National Preparedness Month- Make a Plan

9/10/2021 (Permalink)

Happy September! This month is one of our favorites and not just for pumpkin flavored drinks and the beginning of fall, but instead because it’s National Preparedness Month! Being prepared is so important to all of us at SERVPRO of Norridge/Harwood Heights. Each week has a different theme all relating to preparing oneself in case of an emergency. This week’s theme is “Make a Plan”. Today’s blog is going to be all about preparing your business for an emergency by making a plan. 

Know The Risk- “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail”

The best way to handle an emergency is to prepare for it and have a plan. The best way to start planning is to identify all the possible scenarios that could occur at your workplace. The most common scenarios that are good to prepare for include fires, weather emergencies, etc. The next question is how do we prepare our business for these events? According to Ready.gov, 

1. Review hazard or threat scenarios identified during the risk assessment.
2. Assess the availability and capabilities of resources for incident stabilization including people, systems and equipment available within your business and from external sources.
3. Talk with public emergency services (e.g., fire, police and emergency medical services) to determine their response time to your facility, knowledge of your facility and its hazards and their capabilities to stabilize an emergency at your facility.
4. Determine if there are any regulations pertaining to emergency planning at your facility; address applicable regulations in the plan.
5. Develop protective actions for life safety (evacuation, shelter, shelter-in-place, lockdown).
6. Develop hazard and threat-specific emergency procedures using the Emergency Response Plan for Businesses.
7. Coordinate emergency planning with public emergency services to stabilize incidents involving the hazards at your facility.
8. Train personnel so they can fulfill their roles and responsibilities.
9. Facilitate exercises to practice your plan.