Blog
The McNeil Classroom: Emergency Preparedness 2025
Kathy Julian
August 21, 2025
What is an Emergency Preparedness Plan?
An emergency preparedness plan is a detailed policy that outlines procedures to follow during emergencies to ensure safety and minimize damage. It includes identifying potential risks, allocating resources, and establishing clear communication and evacuation procedures. It is an initiative-taking strategy to prepare for and respond to various emergencies.
Why is it important?
- Business interruptions often strike without warning.
- An Emergency Preparedness/Business Continuity Plan can help reduce and even eliminate vulnerabilities during an emergency or disaster.
- Fireproofing, building codes, flood control, security checkpoints, and cyber security all exist to prevent or mitigate disasters.
- If a building is designed to survive a tornado, then it is more likely that occupants will survive, and less likely damage will be sustained. Prevention planning can reduce the devastating results of an emergency to your business.
- Emergency preparedness can literally, be a matter of life or death.
- Evacuation routes can ensure people are not stranded. Accessible stores of water and food can sustain individuals until supply chains can be re-established.
- Disasters and emergencies can leave an emotional scar on victims and responders.
- Proper planning can minimize anxiety by reducing uncertainty.
- One of the keys to emergency preparedness is to minimize the consequences of a disaster.
- Important documents need to be backed up in a safe location. Vital positions of leadership need succession plans. Your business may need a building to relocate to.
Where do I start?
- Perform a Risk Assessment
- Identify potential hazards and threats specific to a location, for instance, flooding, cyber-attack, security breach, and fire.
- Allocate Resources
- Determine the necessary personnel, equipment, and supplies needed to prevent, minimize, and respond to emergencies.
- Develop Communication Systems
- Establish clear communication protocols and designated means for distributing information during an emergency.
- Develop an Evacuation Procedure.
- Develop detailed evacuation plans with designated routes, assembly points, and procedures for vulnerable populations.
- Provide Training and Execute Practice Drills:
- Train personnel at hire, yearly thereafter, and any time the plan changes. Conduct emergency drills regularly, but without warning to ensure effectiveness and familiarity with the plan and procedures.
- Develop a Recovery Plan
- Outline steps for recovery after an emergency, including restoring essential services and providing support.
Don’t forget to create a plan for home. Here are a few reliable online for free:
https://www.redcross.org/get-help/how-to-prepare-for-emergencies/make-a-plan
https://www.fema.gov/emergency-managers/national-preparedness/plan