Importance of having an Emergency Communication Plan in Place
Importance of having an Emergency Communication Plan in Place
Protect Your Business:
Emergency situations can occur without warning, and prompt actions during the first few minutes of an emergency can save lives. Hence, it is crucial for businesses to have an emergency communication plan in place.
Ten Steps to Develop an Emergency Response Plan:
- Review Performance Objectives: Businesses should review their performance objectives for the program to ensure they align with their emergency response plan.
- Review Hazard or Threat Scenarios: Conduct a risk assessment to identify potential hazards or threat scenarios that may arise in the business.
- Assess Resource Availability: Assess the availability and capabilities of resources for incident stabilization, including people, systems, and equipment available within the business and from external sources.
- Coordinate with Public Emergency Services: Talk with public emergency services to determine their response time, knowledge of the facility and its hazards, and their capabilities to stabilize an emergency at the facility.
- Address Applicable Regulations: Determine if there are any regulations pertaining to emergency planning at the facility and address them in the plan.
- Develop Protective Actions for Life Safety: Develop protective actions for life safety, including evacuation, shelter, shelter-in-place, and lockdown.
- Develop Hazard and Threat-Specific Emergency Procedures: Develop hazard and threat-specific emergency procedures using the Emergency Response Plan for Businesses.
- Coordinate Emergency Planning: Coordinate emergency planning with public emergency services to stabilize incidents involving hazards at the facility.
- Train Personnel: Train personnel so they can fulfill their roles and responsibilities during an emergency.
- Facilitate Exercises: Facilitate exercises to practice the emergency response plan.
Protective Actions for Life Safety:
Businesses should ensure that their emergency plan includes protective actions for life safety, such as evacuation, shelter, shelter-in-place, and lockdown. They should coordinate planning with the building manager if they are tenants in a multi-tenanted building.
Evacuation:
Businesses should have a warning system that can be heard throughout the building and ensure that there are always sufficient exits available. They should also appoint an evacuation team leader, assign employees to direct evacuation of the building, and have a list of employees to account for everyone during the evacuation.
Sheltering:
Businesses should have a distinct warning signal and evaluate potential shelters to ensure that they can hold all employees during a tornado warning.
Shelter-in-Place:
Businesses should develop a plan that includes a means to warn everyone to move away from windows and move to the core of the building during hazardous situations such as a chemical cloud.
Links to Emergency Planning Information:
Pre-Incident Planning (Site and Building Information for First Responders)
Concluding Thoughts:
Developing an emergency communication plan that includes protective actions for life safety, hazard and threat-specific emergency procedures, and training of personnel can protect employees and minimize damage to the facility and the environment during emergency situations.
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