Emergency Evacuation Planning
EMERGENCY EVACUATION PLAN
Hurricane Mathew spurred our office into thinking more about our own emergency evacuation plans. We’ve always had a solid Business Continuity Plan. Now we are zoning into the nitty-gritty of listing all of the things we’d have to grab if we were ordered to evacuate immediately, and needed to survive days in a shelter. The best way to survive a disaster (natural or man-made) is to have a plan before anything happens.
If you had to evacuate your home and/or business, would you be prepared? Would you remember to grab your medications as well as the Deed to your home, and the title to your car? “As Hurricane Matthew approached the Atlantic coast earlier this month, more than 2.5 million people were told to evacuate in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina,” according to a news report from King5 news station: http://www.king5.com/news/nation-now/thousands-of-people-didnt-evacuate-before-hurricane-matthew-why-not/337029469
You may think that because we are in New England, we would not face a hurricane of any magnitude. But there have been devastating hurricanes in the past. For more information go to this website: https://newengland.com/today/living/new-england-history/worst-hurricanes-in-new-england-history/
Even if you have not thought about what you would need if forced to evacuate from your home or business, our government has. Here is an awesome web page which gives you The Emergency Financial First Aid Kit (EFFAK): https://www.ready.gov/financial-preparedness
To quote the website: “The Emergency Financial First Aid Kit (EFFAK), a joint publication from Operation Hope and the FEMA Citizen Corps, can help you prepare now. Use the EFFAK to identify your important documents, medical records, and household contracts.”
Please take a look at this link and make a plan for your family and business: https://www.fema.gov/media-library/assets/documents/96123
The EFFAK has checklists for important documents and forms you will want to take with you, such as financial and legal paper work, your medical information, etc. It is easy to gather the information you’ll need once you know exactly what you’ll need. For more information and ideas provided by our government and the Red Cross, you might also want to check out the following links:
Emergency Preparedness Resources for Businesses:
https://www.fema.gov/media-library/resources-documents/collections/357
Business Continuity Resource Requirements from FEMA:
Business Continuity Plan from FEMA:
Emergency Preparedness and Response OSHA:
https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/emergencypreparedness/index.html
Disaster Preparedness Plan | Make a Plan | Red Cross