News From Yates Wood

Disaster Preparedness and Mitigation

The September Yates Wood all-staff safety meeting provided important information about Disaster Preparedness and Mitigation.  A wealth of information was presented by John Temoyan of Harbro, Inc.  Har-Bro is a full service restoration contractor providing emergency services to structures damaged by fire, water, wind and earthquake, as well as complete general contracting services for structural repairs to damaged property.

Important points from the presentation included:

Planning

• Without proper planning, the probability of making poor choices increases dramatically.
• Risk Evaluation:  Think ahead to identify possible disaster situations (external, internal, supply chain, cyber, environmental)  Consider historical geographical, human error. 
• Disaster planning is also risk mitigation.
• An untested and un-exercised plan will most likely fail in an actual disaster.  Get people discussing regularly how to respond to crises.

Executing the Plan During a Disaster

• Stay out of the way and let first responders do their work.
• Stop losses from continuing; seek to achieve stabilization; what can be done ASAAP to reduce the impact of the loss.
• Safety assessment
• Document as soon as possible:  facts, responders, action plans, costs, decisions made.

Conclusion

• The probability of a loss occurring is high.
• Without a plan, reactive chaos can compromise your operations and your business perhaps permanently.
• While you are in a planning environment, you have the ability to research, prepare and develop advocacies with experts and professionals to benefit you when an event occurs.