Emergency Procedures

[TonkaToys]

Looking for ideas on emergency procedures.

I've been trying to develop my company's disaster recovery plan / business continuity plan / emergency procedures, or whatever you'd like to call them.

Anyway, I've been getting very little assistance or interest from the company management, until suddenly I've been asked to present the plan so far to the rest of the company next week!
The main reason for the sudden interest is the continued threat of bombings in London and the UK.

The company has 6 UK offices and two abroad, with the HQ in London. Approximated 400 staff, about 300 in London.

The draft bomb procedure is:

1) If you are in the office and there is a bomb threat / explosion nearby:
a) The company will email you each hour with updates from the authorities or media.
b) Stay in the office until you are advised it is safe to leave.
c) When it is safe to leave, you may go home when you like, provided you have agreed this with your manager.

2) If you are not in the office and there is a bomb threat / explosion nearby:
a) Return home.
b) Contact the HQ as soon as possible to tell them where you are.
c) If you cannot contact the HQ, call one of the other offices (to be designated in advance).
d) Watch the media to see when you can come into the area.

3) Dealing with missing staff:
a) HR to make a list of missing staff.
b) HR to make all attempts to contact missing staff using their emergency contact numbers.
c) HR to deal with calls from concerned relatives.

4) If the HQ is damaged by a bomb, or the area is cordoned off :
a) The "War Cabinet" (ie: a bunch of directors and I) go to the nearest regional office.
b) We organise emergency accomodation and IT provision (I am the IT manager too).
c) We contact our clients to advise them what is happening.
d) We contact our staff and advise them where to go.

5) If a regional office is damaged by a bomb, follow the procedures above, but congregate in London.

Whaddayaguysfink?

[Oaty]

BOMB THREAT


If there is an explosion evacuate immediately.

If there is a bomb threat evacuate the buiding immediately.
All employees should meet at xxx location.
At all times keep your safety in mind, if you cannot safely access the designated meeting area go to a place that is safe
If emergency services has placed xxx location off limits all employees should return home but be ready to answer there phone immediately to ensure thier safety.

That's what I'd say, but as far as internal organisation that's all up to you as I have no idea about your employees and who's the boss/supervisors. That's all internal as to who accounts for who.

[JimBob]

oaty's got the right idea. But call up your local emergency services, where I live we have national, state, county, township, and local fire department. Find out who the various organizations are, call them tell them what you are about, ask for any information you can get and ask what the responders want if there is a bomb they may want you to get the hell out so they can find it, they may want you to stay in so that the streets don't get crowded. It all depends on their plans, and when things go wrong they are God and all the prophets.
http://www.londonprepared.gov.uk/
http://www.preparingforemergencies.gov.uk/
http://www.met.police.uk/
London Prepared seems the best

[ichi]

Lots of ideas that you can add and flesh out as you see fit

Armed person in the building
Suspicious package/substance
Natural disaster procedure
Bomb threat
Discovery of break-in/burglary
Medical emergency


Some things to include in any plan

notification plan
evacuation plan
meeting place/safe area/assembly area
roles and responsibilities
who's in charge of doing what - chain of command is critical

and add a Critical Incident Stress debriefing/grief counseling and an after incident review

consider the options of shelter in place or flee, you want clear guidance on what conditions call for what response

and for things like bomb threats or burglaries the collection of good info (e.g was the bomb threat made by a man or woman, young or old, accent, what specifically was said, when/how was the threat made, etc)

be sure to address those with special needs (elderly, handicapped) and what about visitors/guests

the alarm system to be used to notify of an incident.

funny story-at work my buddy got up in front of an all-employees meeting and said, "OK, now we all know what a fire alarm sounds like, but who in here knows what sound precedes the release of toxic gases?"

of course the whole room thought about farting and quickly broke into uncontrollable laugter as the poor guy turned quite red.

Some folks have responsilities to remain behind during an evacuation to shut down critical operations, or to respond to another type of threat.

Finally, is the preparedness system up to date? Are fire extinguishers maintained? are exits marked, detectors operating? has anyone ever gotten together and discussed the level of readiness and informed the staff of procdeures? Do your mailroom folks know how to deal with suspicious packages or substances? Do they know what info is important to remember and relate to authorities in case of a bomb threat? is anyone trained to deal with medical emergencies?

Good luck, hope I've helped

ichi

[sharrukin]

In the event of a bomb threat you should also stop using radios, cell-phone's, pager's in case its electronically detonated.

Those who might take a call from an individual should know what to ask and what to remember about the caller, as a way to help the authorities. Where is the bomb, what kind of bomb, how big, etc?

This is a site that might have some info but you need to log in.

http://www.thesafetylibrary.com/sites/emergerpla.php

[Papewaio]

Do you aim to keep as much critical systems running or is it a case of shutdown and go?

Do you have disaster recovery technology in place? Tested? Offsite backups?

Redundant mission critical systems? Are they hot or cold?
Failovers? Offsite? Mulitiple vendors for routing of Data, VoIP or PSTN? Dedicated Links and control of them?

The ability to work from home? This is good for people who regularly work from home as well... which can then load test the system.

The ability to close the office and leave a message for customers to hear?

[Strike For The South]

run

[TonkaToys]

Cheers guys

Lots of useful stuff to consider, esp: predesignated meeting places, checking with authorities before evacuating (if there is only a bomb threat), notification plans, recorded messages and home-working.