The best time to prepare for an accident or emergency is before one happens. With the recent severe weather across the nation, hurricanes, flash floods, tornadoes, and fires, are forcing people to evacuate their homes and workplace sometimes without warning and when they least expect it. It may be time to review your emergency action plan and follow these basic points:
- Establish phone lists for key personnel and make sure they are up to date.
- Identify all possible emergencies and evacuation requirements
- Establish evacuation routes and procedures
- Plan for the loss of services of electricity, water, telephone, sewer, etc.
- Identify any operation or materials that could pose a danger to the public in the event of a disaster or emergency.
- Assign and train emergency shutdown teams if applicable.
- Establish a means to account for all employees once evacuated.