Page 28 - Campus Security & Life Safety, November/December 2020

"Preparedness involves having resources, relationships, plans and operations ready in the event of an incident."
Acrisis strikes. It could be anything... a health pandemic, an active shoot- er, a bomb threat, a loss of electrical power, a flooded building or a severe weather event. Who on your campus responds? What needs to be done? Who makes the decisions and who needs to be contacted? These, and many more decisions need to be made, and made quickly. But, cri- sis events are difficult to manage without some sort of structure and plan in place. Each college or university, regardless of size, should have a general emergency operations plan, as well as more specific incident type emergency action plans in place for these or other emergencies.
First, what is a crisis? It is an event which alters the normal operations of the organiza- tion or threatens/is causing harm to the organization or its’ students, employees and visitors. It may be slow moving/evolving, such as a weather event. Or, it can be an immediate incident such as a loss of utilities or an active shooter threat.
An Emergency Operations Plan (EOP) is more about a definition of a structure to deal with all types of hazards and less about proce- dures. Many EOPs follow the FEMA National Incident Management System (NIMS) design. This describes the Incident Command System (ICS) structure. The advantage to using this design is that it is the concept used by public first responders, as well as FEMA. Therefore, a college or university could have their ICS eas- ily align with a public response entity. There is also a great deal of training on line from FEMA which is free and available to all: https://training.fema.gov/nims/ .
The EOP Should Include
Several Other Components:
• The kinds of events that warrant an ICS
response.
• Who can, and how to, initiate the assembly
of an ICS team.
• The location of a meeting place for the ICS.
By Lauris Freidenfelds
Emergency Operations
28 campuslifesecurity.com | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2020
Incorporating
Four Elements
Determine who responds, and what must be done
There should be at least one main location and perhaps, if possible, alternate loca- tions.
• It should identify who would fill each of the roles. These should be identified by a job position, not by a name. It should also address the minimum level of training required for each position.
• A format for developing the specific Inci- dent Action Plan (IAP). An IAP formally documents incident goals (known as control objectives in NIMS), operational period objectives, and the response strategy defined by incident command during response plan- ning. This is a critical aspect in managing a crisis, keeping the team focused.
• Job action sheets for each position. These are guidelines that define what tasks each position is responsible for and perhaps even when they should be undertaken.
• A communications plan which should be aligned with the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act (Clery Act) require- ments for Timely Warning and Emergency Notification. This is the federal law which, among many other items, requires cam- puses to issue immediate alerts about any emergency situation that is a threat to the health or safety of students and employees.
• Resources available for the ICS team, which include, but not be limited to emergency contact information, both internal and external, supplies and sources for addition- al supplies, maps or drawings of facilities on campus, and critical infrastructure and utility locations.
Once there is a good EOP, every university should identify potential action plans for the types emergencies that are most likely. OSHA standards [29 CFR 1910.38(a)] require these EAPs for fire, evacuation and “other” emergencies.
How do you know what types of incidents should be addressed? Each campus should
conduct a hazard and vulnerability analysis or risk assessment. It is recommended that this be done at least annually, since needs change over time.
Below are two examples of assessment scoring using publicly available tools that can help with evaluating severity and rank- ing for priority consideration. The first graph was developed by Kaiser Permanente, the second is from Children’s Hospital in Colo- rado. While the tools have been developed for and by healthcare, these can also be used for university HVA.
The key is to have subject matter experts provide good input. It never hurts to share and compare your HVA with peer organiza- tions and public response resources. Their input can make the evaluation more reliable and accurate.
The types of incidents to consider should include weather events such as snow, cold, tornado, hurricane; natural disasters, such as floods, earthquakes and landslides; health events, such as pandemics; chemical, bio- logical or radioactive leaks or releases.
You should also consider utility disrup- tions to power, water or air conditioning and heat; technology interruptions, including cyber attacks; incidents of criminal activity and violence, such as bomb threats or an active shooter threat;cCivil unrest or protest that may make access to the campus difficult or unsafe; and strikes, work stoppages or labor availability issues.
Keep the EAPs broad enough to be adap- tive to changing elements, and try to follow similar action steps for people as much as possible. Don’t make it a step-by-step list for a person to follow. Remember that people will not be reading these as the emergency is occurring. For example, prior to COVID-19, some healthcare institutions had a plan for what is called a High Consequence Infec- tious Disease (HCID) program, to address any kind of disease that could cause a pan-