If your emergency contact management plan fails you will learn that prayer and disaster go together. It’s better to have a plan BEFORE the disaster.

I recently came up with 13 natural disasters that call for having an emergency management planning infrastructure in place.

The list of man-made disasters is much longer.

5 Reasons for Man-made Disasters

• ignorance – It’s your fault. You didn’t make it clear that I was supposed to …
• unawareness – I didn’t know I was supposed to be watching that gauge, too!
• illiteracy – I couldn’t make sense of all these pictures and the instructions were confusing.
• carelessness – I was watching the game when suddenly I heard this big BOOM!
• intentional – I will show them who’s the boss.

All of the following man-made disasters need to have an emergency management plan in place.

All of the following disasters have happened this year. And, it’s only February!

20 Man-made Disasters

1. Terrorism – Denmark and Paris each experienced separate terrorist attacks.
2. Civil Disturbance – A man was shot in Missouri. The neighbors, um, rallied around to show their support.
3. Hazardous Spill – A private school in New Jersey was evacuated because a custodian spilled sulfuric acid.
4. Power outage – Arkansans lost power due to winter weather. Yeah, it does get cold in the south, too!
5. Disease breakout – Ebola doesn’t just happen in Africa anymore.
6. Murder – A North Carolina man shot dead 3 Muslims.
7. Stampede – Blue Light Special in aisle 6
8. Explosion – chemical, nuclear, mine, pollution, acid rain. In Philadelphia, apartment residents were sent into the bitter cold.
9. Pipeline burst – A pipeline running underneath the Yellowstone River in Montana burst.
10. Gas Leak – North Miami Beach was closed due to a gas leak.
11. Oil Spill – Trains derailed in Ontario and West Virginia causing a crude oil spill
12. Transportation Disruption – railway, shipwreck, car, bus, truck, maritime, aviation
13. Shooting – Las Vegas road-rage shooting of a mom.
14. Raid – Hackers raided $1B from a bank.
15. Engineering failure – of course things break!
16. Fire – Barn fire killed 20 pigs (animals) in Baltimore.
17. Massacre – Columbine teens planned to massacre ‘Jew’ with ‘Nazi’ friends in Illinois.
18. Tunnel disasters – A Virginia-bound train stalled in a tunnel.
19. WMD – Some dude in Germantown, PA was arrested for possessing WMD!
20. Chemical spill – A ruptured pipeline sent millions of gallon of wastewater in North Dakota.

If we don’t suffer from a natural disaster, we have man-made ones. The above list is by no means comprehensive.

20 Disasters in 6 Weeks

That list is just the number of disasters in the first 6 weeks of this year.

Important to ask is, “Do you have an emergency management plan in place?”

If not, why not? If so, are you sure it will work?

Acts of God. When things go wrong, and they will go wrong from time to time, the blame has to be placed some place.

The US suffers time to time from natural disasters. And when there is a need to be able to contact a lot of people in a short amount of time. In short, there is a need for an Emergency Management Plan.

13 US Natural Disasters in My Lifetime

1. Freeze  – In 2013-14, a cold wave claimed 21 lives in the eastern US. But it didn’t keep the cheese heads from going to the football game.
2. Blizzard – In November of 2014 the US north east was hit by a massive snow storm. Even Buffalo noticed! There were 24 fatalities. A couple of months before FROZEN climbed to number 5 all-time in ticket sales.
3. Hurricane – In 2012, hurricane Sandy (clever name that it is we can’t tell if it’s a boy or a girl) racked up $75 billion in damages and claimed 147 lives
4. Tornado – In 2013 a tornado in Moore, Oklahoma claimed 24 lives and whipped up $2 billion worth of damages that somebody had to pay for.
5. Earthquake – Los Angeles  suffered from an earthquake. There were 57 fatalities and $23 billion in damages, mostly in one Hollywood neighborhood.
6. Flood – in 2011 a Mississippi River Valley flood claimed 20 lives and cost $2-4 billion to clean up. Huck Finn would not have enjoyed his trip nearly as much.
7. Mudslide – In March 2014 a major mudslide occurred east of Oso, Washington. There were 43 fatalities.
8. Wild Fire – Yarnell, AZ lost 19 people in 2013 to a wildfire.
9. Heat Wave – In 1999 there 271 people died in the Midwest and Northeast . In 1995, 739 people died in Chicago.
10. Tsunami – It’s been a while but in 1964 Alaska, Hawaii, Oregon and California suffered the Good Friday Earthquake. The original Good Friday wasn’t that good either.
11. Avalanche – Wellington, Washington lost 96 people in 1910. None of them were on a snowboard.
12. Landslide – 1998-1999 Kelso, Washington suffered $70 million in losses in Aldercrest-Banyon.
13. Volcano – In 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption claimed 57 deaths and made all the geologists revise their thinking on how old the Earth might be.

The time to plan for a disaster is BEFORE it happens. Not after. Not during.

We are getting better at predicting when we might be hit. The question is, why haven’t we become better at preparing for them.

I am old enough to remember shelters to protect from possible nuclear attacks. I remember being taught to have an emergency evacuation plan. Now you see them pasted to walls in schools and hospitals and the like.

It’s time for everyone to have an emergency management plan. Do you have yours?

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

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. Airlines – Weather delays. Crashes. Collisions. Outages. Strikes. Terror.
5. Broadcasting – News alerts. Natural and man-made disasters. Emergency coverage. Lost reporting team.
6. Defense – War. Bombing. Raising threat levels.
7. Energy – Power outages caused by floods, winds, landslides, hurricanes, tornados, snow storms, volcanoes!
8. Financial Services – Earnings reports. Wall Street crash.
9. Legal – Rulings. Riots.
10. Manufacturing – Broken machines. Death.
11. Biotechnology – Outbreaks.
12. Motion picture/entertainment – Disasters when shooting on site. Janet Jackson!
13. Real Estate – Arizona announces Apple Inc will invest $2B. My bet is phones started ringing, texts beeped and emails buzzed.
14. Sports – Good and poor losers. Fights. Collapses. Celebrations gone awry.
15. Technology – Websites crash. Online booking systems go off line. Servers stop serving.
16. Transportation – Disruption to services. Crashes. Power outages.
17. Arenas, Stadiums, Theaters – Collapses. Stampedes. Fire. Power outages.
18. Trucking – Weather related disruption.
19. Department Stores – Fire. Blue light specials!
20. Agriculture – Tornados. Floods. Droughts. Earthquakes.
21. Accounting Firms – Disruption to normal services to do any or some of the reasons already listed.
22. Advertising Agencies – Disruption to normal services to do any or some of the reasons already listed.
23. Automotive plants – If you can’t count the number of cars in the parking lot, your organization needs emergency management planning.
24. Call Centers – Disruption to normal services to do any or some of the reasons already listed.
25. Shipping centers – FedEx. UPS. DMS. Downed conveyers.
26. Chemical treatment plants – Outbreaks. Leaks.
27. Food processing plants – Power outages. Disease outbreaks. Weather disruption. Mad cow disease!
28. Pharmaceuticals companies – FDA rulings. Law suits.
29. Wholesale centers – Costco! Sam’s Club!
30. Software/hardware development centers – Think Google. Facebook. Apple. LinkedIn. HP.
31. Telecommunication centers – Verizon. Sprint. AT&T.
32. Television/Cable Studies – Cut or broken cables. Knocked over towers.
33. Churches, Temples, Synagogues – there are some serious mega groups that gather for worship with 10K, 15K, even 20K or more in attendance.
34. Voluntary agencies – Red Cross
35. Fire Departments – Fires. Blizzards. Forest Fires
36. PR Agencies – Good News. Bad News. Twitter Trends.
37. Mining Companies – Collapse of mines. Attacks.
38. 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?

This emergency management blog is an arm of itrezzo.com.

itrezzo is committed to keeping all the contacts of your organization in sync.

If you need to contact someone in your organization in a pinch, you want to know you have the most recent and correct information for that contact.

Be Ready for Emergencies

Especially in an emergency.

Having bad contact information is not just frustrating, an avoidable way of losing time, it can also be dangerous.

No, we are not trying to frighten you. We want to reassure you that there is a way to keep all the contact information in your organization current and in sync.

Emergency Contact Information in Sync

That’s what we do at itrezzo.

This blog is devoted to providing you with scenarios and solutions that might be called on in an emergency situation.

We will do our best to imagine the worst and provide you the best solution BEFORE you need it.

itrezzo is committed to keeping you and your organization in sync.

We hope you will enjoy the blog.

More importantly, we hope you will always be prepared.