program)
• Seven prevention and property preparedness sections (tornado, etc.)
• Twenty-four-hour response programs including a mobile phone app
• Services in many countries and thirty-plus states as well as travel to other states for unique services
• Extensive information on fifteen different types of recovery services
• Thirty-four case studies (including a variety of types of libraries) with cases presented in extensive pdfs with color photographs, images, and narratives that move the reader through immediate and weekly updates
• Fifteen videos showing response and recovery not only advertising services but giving individuals valuable preparation information such as size and number of vehicles needed at damaged locations/or nearby, spaces needed for on-site work, and so on
Tours—depending on timing—include recovery environments where visitors and students can visit items (with confidentiality factors of primary concern) to see family bibles, general books, company records, memorabilia, and a wide variety of other objects being handled with care during recovery. My discussions with them also included a taste of their consultation where we talked about the value of recovery and the assessment of value of recovery and their honest approach of “don’t waste money in recovery, rather assess for cost of recovery vs. replacement (or not) and discard.”
So what are the lessons learned about relationships with all vendors?
• Visit their web environment or print/paper to determine who they are and the approach that they take to recovery.
• Seek previous clients in general and—if possible—clients in similar types and sizes of institutions.
• Identify consulting for events to determine viability.
• Seek assessment of spaces for areas of vulnerability.
• Identify insurance support for pre-event strategies for appropriate purchase and assessment for coverage, claims, and recovery.
• Determine their financial guidelines for payment vis-à-vis institutional insurance coverage.
• Identify timelines.
• Identify types and training of workers used for recovery.
• Assess their work in terms of business continuity offered given possible types and levels of events.
Finally, establish recommended ways to maintain information and keep your plans updated given purchases, deselection/weeding, growth or expansion, and resources with maintenance plans, warranties for resources and overall insurance policies.
Location/In Situ
Although institutions typically exist with communities or areas of communities, the best prepared managers are those who spend a great deal of time creating a footprint of their institution in situ or within the context of their overall setting. In addition, this information provides specific recommendations for not only identifying but involving and integrating others in an ongoing, systematic way designed to maintain relationships. Recommendations include the following:
• Identify access to and exit from the footprint including how emergency vehicles would arrive, park, and so on.
• Identify support for emergency vehicles such as fireplugs, energy stations/transformers, call boxes or communication stations, cameras in public spaces, and cameras in private spaces (use and contact information).
• Identify area energy grids to note emergency power outages on maps.
• Identify the footprint of the institution which includes the actual location but surrounding areas used by the institution and areas related within a certain mile radius (transportation hubs, parking used, other support services needed such as food, related-needs for users, etc.).
• Create a communication list (much like a neighborhood block list) with individuals and contact information for quick communication, identification, and communication of issues.
• Prepare contact sheets for area businesses as well as one for your institution with expanded information for contacts and for updated safety information.
• Investigate a “see something, say something” block safety team working with emergency personnel to determine area issues, sex offender registry information, and emergency alarm information for each area business or homeowner (e.g., alarm sounding, insurance concerns, security systems, and night lighting)
Finally, all area or in situ information should include a photo gallery walk-around to determine “before” information and pictures to determine subtle, during or post-event or catastrophic changes for alerting, repair, and insurance information as well as identification for emergency personnel.
In the next year:
• A worker team or workgroup should be created to address the ongoing handling of emergency content within the context of umbrella institution content. This workgroup should:
⚬ Use data gathered from the initial training organizational vulnerability self-assessment to address training and design of strategic emergency planning that includes constituent education.
⚬ Seek best practices in emergency management to the scale of the organization for a realistic workload, timeline, and use of recommended resources, actions, and budget.
⚬ Design a plan to maintain processes to use umbrella organization information for complete disaster planning content.
⚬ Design a plan for updating/maintaining content/strategic plans and data protection.
⚬ Provide ongoing orientation, continuing education, and awareness of emergency issues and—as needed—unique training for workers and constituents in general.
⚬ Provide ongoing orientation, continuing education, and awareness of emergency issues and staff and constituents with special needs.
• Organizations (the workgroup in combination with area managers and the umbrella institution) should assess emergency kit needs for workers and constituents—in the building/on site—for basic protection.
• Administration/management should assess budget planning for emergency management and request funds—if appropriate—for needs identified by workgroup strategic planning.
Twenty-First-Century Emergencies and Disasters
For decades, managers have been encountering unexpected situations and dealing with them in a wide variety of ways. And although it is safe to say that there is nothing “new” about the existence of these unexpected situations—or “emergencies and disasters”—in work and work-related environments, the number and the type of unexpected situations have changed as well as ways of preparing for, dealing with, and follow-up for handling issues as well as follow-up for future prevention.
Twenty-first-century issues related to emergencies and disasters include the following: the terms “emergencies and disasters” are now typically used interchangeably, the literature in these areas has grown exponentially, umbrella terms vary and include “emergency management”
