Emergency Preparedness: Summit Highlights

Posted November 10, 2016 at 1:23 pm

“If you don’t have a plan, the worst is almost guaranteed to happen.”

That statement came from a PowerPoint presentation by Dave Fox, general manager of Texas Medical Center (TMC) Hospital Laundry in Houston; and Dave Beavers, chief engineer with TMC. The two men spoke on emergency-planning issues during TRSA’s Oct. 25-26 Production Summit & Plant Tours in New Orleans.

The presentation on Oct 25, outlined the co-op’s emergency-planning procedures. These ranged from documenting contacts for reciprocal agreements with laundries to reviewing various disaster-planning procedures, such as conducting drills and (when necessary) contacting customers to inform them that linen services may be delayed or suspended, due to a situation such as a hurricane. Fox and Beavers also walked attendees through a 2008 case study done on the hospital laundry’s response to Hurricane Ike, a category 4 hurricane that devastated Houston. The two men credited advance planning with helping the laundry get endure Ike, which packed 145 mph winds and was the third-costliest hurricane in U.S. history after Katrina and Andrew.

The daylong program at Harrah’s Casino Hotel kicked off with an introduction by a true “master of disaster,” Andy Kopplin, a longtime chief administrative officer (CAO) to Mayor Mitch Landrieu. Kopplin worked through the city’s ultimate disaster, Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Since June, he’s taken on a new role as CEO of the Greater New Orleans Foundation. This charitable organization funds cultural, environmental and economic-development efforts in an area that includes 13 parishes (counties). Along with sharing harrowing tales of how people survived Katrina, Kopplin emphasized the importance of building better in the recovery phase and taking steps to prepare for future emergencies. “We need every small business in our community, every family and every government operation to be thoughtful ‘planful’ and resilient,” he said. “Because we know what’s coming our way, and we want to make sure as the city of New Orleans that we lead the nation in being resilient in the face of future disasters and storms.”

In addition to repairing levees and other flood-control infrastructure, local state and federal officials took steps to rebuild various systems in New Orleans, from efforts to encourage small-business growth to improving public schools, in order to make the city a better place to live and work than it was before Katrina. “We decided that we weren’t going to be comfortable,” Kopplin said. “We were going to take the future into our own hands and control our own destiny. And it’s the business community that has led the way. The reason we’re having so much growth is that people got inspired. The got creative. They figured out a way to do their part to bring back a great American City.”

Another presentation on disaster response and emergency preparedness focused not only on floods or hurricanes, but the entire range of natural and manmade disasters that companies may confront on a given day. In “Disaster Planning Considerations,” Donald Maida and J.R. Ryan of TBR Associates, Saddle Brook, NJ, laid out a strategic overview of how to prepare for crises ranging from chemical spills to the loss of IT resources to workplace violence. The fundamental first step in dealing with all these issues is to establish a response plan and keep it current. “You need to create and update a disaster-recovery plan,” Maida said. “If you’re not doing that on a regular basis, you have a tremendous amount of exposure.”

Another topic Ryan and Maida addressed was protecting your people and plant in the event of a terrorist attack or a similar threat in your area. The common theme for each of these scenarios was the need for pre-planning to anticipate needs and prepare for the worst. In the case of terrorism, this could include designating a protected place for staff to gather in case of an emergency, coupled with off-site backup capabilities to minimize financial risks and safeguard confidential data.

Not all challenges facing companies come from without, such as storms or terror attacks, but rather from within, such as how a company will cope with loss of key staff member. Maida and Ryan addressed this challenge as well as the related issue of succession planning for family businesses.

TRSA’s next Summit & Plant Tours is planned for Feb. 8-9 in Houston. Click here and here for details. 

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