BSR 654
FACILITY EMERGENCY
Topic 7
PREPAREDNESS, DAMAGE
ASSESSMENT :
TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES
NOREHAN MOHD NOOR
BUILDING DISASTER
DAMAGES
FACILITY EMERGEN
CY
NATURAL DISASTERS –
such as floods, storms and earthquakes ETC
Disaster –
fire, shooting, power outage, technological
hazards such as toxic spills and industrial
explosions
emergency
All the situation - are subject to the preparedness of security
and facility professionals.
The crucial assessment for the Building/Facility Manager or BS
is - to developing an emergency response plan.
Emergency and disaster planning involves a coordinated, co-
operative process of preparing to match urgent needs with
available resources.
What Is Emergency Planning?
Emergency planning can be defined as the process of preparing
systematically for future contingencies, including major incidents and
disasters.
The plan is usually a document, shared between participants and
stakeholders that specifies tasks and responsibilities adopted in the
multi-agency response to the emergency.
it is a blueprint for managing events and, as such, should be responsive
to management needs.
It should specify the lineaments of action, collaboration, command, and
communication during a civil contingency such as a disaster or major
event; in other words, it is the framework for emergency response.
What Is Emergency Planning?
The maintenance of public safety, limitation of damage, protection of
the vulnerable, and efficient use of life-saving resources are some of the
goals of the plan.
Although the end product is a document, emergency planning is more a
process than an outcome, especially as the plan itself will need to be
updated over time as circumstances change.
Note: even the biggest reason to pay attention to an emergency response
plan is to be prepared as prepared as possible for an emergency, but there is
no one-size-fits-all approach, there are common elements that should be
addressed in the creation of a plan.
Five steps that facility and security managers can use to help guide emergency
planning.
1. Know your risks
Listing potential emergencies and ranking them in regards to importance and likelihood is
essential to knowing what to do and what resources to invest. There is no need to invest dollars in
hurricane planning if your facility is not near a coastal area, nor should you spend a lot of time for
earthquake planning if your facility is not near any area normally susceptible to earthquakes or with a
history of seismic activity. That doesn’t mean that you totally ignore these risks, just that you don’t
dwell on detailed response tasks.
The risk assessment should be based on an all-hazards approach for those hazards affecting
the facility. A risk matrix can help identify the areas where an investment is most needed. Using this
type of matrix, the facility or security manager can categorize each risk or emergency based on the
impact it would have if it occurred and on the likelihood of the event happening in your area. As an
example, a critical emergency may be an earthquake in San Francisco, which would have a high
impact on the area and a high likelihood of occurring. On the other end of the spectrum, the risk of
the traffic light at the entrance of your facility malfunctioning and causing a traffic backup would have
a low likelihood of occurring. Although the latter event does require the use of manpower and other
resources, planning to resolve the situation is simple.
Using a risk matrix to evaluate all the potential emergencies your facility may face will give you a
head start on many things, including being prepared to meet with management in support of any
funding requests for emergency preparedness.
2. Build a team
i. Many emergency response plans are created in a vacuum, with no input from the end users.
That’s the wrong approach to take. In today’s environment, every individual in the organization
may have a role as a kind of first responder, who is expected to follow the rule, “see something,
say something.”
ii. Emergency plans should be the product of an inclusive team instead of a single individual or
group.
iii. Putting together a team of subject matter experts from different departments helps in
determining the overall span of the plan, including a cycle of the four phases of emergency
management:
• Mitigation. Preventing emergencies and minimizing the effects if an event occurs.
• Preparedness. Identified efforts to prepare for the event.
• Response. Plans and efforts to respond safely to the event.
• Recovery. Actions needed to return the facility to normal operations.
iv. Subject matter experts or other representatives from safety, security, human resources, public
relations or communications, facilities, operations and upper management should be involved from
the start of the planning phase. If plans are already in place, that team would orm a good review
2. Build a team
v. If a sizable group of a specific type of building occupant — employees, students, or faculty, for
example — would be affected by any response plans, it would be wise to have a representative
of that group provide input into the process. The people who ultimately are affected by an
evacuation or sheltering-in order will tell you that it would be better everyone involved were told
in advance what to do, what process would be used to communicate those orders, and what
occupants should expect from security or law enforcement personnel.
vi. For example, during an active shooter event, law enforcement personnel will be going to the
sounds of the shots to mitigate and end the shooting and will not stop to help others either injured
or needing assistance. If building occupants don’t know that this is the correct protocol for police
officers to follow, they may come away with a negative impression of the response.
3. Make critical information quickly accessible
In common situation, so many times, if you ask to see an emergency plan, someone goes to a file
cabinet and pulls out a three thick ring binder files, and hands the weighty document to you for
reading. A plan like that certainly reflects a lot of work, but does anyone really know what’s in it and
does it really describe the methods to respond during the emergency event?
Plans need to be concise as to the threat, the risk, and then what to do. Long, drawn out supporting
documentation that may assist somewhere in the plan as an appendix or supplement is fine, but
when users want to know what the emergency is and what to do in that emergency, they want
information to be quickly read and easily accessible. Many facilities create a hard copy, full length
emergency plan, and then use small “flipcharts” or spiral-bound, hand-size, notepad-type inserts that
outline each potential risk or emergency, and then show who to call, with numbers and what
occupants should do for their own safety and safety of others.
3. Make critical information quickly accessible
At Delta Air Lines Technical Operations Center (TOC) in Atlanta, Ga., flipcharts
that encompass many emergencies — such as fire/explosion, spill response,
severe weather, injury response, emergency disconnects, bomb threat/response
along with active shooters — are maintained on the walls of every department for
easy access. Obviously, all employees are encouraged to read these in advance
to ensure quick response, but in cases of actual events, the flipcharts are
available for reference.
Depending on the size and type of organization involved, responsibility for writing
the plan, updating it, and normal overall operational control falls either to the
safety department, the security department, or in some cases the facilities
department.
4. Update your alert and response procedures
i. Before the days of active shooters, terrorism, and lone offenders and the advent of
social media dominating our daily lives, it used to be that an emergency plan
consisted of calling 911 and waiting for the police or fire department to arrive, or
pulling the fire alarm, evacuating, and waiting for the first responders to arrive.
ii. This is no longer the case. Just pulling the fire alarm and evacuating is not the
proper response to an active shooter scenario. In fact, it can be dangerous to pull
the alarms in case the shooter or shooters are nearby; a better course is to take
shelter in an office or other secure area if you are unaware of the shooter(s)
whereabouts.
4. Update your alert and response procedures
iii. We also live in a world of second-guessing about everything we do or don’t do in an emergency.
iv. Plans are made to ensure everyone knows what to do in a timely fashion. Some managers
subscribe to the thought that, if it’s not written down, they can’t be held to it. That premise went out
the window with the advent of more diverse emergencies and social media broadcasting the
emergency details even before the first responders arrive or even know of the event.
v. Plans need to be specific and to the point, with everyone involved knowing what may happen and
what to do.
vi. This does not mean to put into your action plan the specific details of what the responders will do;
rather, the focus in on the plans each person should know to protect her- or himself and others.
vii. Notification tools such as email, voice, and text blasts are now common on college campuses and
corporations. However, keep in mind that no one will get the alert notification unless someone
starts the process, not only by calling 911, but also by notifying the people responsible for sending
out the message to do so. In many cases, the event (shooting or stabbing) has already been
concluded before the police arrive, with social media providing reports that are many times
erroneous.
4. Update your alert and response procedures
viii. In addition, it’s essential that the language of the alerts be clear and easily understood. Recently, at
The Ohio State University, an active shooter alert was sent out saying “Run, Hide, Fight,” which is
the title of the active shooter video produced by the Department of Homeland Security to train
people on what to do in case of an active shooter event. For this alert language to have been well
known to all on campus as an indicator to start action, training would have been needed to ensure
that everyone actually knew what to do in this case.
ix. The public relations or communications staff needs to be involved in the planning phase, to ensure
that concise and authorized language is used in the notifications that are sent. In essence, if the
“Run, Hide, Fight” alert was a signal code phrase to begin evacuating or sheltering based on
previous and recurring training of all personnel, then it would work.
x. An after-action report will most likely identify the notification process used and whether it was
effective. Although it may be a challenge to add one more thing to do after an event, an after-action
report is a valuable tool for evaluating your plan. If you take the time to document all response
actions during an event and do an after action report right after, you can glean as much from this as
any rehearsed drill you may put on
5. Test the plan
• Once the plan has been created, the next question is, will it work? How do you
know? The answer is a series of tests or table tops, drills, and exercises designed
to go through procedures that you are expected to know — in fact, that you need to
know to save your own life and the lives of others.
• The security or facility manager should already have in place the ability to test the
plans to determine if they work or need to be improved, or and to provide
continuous tweaking of the plans to ensure any company, facility, or personnel
changes are reflected in the plans. Two methods are most cost effective methods:
the first is lecture and response sessions and the second is table tops.
• Segmented drills, exercises, and full blown drills incorporating many first responder
outside agencies are performed after you are comfortable with the results of the
lecture and table top sessions.
5. Test the plan
• Lectures and response sessions are designed to educate the personnel who need
the training on what the risks are and what to do in each emergency; a robust
interaction between the lecturer and audience should answer many of the questions
that will arise during the session. It’s good start for any emergency awareness
program.
• Tabletops are the most accepted means of not only getting the information and
response actions in front of the audience, but also giving the participants the ability
to actually go through what is needed during the emergency. The tabletop allows
participants to simulate the response, not to actually physically perform the actions
need.
• For example, during an active shooter tabletop, the personnel responsible to
sending out an alert message to all in the company would simulate the process by
sending out a test message to a select few cell phones of those participating in the
tabletop. This not only shows that the system works and how quickly, it also
eliminates the need to send out pre-warnings of the content of the message to
everyone in the system.
5. Test the plan
• Going through everyone’s responsibilities during the tabletop shows who is
responsible and what they do. The most important element is identifying weak links
or action items. The tabletop uncovers things that really need be done and by
whom; it’s a far better review method than relying on someone who is someone not
really in the loop to look over the plan and offer an opinion on what should be done.
• The purpose of drills (beyond ordinary fire drills), and full response and other
exercises goes far beyond tabletops and lectures and can bring large costs. A full
year is normally needed to coordinate with law enforcement agencies, fire
departments and emergency medical services. It costs money for them to
participate, to say nothing of your own people’s time.
• Major drills and full response exercises are great to do, but lectures and tabletops
are a cost effective way to continue to educate your personnel on what to do. ■
