Businesses need to take steps to prepare for emergencies

  • By Dan Catchpole Herald Writer
  • Thursday, January 29, 2015 8:43pm
  • Business

EVERETT — When a water pipe burst in the Snohomish Health District’s office one Saturday this month, “We knew the right people to bring to the table,” said Heather Thomas, the district’s spokeswoman. “We knew who to call.”

The deluge was stopped and cleanup began that day.

The district was able to quickly respond to that everyday emergency in part because it is ready for big emergencies, Thomas said. “Many of our plans and drills helped us act quickly.”

Planning for natural disasters and other emergencies is critical for businesses big and small, said Lucianne Phillips, who works in the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Bothell office.

She is the private sector liaison for FEMA Region X, which covers Washington, Idaho, Oregon and Alaska.

First, a business needs to identify vulnerabilities and risks, she said.

“For example, a friend of mine owned a liquor store in California. When an earthquake hit, everything fell to the floor and was smashed,” she said.

Her friend couldn’t cover the losses and went out of business, Phillips said.

The store might have recovered had the owner realized how vulnerable his inventory was to an earthquake.

Maintaining financial and other records is vital when something goes wrong. Even a pipe bursting in the ceiling above a handful of computers can cause chaos if important records haven’t been backed up.

“If your building burns down tomorrow, how do you know whom you owe money to and who owes you money?” Phillips said.

Important records need to be backed up somewhere, be it on a thumb drive safely stored off-site or in the digital cloud.

“There are high-tech solutions and low-tech ways of doing it,” she said. What’s most important is that a business picks the solution that works for its needs.

Businesses also need to plan for their employees and any other people who might be using their facilities when a natural disaster might occur, she said.

That means stockpiling emergency supplies, such as 72-hour kits — basic supplies for each person for three days, she said.

“We recommend everyone have 72-hour kits at home, in their car and at the office. I have jugs of water and other supplies under my desk,” Phillips said.

“Here in Snohomish County, we have a tourist season. You have to consider how to handle that at your facility,” she said.

Businesses should take it a step further, too, by helping employees come up with emergency plans for their own families.

“It’s human nature: If there’s a disaster, we go first to our family,” she said.

Providence Regional Medical Center regularly holds brownbag lunches to help employees develop family emergency plans, said Gil “Bo” Bodrack, the hospital’s director of safety, security and emergency management.

“We want them to be prepared, so in the event of an emergency, they feel their family is safe enough to come to work and have their head in the game,” he said.

The center is even talking with Everett Community College about setting up emergency child care for Providence employees in case a disaster or some other event shuts down schools and day care programs.

In a disaster, the stakes are high for Providence. Keeping the necessary lights on and getting the right people to work can have life-or-death consequences for patients.

But the lessons can apply to any business. Making sure a hair salon can recover from and reopen after, say, an earthquake might not be a life-or-death issue, but people’s livelihoods might be at stake.

Businesses have to figure out what to do if they can’t use their current locations, Phillips said.

Do you have an alternate site? Do you need one? What if employees can’t get to the office?

Does it matter?

“In a disaster, customers’ priorities could easily change,” she said.

People might flood hardware stores while novelty gift stores might be deserted.

In all planning, businesses have to ask: “How does a disaster affect your business?” she said.

Federal and local agencies have resources available to help companies plan for emergencies and disasters.

“No plan is going to be 100 percent perfect, but it can be a good start,” she said. “At least you have a sense of the direction you need to go and answers to some questions.”

Dan Catchpole: 425-339-3454; dcatchpole@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @dcatchpole.

Keep the juice on

From biotech labs to grocery stores, plenty of businesses need to a steady supply of energy. The Snohomish County Public Utility District can help businesses figure out what they need.

Many smaller businesses might simply need a generator like a homeowner, said Neil Neroutsos, the PUD’s spokesman.

In that case, make sure:

*It’s installed by a licensed electrician;

*It is well ventilated;

*It has a transfer switch, so it doesn’t overload the PUD’s power grid; and

*You have enough extra fuel on hand.

Some businesses might need a universal power supply system, essentially a large battery, which can keep critical systems running until the generator is turned on, said Chuck Peterson, who handles some of the PUD’s big accounts.

A universal power supply — or UPS — can also smooth out a sudden spike in voltage or a momentary outage, which could prompt a computer network to reset, he said.

Resources

Small Business Administration: www.sba.gov/offices/district/wa/seattle

Ready.gov’s disaster prep for businesses: www.ready.gov/business

Ready.gov business sample plan: 1.usa.gov/14Lsuo5

FEMA: www.fema.gov/small-business-toolkit

Snohomish County Public Utility District: www.snopud.com

American Red Cross: The Snohomish County chapter offers emergency training for workplaces. Contact the chapter at 425-252-4103.

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