Emergency management is being able to collaborate, communicate, and cooperate with all the members of your organization during disruptive times.
The problem with emergency management is that most organizations don’t know they are lacking in their preparation until the disaster occurs.
Indeed, too many organizations don’t even realize they need an emergency management plan.
To that end. A very long list of organizations that need an emergency management plan.
5+ Reasons for an Emergency Management Plan
Many industries could be disrupted for any number of the same reasons.
- Power outages.
- Weather – tornado, hurricane, flood, wind, tsunami, mudslide, fire …
- Accidental death.
- Bomb threat.
- An outbreak.
Any industry that has a large group of people that they will need to reach in a hurry is a great candidate for needing and emergency management plan.
Industries Needing an Emergency Management Plan
- Government Organizations – Federal, State, Civic – 9/11 is a great example for the need of emergency management on all levels. The Oklahoma bombing demonstrates the need on a state and civic level. Bridge, dam or levee failure can have far-reaching impact.
- Hospitals – The power goes out in the hospital. There’s a pile up on the freeway. A plane crash. A ferry turns over. A train derails. An epidemic breaks out. Ready or not, here they come.
- Schools – A shooting. A snow storm that prevents the kids from getting home on time, or at all. (Been there done that.) A building collapse. An explosion in science class. Crimes of violence. Bomb threats. Civil protest. Death of a student. Hostage incident. Kidnapping. Fatal accidents. Disease outbreak.
- Airlines – Weather delays. Crashes. Collisions. Outages. Strikes. Terror.
- Broadcasting – News alerts. Natural and man-made disasters. Emergency coverage. Lost reporting team.
- Defense – War. Bombing. Raising threat levels.
- Energy – Power outages caused by floods, winds, landslides, hurricanes, tornados, snow storms, volcanoes!
- Financial Services – Earnings reports. Wall Street crash.
- Legal – Rulings. Riots.
- Manufacturing – Broken machines. Death.
- Biotechnology – Outbreaks.
- Motion picture/entertainment – Disasters when shooting on site. Janet Jackson!
- Real Estate – Arizona announces Apple Inc will invest $2B. My bet is phones started ringing, texts beeped and emails buzzed.
- Sports – Good and poor losers. Fights. Collapses. Celebrations gone awry.
- Technology – Websites crash. Online booking systems go off line. Servers stop serving.
- Transportation – Disruption to services. Crashes. Power outages.
- Arenas, Stadiums, Theaters – Collapses. Stampedes. Fire. Power outages.
- Trucking – Weather related disruption.
- Department Stores – Fire. Blue light specials!
- Agriculture – Tornados. Floods. Droughts. Earthquakes.
- Accounting Firms – Disruption to normal services to do any or some of the reasons already listed.
- Advertising Agencies – Disruption to normal services to do any or some of the reasons already listed.
- Automotive plants – If you can’t count the number of cars in the parking lot, your organization needs emergency management planning.
- Call Centers – Disruption to normal services to do any or some of the reasons already listed.
- Shipping centers – FedEx. UPS. DMS. Downed conveyers.
- Chemical treatment plants – Outbreaks. Leaks.
- Food processing plants – Power outages. Disease outbreaks. Weather disruption. Mad cow disease!
- Pharmaceuticals companies – FDA rulings. Law suits.
- Wholesale centers – Costco! Sam’s Club!
- Software/hardware development centers – Think Google. Facebook. Apple. LinkedIn. HP.
- Telecommunication centers – Verizon. Sprint. AT&T.
- Television/Cable Studies – Cut or broken cables. Knocked over towers.
- Churches, Temples, Synagogues – there are some serious mega groups that gather for worship with 10K, 15K, even 20K or more in attendance.
- Voluntary agencies – Red Cross
- Fire Departments – Fires. Blizzards. Forest Fires
- PR Agencies – Good News. Bad News. Twitter Trends.
- Mining Companies – Collapse of mines. Attacks.
- Security Companies – Disasters.
I am pretty sure I didn’t cover them all. Do you have something to add?
Emergency Management Plans for Leaders
In short, any organization whose leadership might need to
- collaborate with one another on very short notice
- communicate with a large number of their employees in a very short time span
- have the cooperation of a large group within their organization
is in want of an emergency management plan.
Do you have one?