all levels.

Public Response Planning • Issuing warnings is one of the most important methods of averting the destructive consequences of disasters. • An effective warning process may depend on the cooperative interactions of multiple organizations: those who detect the disaster threat, those who detect that a warning should be issued, and those who convey the warning to the public.

Public Response Planning • The public's response to warning is not a simple stimulus response reaction. • The source, context, and repetition of the message can influence the warning's influence on public behavior. • In disasters, news reports generate worldwide concern in those who think they may have loved ones in the impact area.

Public Response Planning • The usual result is that organizations in the disaster area are inundated with inquiries about these persons. • Convincing the public to evacuate areas threatened by impending disaster is often difficult.

Crisis Planning • A crisis management plan integrates many of the components of the emergency response plan. • A team must be appointed to make the necessary decisions to resume operations after the event. • The plan should identify critical functions that must be restored immediately and make provisions for long term repair or replacement of facilities and equipment.

Rescue Planning • The emergency response plan should identify the potential types of specialized rescues that may be assigned to the ERT. • High elevations, excavations, confined spaces, and many other situations should be considered.

Rescue Planning Example • Emergency response teams with responsibility for rescue of workers injured or trapped in confined spaces must be properly trained and equipped in accordance with OSHA standard 1910.146 Permit-Required Confined Spaces. • Rescuers must be provided with personal protective equipment including respirators and body harnesses; trained to perform the assigned rescue duties; etc. • Rescuers must be trained in first aid and CPR. • Practice drills must be conducted annually.

STEP 5: Implement the Plan • Implementation means acting on recommendations made during the vulnerability analysis, integrating the plan into company operations, training employees and evaluating the plan.

Continuous Improvement • Disaster planning should incorporate a continuous improvement process to the implementation phase. • An ongoing evaluation of the plan should be conducted based upon evaluations, drills, and assessments of the plan when used. • Potential problems and shortcomings of the disaster response can be identified and corrected. • Changes in potential threats should be evaluated on an on-going basis and changes to the disaster response plan made as deemed appropriate.

Emergency Preparedness