Making Businesses Safe during Natural Disasters

Earthquakes. Floods. Landslides. Mother Nature can be tempestuous and given her tumultuousness, natural disasters are likely to strike at any moment, even while people are at work.
With this in mind, the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM) is calling on businesses to develop disaster action plans, to mitigate loss of life or property, in the event of an act of nature.
Nadine Newsome, Director of Information and Training at the agency, tells JIS News, that disasters can have catastrophic effects on organisations, its employees, and even threaten lives.
Action plans, she points out, are useful in that they provide a business with an outline, and details procedures to follow in the event of disaster or other emergency event such as a fire, and how best to manage these occurrences.
“Disaster plans make allowances for the protection of staff, the organisation, and its equipment,” she says.
Miss Newsome points out that the ODPEM hosts at least two workshops yearly, where businesses are encouraged to participate and prepare disaster plans of their own. She says representatives from specific organisations are invited to these workshops and asked to initiate plans. “They will draft the plans and return to their organisation to test it, and then the final draft is sent to ODPEM for approval,” she informs.
The plan, she tells JIS News, “actually identifies the essential employees, and which of them, if any, will carry out the different roles in the organisation [that would have been assigned to them well in advance] if it were to face an emergency.”
It also makes allowances for protection of vital records should the organisation suffer direct impact, and citing a hurricane as an example, Miss Newsome says the plan may seek to develop policies and procedures for all phases of the hurricane, particularly the before, during and after stages.
The Information and Training Director further informs JIS News, that the plan “deals with issues such as the business insurance policy to ensure that there is adequate coverage.it looks at the organisation’s vulnerability, whether it is a high hazard area as well as the business’ emergency contact list.”
The benefits of a disaster action plan redounds to the overall security of the business’ operations and according to Miss Newsome, it makes planning for disasters and emergencies easier in that, employees will know the steps to follow if something were to go wrong.
Having an action plan, she notes further, means that in the event of a disaster, “the organisation would have beforehand assessed all the hazards to which they are vulnerable and ensure that the steps to respond to each hazard is covered.it makes life, and the recovery process much more easier.”
Apart from natural occurrences, the disaster plan also makes allowances for hazards such as civil unrest and fires, which frequently raze many businesses.
Such hazards, she says, “don’t have to turn into disaster events if they are adequately planned for,” and as such, a disaster plan takes all worst-case factors into consideration and makes plans to manage them.
The month of June is being observed as Disaster Preparedness Month under the theme: Learning from Today’s Hazards to Prevent Tomorrow’s Disaster.
Businesses interested in developing disaster action plans that can help safeguard their operations are invited to contact ODPEM for further information at 928-5111-3, 928-5747 or 928-8942.
Having an action plan, she notes further, means that in the event of a disaster, “the organisation would have beforehand assessed all the hazards to which they are vulnerable and ensure that the steps to respond to each hazard is covered.it makes life, and the recovery process much more easier.”
Apart from natural occurrences, the disaster plan also makes allowances for hazards such as civil unrest and fires, which frequently raze many businesses.
Such hazards, she says, “don’t have to turn into disaster events if they are adequately planned for,” and as such, a disaster plan takes all worst-case factors into consideration and makes plans to manage them.
The month of June is being observed as Disaster Preparedness Month under the theme: Learning from Today’s Hazards to Prevent Tomorrow’s Disaster.
000000000Businesses interested in developing disaster action plans that can help safeguard their operations are invited to contact ODPEM for further information at 928-5111-3, 928-5747 or 928-8942.