The Ultimate Emergency Preparedness Checklist

Emergency Preparedness is Key

All organizations should have an emergency preparedness checklist. Why?Because when an emergency strikes minutes matter. In an emergency situation, your business needs to be prepared. Fires, floods and other incidents can damage your property, hurt your finances and even threaten your employees. We’ve compiled the ultimate emergency preparedness checklist so you can handle these risks and protect what matters to you most. Check it out!

The Ultimate Checklist

Gather Emergency Preparedness Supplies

The first item in our emergency ready checklist is to gather supplies. An office survival kit should include items that will help you handle an emergency incident. Yours should include:

• Water
• Food
• Medicine
• Electronics
• Safety Supplies

For a detailed list, please visit the Red Cross’ survival kit page.

Draft an Emergency Plan

The moments after a disaster are critical. The next thing you can do is draft an emergency plan for your organization. Make sure you review it often so it’s fresh in your mind. Your organization should perform a risk assessment to identify potential emergencies. When it comes to weather, this means studying patterns for your operational areas. Your plans should include plans to protect people at your facilities at the very least. Download the Ready.gov emergency response plan to get started.

Train Employees

You can’t implement an emergency plan without training your employees. It is important to have employees on board that have emergency training. For example, CPR training could be the difference between life and death. Employees should also know the difference between evacuation, shelter and lockdown plans. A great way to train employees and to keep them involved is to assemble emergency response, business contuity and crisis communication teams.

Keep Communication Lines Open

The last and most important aspect of reacting to any emergency is to keep communication lines open. This is especially important for organizations that have multiple locations or remote employees. It is important for organizations to set up automatic emergency alerts for employees so they know whether to stay home, evacuate the office or even lock down. There are plenty of notifications systems out there that are perfect for emergency communication.

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Most hazard-unique emergencies are natural disasters. These are wide-spread incidents that impact an entire region. These emergencies include hurricanes, tornadoes, severe thunderstorms and floods. Following the steps on the emergency preparedness checklist can help, but in the case of quick moving storms it might not afford you enough time.

Real-time weather monitoring systems like our Sferic Maps allow users to access real-time, hyperlocal weather and alightnning data as storms approach. This includes warnings from the National Weather Service as well as our Dangerous Thunderstorm Alerts.

Wherever you operate, make sure you do your best to protect your employees, finances and buildings.