Page 81 - Security Today, November/December 2020

demic. They did not create individual plans for EBOLA, COVID, H1N1, etc. The same holds true for fire emergencies. Don’t direct people to a specific fire stairwell, direct peo- ple to use the closest available fire stairwell instead.
An emergency action plan must be in writing, kept in the workplace, and available to employees for review. The intent is that the EAP is to be provided to employees and stu- dents as a quick guide of action steps to be taken in the response to an event. For emer- gency managers, an EAP should have a par- ent document that is more comprehensive and formatted to address the four elements of the Emergency Management Continuum.
Prevention and mitigation should address steps to take in order to avoid the emergency event. It is always better to do this rather than have to deal with the consequences. An example may be having security present where there is a high potential for violence. It may involve training on subjects such as how to safely work on an electrical system to avoid electrocution and loss of power. As shown in the HVA process, to mitigate the probability and magnitude of impact, pre- vention can help reduce the risk.
Preparedness involves having resources, relationships, plans and operations ready in the event of an incident. During the COVID- 19 pandemic, for example, some emergency managers already had plans and resources in place to obtain face masks and hand sanitiz- er. Preparedness means that plans should be in place on how to communicate to students and staff, ensuring the mass notification sys- tem is in place and works.
Another example involves a recent snow event when universities closed to avoid put- ting students in danger during their travel to classes. The plan was triggered when certain conditions were met, eliminating the inevi- table academic debate about what is unsafe as the weather approached.
Preparedness may mean having alterna- tive sites to use for class meetings, if the usual classroom building is rendered unsafe. It means conducting evacuation drills, so that students know what to do in a real emer- gency. Don’t believe that people will step up to a challenge without proper training and exercise; this is an important consideration in preparedness. Ensure that exercises and drills are conducted to provide muscle mem- ory responses when needed.
Recently, there has been a lot of work done to prepare for cyberattacks. It seems that the adaptive aggressors are devising devious methods to deny services and demand ransom. Is your university pre- pared? Are you willing to pay the ransom? Do you have a response team? Are you cov- ered by insurance? If needed, do you have access to bitcoin?
Response after/during the incident. Cer- tain actions should occur automatically. These steps should be part of the EAP that is
distributed to student and employees. The senior subject matter expert on duty should be empowered to execute these steps. This includes whatever is necessary to ensure the safety of people involved, evacuation (if appropriate), ensuring medical response can be facilitated, keeping others from entering an unsafe area and initiating emergency notification messages.
Once it is safe, the ICS should be acti- vated. By design, the NIMS ICS structure allows the Incident Commander to activate some or only part of the ICS team, based on need. Once assembled, the first step for the ICS team is to develop the IAP. Keep this short, don’t bite off too much. The number of objectives should be no more than three priorities. In many cases, time is of the essence, so do not allow paralysis by over analysis. Sometimes a good plan executed on time is better than a perfect plan imple- mented too late. Do not think a crisis will follow a procedure, consider best options and then look at what occurs next. A good Incident Commander can take input from various sources, synthesize the information and make good decisions quickly. The Inci- dent Commander “herds the cats” in the right direction, allowing the opportunity for good ideas to evolve through critical thinking during the crisis.
Recovery is too often the forgotten or under-resourced step. It sometimes becomes part of the response phase, but it should be
handled as separate phase. People may be exhausted from fighting the metaphoric fires during the response phase, so consider bringing in fresh troops to work through the resumption of operations. Recovery is put- ting into play your business continuity plan (BCP). Once it is safe, how do you resume operations? As a part of preparedness, a BCP should be developed.
If you managed through the crisis because of your preparation, congratulations. Every- one is safe, business is resuming, classes are back in session and the cafeteria is serving their meals again. But, before you high five everyone in the Incident Command and take that some well deserved time off, you have one more task. It is called an After Action Review or AAR. This is the opportunity to learn from the incident to better prepare your campus for the next one. Were your assumptions correct? What went well? Want needs improvement? What should be done differently? Conduct an AAR as soon as it is feasible, while the events are still fresh in everyone’s mind
You should capture these comments and modify your EOP and EAPs accordingly. Never miss an opportunity to learn and improve. It means that you will better pre- pared for the next, inevitable, emergency.
Lauris Freidenfelds is a senior project man- ager for Telgian Engineering & Consulting.
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