- Author
- Giamberardino, M. A.
- Title
- Emergency Preparedness: The Property Professional's Guide.
- Coporate
- Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) International, Washington, DC
- Keywords
- planning | emergency plans | prefire planning | evacuation | terrorism | disasters | communication networks | recovery | human behavior | human response
- Identifiers
- emergency preparedness; emotional reactions to disasters; homeland security advisory system; best practices for mail center security; sample emergency evacuation plan; disaster relief resources; Federal Emergency Management Agency publications for property professionals
- Abstract
- This guide is intended as a resource to help property professionals develop emergency, evacuation and recovery plans. An emergency plan is a set of policies and procedures intended to reduce or mitigate any number of threats that may affect a facility. A comprehensive plan reduces the threat of emergencies through prevention, early detection, notification, effective evacuation or relocation measures, control/mitigation, communication and recovery operations. To determine how comprehensive your plan is, consider the following questions about the content of your current emergency plan: Does your plan contain procedures for reporting an emergency? Does your plan contain instructions for tenants to follow when an alarm sounds? Does your plan contain illustrations of floor layout, emphasizing the location of emergency exits, manual fire pull stations, fire extinguishers and emergency phone numbers? Does your plan contain a section highlighting the responsibility of tenants to select a fire marshal for their floor and the responsibilities of the designated fire marshal? Does your plan contain a section on how to conduct fire/evacuation drills? Does your plan contain a section on emergency prevention? Does your plan contain a section on how to handle bomb threats, biological attacks or other threats to the building? Does your plan contain a section on how to deal with natural disasters such as floods, power outages, hurricanes, tornadoes and earthquakes? Does your plan contain means for communication with/to your tenants and include considerations for breaks in traditional means of communication? For today's property managers it is important to understand that current and prospective tenants will consider a building's emergency preparedness plan as a key element in their leasing decision. For this reason, emergency planning is not only about protection of assets and minimizing liability, it is also about protecting, attracting and retaining tenants.