Ask most people what an emergency is and you will probably be told it is a fire, tornado or when someone gets injured.

What is an Emergency?
The American Red Cross defines an emergency as:

"any unplanned event that can cause deaths or significant injuries to employees, customers or the public; or that can shut down your business, disrupt operations, cause physical or environmental damage, or threaten the facility's financial standing or public image."

This means that in addition to the usual events listed above, an emergency can be the injury or death of a key employee, a chemical spill, a communication failure or the sudden demise of a major supplier (their emergency becomes your emergency), acts of terror, etc. Another factor, which defines an emergency, is the size of your business. What is a nuisance for a large business is a disaster for a smaller one. Also, how much impact the event has on the core operations of the company will define its emergency status as well.

Identifying Risks
To start you should identify the emergency risks for your organization. This will require a brainstorming session. Write down all the possibilities you can think of first. Then choose the highest risk areas and start there. There is a form you can use at the end of this document to help with this.

Potential risks that are common to everyone in Overland Park are: fire, medical, tornadoes/severe storms, flooding, hazardous material spills, utility outages and earthquakes. Each organization however, has additional risks that are specific to their operation.

The human impact is basically the vulnerability of people involved with your organization. When considering property impact include temporary and permanent replacement costs. Keep in mind that external resources may not be readily available in the event of a large-scale disaster. That is why internal resources are so important. When you calculate the risk of each emergency start with the highest scores and work down.

Emergency Management
Once your risks have been identified the next step is emergency management. This is not something that begins and ends when the actual emergency occurs. It is planning for the emergency and preventing it. It is responding appropriately to the emergency when it occurs. Finally, it is recovering from the emergency as quickly as possible so as to minimize the disruption in your services to your customers.

Although planning is a critical part of this process, training, conducting drills and testing equipment are also important. A plan that stays on paper in a binder is going to be of little use during an emergency. IF employees remember to open the binder, most emergencies escalate faster than they will be able to read. Also, what looks good on paper may not work in actuality. Testing all components of the plan and reviewing it annually is key to its success.