Private Sector Preparedness

Developing, Updating, and Exercising Plans

A primary objective of preparedness is maintaining business continuity with minimal interruption while preserving the life, health, and well-being of employees. This entails planning for the safety and succession of personnel as well as the protection and recovery of critical data, infrastructure, systems, and processes. Employees having important business skills from every department and at every level are needed to assist with this planning. Input is invited from external partners and those with special needs. Plans are made for disaster mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery. Plans are living documents requiring regular review, revision, and exercise.

Emergency management and security consultants within and outside the firm assist with the creation, review, and revision of disaster preparedness plans. Professional [Page 513]engineers inspect facilities; ensure compliance with building codes; and increase protection against fire, terrorism, and wind or seismic events. Insurance agents provide policies, including those specialized for earthquakes, floods, or business interruption. Information technologists assist with updating firewalls, backing up data on- and off-site, keeping up with security patches, installing updated antivirus software and virus definitions, enforcing rigorous password policy, and monitoring for security breaches.

Critical information is identified, gathered, stored, and secured in advance of disaster. Copies are kept on file in encrypted devices in the office, in disaster supply kits, and at an off-site location. Types of critical information include data for employees, customers, professional associates, equipment, financial transactions, contracts, insurance, and projects. Information on primary and secondary suppliers, vendors, and distributors is stored as well. Contact data may include names, addresses, landline phone numbers, cell phone numbers, email addresses, and Website addresses (URLS). A list of computers, network equipment, software, and other key pieces of equipment at a facility, along with photos, is maintained and stored for replication of systems elsewhere and/or for making insurance claims. Maps of all property, buildings, utilities, fencing, entry-exit points, and emergency routes at locations where any facility work is undertaken are also maintained, stored and, in a disaster, shared with first responders.

Firms exercise emergency plans on their own and with potential partners. Tabletop exercises involve key players communicating face-to-face about responses to specified scenarios. In functional exercises, one or more functions are practiced under realistic conditions. Full-scale exercises ideally involve practice of all functions with all partners under disaster-like conditions. Critical systems and equipment are tested to ensure operability and to assist key personnel in becoming familiar with them.

A West Yellowstone, Montana, business district is braced for danger with a smoke plume on edge of town during the Yellowstone fires, September 1988. The private sector utilizes a preparedness framework to minimize business disruptions from these types of disasters

Preparing Systems, Equipment, and Supplies

Part of preparedness entails buying, maintaining, and deploying needed systems, equipment, and supplies. This may include fire protection, surveillance, access control, alarm, and emergency notification systems. Consideration is given as to how to quickly repair or replace items potentially destroyed in a disaster. Extra materials and supplies and equipment for emergency use can be stored on- and off-site.

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