Function: Property Protection
Protecting facilities, equipment and vital records is essential to restoring operations once an emergency has occurred.
Function: Property Protection
Other Functions
- Function: Direction and Control
- Function: Communications
- Function: Life Safety
- Function: Community Outreach
- Function: Recovery and Restoration
- Function: Administration and Logistics
Planning Considerations
Establish procedures for:
- Fighting fires
- Containing material spills
- Closing or barricading doors and windows
- Shutting down equipment
- Covering or securing equipment
- Moving equipment to a safe location
Identify sources of backup equipment, parts and supplies.
Designate personnel to authorize, supervise and perform a facility shutdown. Train them to recognize when to abandon the effort.
Obtain materials to carry out protection procedures and keep them on hand for use only in emergencies.
Protection Systems
Determine needs for systems to detect abnormal situations, provide warning and protect property. Consider:
- Fire protection systems
- Lightning protection systems
- Water-level monitoring systems
- Overflow detection devices
- Automatic shutoffs
- Emergency power generation systems
Consult your property insurer about special protective systems.
Mitigation
Consider ways to reduce the effects of emergencies, such as moving or constructing facilities away from flood plains and fault zones. Also consider ways to reduce the chances of emergencies from occurring, such as changing processes or materials used to run the business.
Consider physical retrofitting measures such as:
- Upgrading facilities to withstand the shaking of an earthquake or high winds
- "Floodproofing" facilities by constructing flood walls or other flood protection devices (see Section 3 for additional information)
- Installing fire sprinkler systems
- Installing fire-resistant materials and furnishing
- Installing storm shutters for all exterior windows and doors
There are also non-structural mitigation measures to consider, including:
- Installing fire-resistant materials and furnishing
- Securing light fixtures and other items that could fall or shake loose in an emergency
- Moving heavy or breakable objects to low shelves
- Attaching cabinets and files to low walls or bolting them together
- Placing Velcro strips under typewriters, tabletop computers and television monitors
- Moving work stations away from large windows
- Installing curtains or blinds that can be drawn over windows to prevent glass from shattering onto employees
- Anchoring water heaters and bolting them to wall studs
Consult a structural engineer or architect and your community's building and zoning offices for additional information.
Facility Shutdown
Facility shutdown is generally a last resort but always a possibility. Improper or disorganized shutdown can result in confusion, injury and property damage.
Some facilities require only simple actions such as turning off equipment, locking doors and activating alarms. Others require complex shutdown procedures.
Work with department heads to establish shutdown procedures. Include information about when and how to shut off utilities. Identify:
- The conditions that could necessitate a shutdown
- Who can order a shutdown
- Who will carry out shutdown procedures
- How a partial shutdown would affect other facility operations
- The length of time required for shutdown and restarting
Train personnel in shutdown procedures. Post procedures.
Records Preservation
Vital records may include:
- Financial and insurance information
- Engineering plans and drawings
- Product lists and specifications
- Employee, customer and supplier databases
- Formulas and trade secrets
- Personnel files
Preserving vital records is essential to the quick restoration of operations. Analyzing vital records involves:
- Classifying operations into functional categories, e.g., finance, production, sales, administration
- Determining essential functions for keeping the business up and running, such as finance, production, sales, etc.
- Identifying the minimum information that must be readily accessible to perform essential functions, e.g., maintaining customer collections may require access to account statements
- Identifying the records that contain the essential information and where they are located
- Identifying the equipment and materials needed to access and use the information.
Next, establish procedures for protecting and accessing vital records. Among the many approaches to consider are:
- Labeling vital records
- Backing up computer systems
- Making copies of records
- Storing tapes and disks in insulated containers
- Storing data off-site where they would not likely be damaged by an event affecting your facility
- Increasing security of computer facilities
- Arranging for evacuation of records to backup facilities
- Backing up systems handled by service bureaus
- Arranging for backup power
Last Modified: Wednesday, 05-Apr-2006 16:15:18 EDT