Strategies: EMERGENCY RESPONSE PLANNING

Businesses and communities cannot afford to overlook their need for a complete emergency response plan or the need to test its effectiveness. The threat of terrorism has not diminished but rather intensified since 9/11, and those places where hundreds of people congregate in the U.S. have become primary targets. Other intentional acts, such as workplace violence, cause major disruptions to companies and can transform the workplace into a crime scene, completely controlled by law enforcement, resulting in a shut down for days or even weeks. Natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods and fires can strike at any time. The extent to which a company or community strategically prepares for the unspeakable becomes glaringly obvious when disaster arrives at their front door. Lives can be saved and businesses can be restored if the response is effective; if not, the results can be devastating.