Your entire emergency management system must be redundant - after all, it is supposed to be as disaster proof as possible.
If you have one of the emergency management information/incident management software programs, that's great. But what if it fails? Step back to basic word processing and spreadsheets. But what if that fails? Step back to paper-based management. All your forms should be usable at all these levels. All forms used in the software system should be printed and number of copies set aside for manual use. Your training and exercise program should include scenarios where the systems fail and you have to fall back on redundant methods.
Communications systems are another key area for redundancy. Do not rely on one or even two methods of communication. You may have to fall back all the way to runners, people physically running messages by hand. Yes, be concerned about information overload, but if it is a choice of too many or not getting through, go for too many. This can be an issue when members of your emergency response team complain that they get too many of the same messages. Your training must clearly explain the redundancy concept and the need to ensure that the message gets through.
These principles are equally applicable to the general public. Family emergency preparedness teaches concepts such as redundant communications among family members. Another example - while digital copies of important documents are good to have, it can be just as important to squirrel away that paper backup copy.
In the world of real estate, location is everything. In the world of emergency management, redundancy is the same. Ensure that redundancy is a key part of your planning.
WFTND Blog Information
An emergency manager trying to make a difference.
The name of the blog comes from a conversation with my daughter, where she told me that I was always looking to help people be prepared for the inevitable emergencies in life.
I started this blog as a place to assemble all the information that I was getting every day and to share my thoughts and ideas on emergency management.
I had no idea how much of the blog would wind up being what's in the news. While it does not take a lot to add a blog entry, I just did not realize how much of my day was involved with simply keeping up with what's going on. All of the posts, whether what's in the news or comments or just a piece of information, have a purpose; to get us thinking, to get us talking, and to make things better - in other words, to make a difference.
Hopefully this blog will save you some time and energy, or help you in some other way. If you would like to see something, please let me know.
Posting an article does not imply that I agree with the comments in the article. In fact, in many case, I do not agree, but feel that the comments should be part of the discussion. All opinions are welcome. I only ask that you remain considerate and professional of other opinions.
CLICK ON "MY WEB PAGE" ON THE WFTND BLOG PROFILE PAGE FOR MY LINKEDIN PUBLIC PROFILE
The name of the blog comes from a conversation with my daughter, where she told me that I was always looking to help people be prepared for the inevitable emergencies in life.
I started this blog as a place to assemble all the information that I was getting every day and to share my thoughts and ideas on emergency management.
I had no idea how much of the blog would wind up being what's in the news. While it does not take a lot to add a blog entry, I just did not realize how much of my day was involved with simply keeping up with what's going on. All of the posts, whether what's in the news or comments or just a piece of information, have a purpose; to get us thinking, to get us talking, and to make things better - in other words, to make a difference.
Hopefully this blog will save you some time and energy, or help you in some other way. If you would like to see something, please let me know.
Posting an article does not imply that I agree with the comments in the article. In fact, in many case, I do not agree, but feel that the comments should be part of the discussion. All opinions are welcome. I only ask that you remain considerate and professional of other opinions.
CLICK ON "MY WEB PAGE" ON THE WFTND BLOG PROFILE PAGE FOR MY LINKEDIN PUBLIC PROFILE
Favorite Quotes for the Emergency Manager
- “In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.” Dwight D. Eisenhower
- “Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it.” Dwight D. Eisenhower
- “Failing to plan is planning to fail”
- “Expect the best, plan for the worst, and prepare to be surprised.” Denis Waitley
- "Station 51, KMG365."
- “One of the true tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency.” Arnold H. Glasgow
- “An ostrich with its head in the sand is just as blind to opportunity as to disaster”
- “The powers in charge keep us in a perpetual state of fear keep us in a continuous stampede of patriotic fervor with the cry of grave national emergency. Always there has been some terrible evil to gobble us up if we did not blindly rally behind it by furnishing the exorbitant sums demanded. Yet, in retrospect, these disasters seem never to have happened, seem never to have been quite real.” Douglas MacArthur
- “My ideas have undergone a process of emergence by emergency. When they are needed badly enough, they are accepted.” Buckminster Fuller
- “Bad planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part”
- "If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, ..." Rudyard Kipling
- "Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored." Aldous Huxley
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