Irene Makes Case for Disaster Planning
Hurricane Coming, Trigger your Emergency Action, Disaster Recovery, Business Continuity and Crisis Communications Plans
Internal, External Communications Essential
Address these 10 issues for your organization. As provided by Bo Mitchell, president of 911 Consulting. Visit www.911Consulting.net
1. Plan, train and exercise your organization's emergency team on premises before, during and after the hurricane.
2. Plan, train and exercise your command, control and communications on premises during-and hours and days-after the hurricane.
3. If you have an emergency notification system, use it. Deploy your Crisis Communications Plan so you can communicate with employees, families, clients, board members, stockholders, supply chain, etc.
4. Plan, train and drill for a mandatory evacuation. We learned this from Hurricane Katrina. Know how to shut down and then protect facilities, critical ops and data if ordered to evacuate by the Mayor, Governor or President.
5. Plan, train and drill with building management regarding what orders are to be given, and what orders are NOT to be given before, during and after the hurricane.
6. Plan, train and exercise your headcount. Headcounts are required by federal law for every emergency for all personnel. Know how to account for visitors too.
7. Plan, train and exercise your response to the power outage that almost always occurs during and after a hurricane.
8. Plan, train and drill with local police and fire regarding how you reacquire command of your facility after the hurricane passes if local government restricts movement in your area. There are ways of making this happen in your jurisdiction.
9. Plan, train and exercise your Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity plans.
10. Require that every employee has a Family Emergency Plan or FEP. An employee with an FEP is much more likely to come to work and to stay at work because each is confident in their family's safety and comfort.