September 19, 2007
These NewsBriefs are produced and delivered weekly by
Attainium to keep our friends and clients
current on topics relating to Business Continuity, Disaster Recovery and Crisis Management.
September is National Preparedness Month; the goal of the month is to increase public awareness about the importance
of preparing for emergencies and to encourage individuals to take action. This week's topic, Shelter in Place, is an area
that often is ignored in business continuity and disaster recovery plans, but it's something too important to ignore.
The articles below offer a great deal of good information on sheltering in place in an emergency and should be valuable
in developing your shelter-in-place plan.
A new report offers some tools to improve the success of shelter-in-place situations. (Item #1)
NICS offers a sample plan and checklist. (Item #2)
The shelter-in-place process is tough to plan, practice and implement;
how are your plans coming? (Item #3)
Does your business continuity plan have a shelter-in-place option? (Item #4)
Is your building prepared if you have to shelter in place? (Item #5)
In any shelter-in-place situation, an NWR radio could be your only source
of information from outside. (Item #6)
Visit the National Preparedness Month web site for more information and to view the tip of the day:
http://www.ready.gov/america/npm07/index.html
As always, we look forward to hearing about your concerns
with regards to business continuity. If you have a topic
you'd like to see covered, please email me at
[email protected]
Best Regards,
Bob Mellinger
President
Attainium Corp
Quote of the Week
"There are risks and costs to a program of action...
but they are far less than the long ranging costs of comfortable inaction."
- John F Kennedy -
Articles
1. Emergency Preparedness Tools May Enable Millions More People to Shelter in Place
Although the nation has invested billions of dollars preparing to respond to emergencies, current plans
leave millions of Americans at risk because they do not account for critical problems people face when they
actually try to protect themselves. To fix this fundamental flaw, The New York Academy of Medicine recently
released a report and tools that will enable households, work places, schools and early childhood/youth programs,
and governments to anticipate and address problems they would face in emergencies.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/09/070913103605.htm
Read the report:
http://www.redefiningreadiness.net/
2. Shelter in Place at Your Office
This booklet from the National Institute for Chemical Studies offers a sample shelter-in-place plan
as well as a comprehensive checklist.
http://www.nicsinfo.org/SIP%20plan%20for%20offices%20NICS%20feb2003.pdf
3. Shelter-in-Place
How does one even suggest to people that they not follow what their instincts tell them?
How can one suggest that they not evacuate their building, especially in a place like Manhattan,
where one cannot always determine where the source of the problem is? Although most people believe
that a high-rise building permits uninterrupted views of the city and beyond, it offers only the vista
seen from one's own office. It may be almost impossible to know what is occurring at the other three sides
of the floor, let alone within the building.
http://securitysolutions.com/mag/security_shelterinplace/
4. Evacuate or shelter-in-place?
Most business continuity plans include evacuation procedures of some sort, but only a few organizations
have shelter-in-place options. Shelter-in-place is more than just staying inside a building.
Shelter-in-place demands a safe environment.
http://www.continuitycentral.com/feature0461.htm
5. Preparing Your Building for Sheltering in Place-An Emergency Response Procedure
Of all of the emergency response procedures for commercial buildings, sheltering in place
is probably the one that is most disregarded. The idea of sheltering in place is perplexing because
it asks building occupants to stay put during an emergency, when the natural human desire is to flee.
However perplexing, it is essential that property owners and managers as well as building occupants
are prepared for such an event.
http://www.fmlink.com/ProfResources/Magazines/article.cgi?BOMA:boma0106.html
6. NWR Radios
NOAA Weather Radio is the voice of the National Weather Service which provides continuous weather
and all hazards broadcasts every four to nine minutes, 24 hours a day. In addition to normal broadcasts,
the National Weather Service also uses the NWR system to broadcasts severe weather advisories, watches and warnings,
as well as public safety messages for life-threatening situations. Receivers can be found at many retail outlets,
including electronics, department, sporting goods, and boat and marine accessory stores and their catalogs.
They can also be purchased via the Internet from online retailers or directly from manufacturers.
http://www.weather.gov/nwr/
All-hazard radio broadcasts:
http://www.weather.gov/nwr/allhazard.htm
Emergency Alert System:
http://www.weather.gov/os/NWS_EAS.shtml
What to look for in a residential NWR radio:
http://www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr/nwrrcvr.htm#residential
Sources of commercial receivers:
http://www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr/nwrrcvr.htm#commercial
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