Lesson 5

Emergency Preparedness Plan and Definition for References

Crisis
Is an event or series of events representing a critical threat to the health, safety, security or wellbeing of a
community, usually over a wide area. Armed conflicts, epidemics, famine, natural disasters, environmental emergencies
and other major harmful events may involve or lead to a humanitarian crisis.

Corporate Control Center

A facility at the corporate level through which all the planning and operations of the different units are being
conducted to handle emergency activities in the event of a disaster.

Disaster/ Calamity
A serious disruption of the functioning of a community or a society causing widespread human, material,
economic or environmental losses that exceed the ability of the affected community or society to cope using its own
resources. A disaster is a function of the risk process. It results from the combination of hazards, conditions of
vulnerability and insufficient capacity or measures to reduce the potential negative consequences of risk
 Any occurrence that causes damage, ecological disruption, loss of human life or deterioration of health
and health services on a scale sufficient to warrant an extraordinary response from outside the affected
community.
 Any incident that results I multiple human casualties or extensive damages to properties or disruption of
essential public safety and health services or any incident that requires an increased level of response
beyond the routine operating procedures, including increased personnel, equipment, or supply
requirements.

Examples:
Natural Calamities :
flood, typhoons, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tidal waves.
Technological hazards/Accidental occurrences :
Fires, gas contamination, chemical spill.
Civil disorders :
Riots, strikes, bomb explosion, armed attack, robbery/hold-up.
Medical emergencies :
Mass food poisoning, disease epidemics, water supply contamination.

Emergency
A sudden occurrence demanding immediate action that may be due to epidemics, to natural, to technological
catastrophes, to strife or to other man-made causes deaths or significant injuries to employees, customers or the public;
or that can shut down business, disrupt operations, cause physical or environmental damage, or threaten the company’s
financial standing or public image.

Emergency preparedness
An activities designed to avoid or minimize loss of life and damage to property as well as activities to organize
and facilitate timely and effective rescue relief and rehabilitation operation in the aftermath of disastrous event.

Emergency operation
Any effort by an organized emergency responders to provide immediate assistance and relief to persons who are
victims of a disaster and/or calamity and the restoration of essential activities and facilities. Aid and assistance that are
being provided in disaster operations include: issuance of medical supplies and equipment; emergency medical
treatment; food, water and shelter; rescue and firefighting services; police and security protection; route clearance and
traffic control; prevention of panic; communications; and facility restoration.

Warming information
 A bulletins, notices, forecasts and others advisories issued by the Philippine Atmospheric Geographical and
Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA), Department of Health (DOH), and National Disaster Coordinating
Council (NDOC), relative to impending disaster or other emergencies.

Damage assessment
The estimation and description based on physical count and observations by the company Emergency Response
Team, concerned with the nature and extent of human and physical damages resulting from a disastrous event for the
purpose of determining the immediate requirements of the stricken areas.

Hazard
Any phenomenon that has the potential to cause disruption or damage to people and their environment.

Recovery
The undertaking of measures designed to restore all vital support systems such as electricity, potable water
system, transport system, communications system and the like.

Relief
An act of helping or alleviating the conditions of persons who are helplessly suffering from the effects of a
disastrous or calamitous event.

Rehabilitation
The restoration of a person’s economic dependency to an independent or stable way of living either physically,
economically, socially or emotionally.

Risk
The probability of harmful consequences, or expected losses (deaths, injuries, property, livelihood, economic
activity disrupted or environment damaged) resulting from interactions between natural or human-induced hazards
and vulnerabilities

Safety and Health committee

A group of company officers/employees duly organized for the purpose of preparing the employees to mitigate
the effect of a disastrous event as well as to control the operations of the unit assigned to undertake emergency
operations.

Vulnerability
The conditions determined by physical, social, economic and environmental factors or processes, which
increase the susceptibility of a community to the impact of hazards
 The degree to which a population or an individual is unable to anticipate, cope with, resist and
recover from the impact of a disaster.

Training of Safety and Health Committee

A capability element that includes educational activities and simulations conducted to help ensure that
emergency responders know their roles and are properly prepared to respond to a wide range of emergencies.

Training and exercises

Capability element that includes educational activities and simulations conducted to help ensure that emergency
responders know their roles and are properly prepared to respond to a wide range of emergencies.

Emergency Preparedness and Response: Key Definitions and Concepts

What is an Emergency?
An emergency according to the Sphere Project: Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Disaster
Response can be defined as “a situation where people’s normal means of support for life with dignity have failed as a
result of natural or human-made catastrophe.” As promulgated by the United Nations, a disaster is “a serious disruption
of the functioning of a society, causing widespread human, material or environmental losses which exceed the ability of
the affected society to cope using only its own resources.” For the purposes of this manual, the following definition of
emergency, which encompasses both rapid and slow-onset disasters, will be used.
 An emergency is an extraordinary situation, present or imminent, An emergency is an extraordinary situation,
present or imminent, in which there are serious and immediate threats in which there are serious and immediate
threats to human life, dignity and livelihoods. to human life, dignity and livelihoods.
 The word emergency most often refers to the results of such an event or events. The Merriam Webster
dictionary defines emergency as “an unforeseen combination of circumstances or the resulting state that calls
for immediate action [or] an urgent need for assistance or relief.” Even though these words are often used
interchangeably.

What is Disaster?
A sudden calamitous event bringing great damage, loss, or destruction.” We would add to this that a disaster can
also be slow-onset such as with droughts. The word emergency most often refers to the results of such an event or
events.

Disaster Typologies
Disasters can be divided into two broad groupings: natural disasters and human-made disasters.
 Natural disasters usually refer to phenomena such as earthquakes, typhoons, volcanic eruptions, and
drought. While some natural disasters are catastrophic in character and could hardly be prevented, many
environmentalists will argue that the negative results of natural disasters on people are often a result of
human activity. For example, houses washed away during floods are likely to be those that are built on
precarious deforested hillsides by poor families with few alternatives. Many natural disaster phenomena
are cyclical in nature and can be predicted with some degree of accuracy; thus emphasizing the
importance of prevention, preparedness and mitigation in program planning.
 Human-made disasters can cover a wide array of events caused by human activity. Humanmade
disasters can be caused by human errors such as a nuclear power station accident or the collapse of a
building due to faulty engineering. Most relevant to the work of international humanitarian agencies are
those human-made disasters resulting in violent conflict or war. A term utilized often to describe the
nature of post-Cold War violent conflict is Complex Emergency.
Complex emergencies refer to internal political crises and/or armed conflict, complicated by
an
Complex emergencies array of political, social and economic factors. (United Nations CETI
Contingency Planning Training,1996). They typically include a breakdown of legitimate institutions
and governance, widespread suffering and large-scale population displacements. Complex emergencies
tend to be very dynamic, distinguished by rapid changes that are difficult to predict, thus raising
complex issues regarding the timing, nature and scale of the humanitarian action needed.

Emergency Phases
In addition to the various types of disasters, there are different phases of the emergency response to them. For
example, in most rapid onset disasters the very first stage is search and search and rescue. Search and rescue operations
usually involve specialized units in developed countries. rescue In developing countries, there are times when
specialized units are available locally or sent in by other countries. In many cases, however, it is the local population
that acts immediately to search for victims and bring them to safety. This stage of an emergency response is immediate
and usually lasts just three to four days after a disaster event.
The follow-up stage to search and rescue consists of humanitarian action or emergency relief humanitarian
action or emergency relief humanitarian action or emergency relief. This stage is unpredictable in terms of its duration.
A country with means may need only short-term emergency relief for its disaster-affected population before moving
quickly to rehabilitation and reconstruction. There could also exist variations within a disaster-affected population with
economically well-off groups recovering more quickly from a disaster event than those less well-off. Some countries
may be very hard hit by a disaster event and require emergency relief over a long period of time.
 As an emergency situation stabilizes (or appears to move towards peaceful resolution in the case of violent
conflict), the affected communities and humanitarian actors move into the transition stage of rehabilitation and
reconstruction, rehabilitation and reconstruction, rehabilitation and reconstruction, and, if all goes well, to development.

V. EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS PLAN

Public and private entities alike are not immune to disasters, whether man made or natural calamities that can
strike a workplace with little or no warning anytime. Corporate environment and business operations in our localities are
faced with the most prevalent range of events and threats/hazards caused by unfriendly forces of nature such as typhoon,
flood, earthquake, and harsh seasonal weather condition apart from disastrous fires, civil strife, accidents and acts of
terrorism.
By planning and preparing ahead, we can cushion the impact an emergency could have on our lives and
business operations, as well all bear the ultimate responsibility for our own safety and that of our customers by knowing
how to respond quickly and efficiently.

Five (5) Steps/phases of Emergency Management”

1. Mitigation - Refers to measures that prevent an

emergency, reduce the chance of an emergency
happening, or reduce the damaging effects of unavoidable
emergencies. Typical mitigation measures include
establishing building codes and zoning requirements,
installing shutters, and constructing barriers such as levees.
2. Prevention - Actions taken to avoid an incident. Stopping
an incident from occurring. Deterrence operations and
surveillance.

3. Preparedness – focuses on the planning for the worst case

scenario. Course of action for each kind of emergency
outlined, and conducts drills/dry-run to enhance
emergency response. Activities
increase a community's ability to respond when a disaster occurs.
 Typical preparedness measures include developing mutual
aid agreements and memorandums of understanding,
training for both response personnel and concerned citizens,
conducting disaster exercises to reinforce training and test
capabilities, and presenting all-hazards education campaigns.

4. Response – disaster preparedness plans as to steps to take during a crisis are put into effect to reduce injury and
minimize property damage resulting from a disastrous event.
 Actions carried out immediately before, during, and immediately after a hazard impact, which are aimed at
saving lives, reducing economic losses, and alleviating suffering. Response actions may include activating
the emergency operations center, evacuating threatened populations, opening shelters and providing mass
care, emergency rescue and medical care, fire fighting, and urban search and rescue.
5. Recovery – deals with how to restore the learning and teaching environment after a crisis where in short and
long term procedures are being undertaken for the restoration of support systems vital to the business operation.
 Actions taken to return a community to normal or near-normal conditions, including the restoration of basic
services and the repair of physical, social and economic damages. Typical recovery actions include debris
cleanup, financial assistance to individuals and governments, rebuilding of roads and bridges and key
facilities, and sustained mass care for displaced human and animal populations.

Emergency Planning: Improve Community Preparedness with these Basic Steps

Planning is an important avenue to community emergency preparedness. The practice of emergency response
planning is best thought of as a process - a continuing sequence of analyses, plan development, and the acquisition by
individuals and teams of performance skills achieved through training, drills, exercises and critiques.
 The process varies considerably among communities. In some communities, planning is formalized by a
specific assignment of responsibility to an office having an identifiable budget. In other communities, planning is
informal: Responsibility is poorly defined, and a limited budget is dispersed among many agencies.
Similarly, response plans and procedures may be mostly written or mostly unwritten. Such variability exists
despite federal and state requirements for community emergency planning because local governments vary in their
capacity (especially funding) and their commitment to emergency management. Thus, for many years, higher levels of
government described their standards for emergency preparedness as "guidance."

1. Anticipate both active and passive resistance to the planning process, and develop strategies to manage these
obstacles.
Emergency planning is conducted in the face of apathy on the part of some and resistance on the part of
others. People are apathetic because they don't like to think about their vulnerability to disasters. Alternatively people
resist disaster planning because it consumes resources that could be allocated to more immediate community needs –
police patrols, road repairs, and the like.
Thus, disaster planning requires strong support from one of the following: the jurisdiction's chief administrative
officer; an issue champion, also known as a "policy entrepreneur," who has the expertise and organizational legitimacy
to promote emergency management; or a disaster planning committee that can mobilize a constituency in support of
emergency management.

2. Address all hazards to which the community is exposed.

The plans for each hazard agent - flood, tornado, HAZMAT release - should be integrated into a comprehensive
plan for multi hazard emergency management. Emergency planners should conduct a community hazardvulnerability
analysis to identify the types of environmental extremes (floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes), technological
accidents (toxic chemical releases, nuclear power plant accidents), and deliberate incidents (sabotage or terrorist attack
involving chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, or explosive and flammable materials) to which the community
has exposure.
After identifying these hazards, emergency planners should examine the extent to which different hazard agents
make similar demands on the emergency response organization; if two hazard agents have similar characteristics, they
probably will require similar emergency response functions. Commonality of emergency response functions provides
multiple-use opportunities for personnel, procedures, facilities and equipment. In turn, multiple use simplifies the
emergency operations plan by reducing the number of functional annexes; it also simplifies training and enhances
performance reliability during emergencies. Only when hazard agents have very different characteristics, and therefore
require distinctly different responses, will hazard-specific appendixes be required for any particular functional annex.

3. Include all response organizations, seeking their participation, commitment and clearly defined agreement.
To be effective, emergency planning should promote interorganizational coordination. Mechanisms should be
developed to elicit participation, commitment and clearly defined agreement from all response organizations. These
organizations would obviously include public safety agencies such as emergency management, fire, police and
emergency medical services. However, they should also include potential hazard sources, such as HAZMAT facilities
and transporters (pipeline, rail, truck and barge), and organizations that must protect sensitive populations, such as
schools, hospitals and nursing homes. The reason coordination is required is that emergency response organizations of
differing capabilities must nonetheless work in concert to perform the four major functions of responders - emergency
assessment, hazard operations, population protection and incident management.

4. Base pre-impact planning on accurate assumptions about the threat, about typical human behavior in
disasters, and about likely support from external sources such as state and federal agencies.
Emergency planning should be based on accurate knowledge of the threat, of likely human responses and of
likely aid from external sources. Accurate knowledge of the threat comes from thorough hazard-vulnerability analyses.
Accordingly emergency managers must identify hazards to which their communities are vulnerable, determine
which geographical areas are exposed to those hazards (100-year floodplains and toxic chemical facility vulnerable
zones), and identify the facilities and population segments located in those risk areas. Part of knowing the threat means
understanding the basic characteristics of these hazards, such as speed of onset, scope and duration of impact, and
potential for producing casualties and property damage.
 Planners and public officials also need accurate knowledge about likely human behavior in a disaster. Contrary
to widespread belief - and common depictions in the media - people do not flee in panic, wander aimlessly in shock or
comply docilely with the recommendations of authorities. Instead, disaster victims typically act rationally in terms of
the limited information they have about the situation. Following impact, they are the first to search for survivors, care
for the injured and assist others in protecting property from further damage. When they seek assistance, victims are
more likely to contact informal sources such as friends, relatives and local groups than governmental agencies, or even
such quasi-official sources as the Red Cross.
Moreover, looting in evacuated areas is extremely rare, and crime rates tend to decline following disaster
impact. Finally, concerned citizens believe they can best help the victims by entering the impact area to donate blood,
food and clothing, even though doing so creates major problems of convergence.

5. Identify the types of emergency response actions that are most likely to be appropriate.
Sometimes the response that is usually the most appropriate one might not, in fact, be most suitable given the
circumstances that arise in a specific event. Thus, emergency responders should be trained to implement the most likely
responses to disaster demands, but they should also be encouraged to improvise on the basis of a continuing emergency
assessment that identifies the appropriate response actions to the particular disaster well before those actions need to be
implemented. In the highly charged atmosphere of imminent disaster, it is hard for an emergency manager to appear to
be "doing nothing."
However, it is important to recognize that the best action might be to mobilize emergency personnel and
actively monitor the situation for further information rather than initiate unnecessary hazard operations, population
protection or incident management actions. Thus, planning and training should focus on principles of response rather
than trying to define overly specific procedures that contain a multitude of details.

6. Address the linkage of emergency response to disaster recovery.

It is increasingly recognized that there is no clear line between emergency response and disaster recovery. At
any point after impact, some portions of the community will be engaged in emergency response tasks whereas others
will have moved on to disaster recovery. Moreover, senior elected and appointed officials are likely to be inundated
with policy decisions that need to be made to implement the emergency response at the very time they must plan for the
disaster recovery. Consequently pre-impact emergency response planning should be linked to preimpact disaster
recovery planning. Coordination between the two plans will speed the process of disaster recovery by ensuring that the
priorities for disaster recovery have been clearly established so that recovery actions can be initiated while the
emergency response is still under way.

7. Provide for training and evaluation of the emergency response organization at all levels - individual, team,
department and community.
Emergency preparedness also has a training and evaluation component. The first part of the training process
involves explaining the provisions of the plan to the administrators and personnel of the departments that will be
involved in the emergency response. Second, all those who have emergency response roles must be trained to perform
their duties. Of course, this includes fire, police and emergency medical services personnel, but there also should be
training for personnel in hospitals, schools, nursing homes and other facilities that might need to take protective action.
Finally, the populations at risk must be involved in the planning process so they can become aware that planning for
community threats is under way and be knowledgeable about what is expected of them under those plans. These
populations need to know what is likely to happen in a disaster and what emergency organizations can and cannot do for
them.
It is also essential that training be followed by evaluation in the form of tests and exercises to determine whether
it has been effective. Emergency drills and exercises provide a setting in which the adequacy of the emergency
operations plan, standard operating procedures, staffing, facilities and equipment can all be tested as well. Further,
multifunctional exercises (exercises that test a jurisdiction's ability to perform all four emergency response functions -
emergency assessment, hazard operations, population protection and incident management) facilitate interorganizational
contact, allowing members of different organizations to better understand each other's professional capabilities and
personal characteristics. And multifunctional exercises also produce publicity for the broader emergency management
process, which informs community leaders and the public that disaster planning is under way and preparedness is being
enhanced.
8. Recognize that emergency planning is a continuing process.
Preparedness is a continuing process because conditions within the community change over time, conditions
outside the community can change as well and the products of planning itself change. Conditions inside the community
include hazard vulnerability, organizational staffing and structure, and emergency facilities and equipment. Conditions
outside the community include federal regulations (witness the requirements for communities to adopt the National
Incident Management System). The preparedness process results in some products that are tangible and others that are
intangible - hard to document on paper and not realized in hardware. An example of such intangible products is the
development of emergency responders' knowledge about disaster demands, about their own emergency response roles
and about other agencies' capabilities.

Types of Emergencies
The following is a list of some emergencies, which may be covered as events warrant:
o Blizzards
o Chemical spills
o Dam failure
o Droughts
o Earthquake
o Extreme heat waves
o Fire
o Floods
o Hurricanes
o Lost child or Alzheimer family member
o Pandemics
o Rabies in the area
o Terrorist attacks
o Thunder storms
o Tornadoes

Pandemics
Due to the rising concern, the first type of emergency we are including is a pandemic. A pandemic is any
disease or condition that affects people in many countries at the same time.

What You Can Do Now?

o Gather the following supplies and have a quantity of at least 1 month’s worth on hand:
o Food
o Medicine
o Pet supplies
o Vitamins
o Water
o Rotate supplies appropriately.
o Get regular flu shots when they are available.
o Have emergency supplies and staples on hand.
o Include N95 masks.
o Include rubber gloves to use for trips to the food stores.
o The masks and gloves are only good for 1 use and must be taken off carefully and discarded from your home
in a proper container to avoid exposure.
Remember, many of the above items may be hard to find once a pandemic emergency is declared. In an Avian
Flu Pandemic, as people who move and distribute the products become ill, food and other staples will become scarcer as
time goes by.

o Have unscented bleach and water purifier tablets.

o Keep cash on hand.
o Keep gas in your car.
Planning Consideration
o Avoid extreme social isolation.
o Base decisions on guidance from public health and school officials.
o Consider “social distancing” (staying away from crowded areas, theaters, etc.).
o Designate 1 person to go out for supplies, and do so no more than once a week.
o Develop a home school strategy for your children.
o Develop a work at home strategy if possible.
o Stay in touch with your neighbors and health authorities so you can assist them or vice versa.
o Use protective measures when out in public.

Guide Question:

1. What's the difference between "emergency preparedness" and "emergency response"?

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2. How do you handle stress in emergency situations?

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3. What makes an effective emergency plan?

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