Emergency Preparedness and Response
Core Concepts
Emergency planning follows a cycle: prevention/mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery. Start with a hazard and risk assessment to identify credible emergency scenarios - fire, chemical release, medical emergency, severe weather, violence, utility failure, structural collapse.
Plans must address roles and command (who is in charge, who accounts for people), alarm and communication systems, evacuation and shelter-in-place procedures, accountability methods (muster, roll call, badges), rescue and first aid, and liaison with external responders. Consider people needing assistance, visitors, contractors, and multiple shifts.
Drills and exercises validate the plan. They range from tabletop discussion to full-scale simulation. Every exercise needs objectives, a scenario, evaluation against those objectives, and a documented improvement plan. Drills should be varied so people do not simply memorise a single route.
Equipment must be inspected and maintained: extinguishers, alarms, emergency lighting, eyewash and shower stations, spill kits, and AEDs. Recovery planning covers reoccupation, investigation, and psychological support.
Traps
- Writing a plan without testing it.
- Running drills with no evaluation or corrective actions.
- Ignoring visitors, contractors, and mobility-impaired occupants in accountability counts.
- Assuming calling emergency services is itself an emergency plan.
- Forgetting that shelter-in-place may be safer than evacuation for a toxic release.
Rule of Thumb
A drill without a written evaluation and assigned follow-up actions is a rehearsal, not a test. If the plan was never challenged, assume it has gaps.