What to Do in the Event of a Real Emergency

Let’s forget, if we can, the car bomb in Times Square that fizzled. Instead, let’s suppose it hadn’t. Or let’s suppose that it’s a couple of months from now, and a category 5 hurricane hits the East Coast of the U.S. Or that the Big One finally hits – in Seattle. There’s no question that these would all be disasters of immeasurable proportions. The loss of life would be great, the loss in property would be huge.

No doubt you’re thinking that you’ve got this taken care of in terms of a business continuity strategy. You have a hot site for your data center, you have an alternate operations center already set up. You back your data up to a cloud storage provider. Your business will go on, right? Well, maybe not.

While your information may be safe, what’s going to happen to your employees? Probably what’s happened in the past, which is that they’ll be trapped at home or in the office, out of touch, out of reach, and in some cases in peril. As a senior manager in a corporation, you need to worry about both the welfare of your staff and the continuation of your business. If you’ve taken care of the welfare of your business, then your entire focus needs to be on your staff.

Problem is, you and your staff will be out of touch with the rest of the world. Your phone system will almost certainly be out, as will your power. Your cell phones won’t work. The infrastructure outside may be damaged. Your building may or may not be intact. What you need is a plan:

• First, if you have advance warning (like the coming of a hurricane) then evacuate your employees and their families. This has worked successfully for a number of companies along the Gulf Coast for years, and some, notably Northrop Grumman, make it a standard part of their emergency planning.
• Have a communications plan that doesn’t require the use of cell phones or smartphones. You can assume that you won’t be able to make a phone call. Fortunately, SMS messages will usually get through eventually, so you still need to make sure you have everyone’s cell number.
• Have an alternate form of communications if necessary to save lives or call for help. Your emergency coordinator should have at least one ham radio operator on staff, with a radio available, even if the company has to pay for that person to take the training and has to buy a radio – ham radio is often the only reliable means of emergency communications in a real crisis.
• Create a central assembly point that’s located somewhere besides your office. If you’re located in Washington, DC, for example, pick a place inland, within 50 miles or so, where you can set up a place for employees to check in. Plan to help them deal with the emergency, and then help them get to work.
• Assume that some of your employees won’t be able to make it to the assembly point and have a plan to have their jobs filled until their status is determined. You owe it to your employees to keep the business running and their paychecks coming.
• Finally, make sure your insurance carrier has you covered for such contingencies. Yes, it’s more expensive than a basic fire insurance policy, but it could mean the difference between the survival of your business and its demise.

It may sound overly dramatic to suggest that such extensive planning is necessary, but events over the past decade have shown that companies that have such plans in place survive, and those that don’t may not. Obviously, being prepared costs money, but probably not nearly as much as being unprepared.