Thousands of organizations from commercial businesses to Houses of Worship, Schools, non-profit institutions, and even some government agencies have used a Ready Rating Assessment to measure the quality of their emergency response plan.
The Ready Rating Assessments provide users with objective and clear-cut evaluations of the breadth and depth of their Emergency Response Plans based on comparisons drawn from various international preparedness standards and industry best practices. The assessments were assembled by a team of experts and approved by the Scientific Advisory Council of the Red Cross
If you are not familiar with the term Emergency Action Plan or EAP, then you should know that this is the title given by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration or OSHA for short, to an emergency response plan that has at least these six core elements.
It’s the reason that football teams run plays, basketball players practice foul shots, and golfers go to the driving range. Not until recently have we had scientific validation of this intuitive belief. Dr. Eric Kandle of Columbia University has proven that if you don’t practice a skill, you lose your performance ability. In 2000, Kandel won the Nobel Prize in Medicine for his work with Aplysia – a sea slug that is a darling of neuro-physicists. While growing to be one foot long, Aplysia only have about 20,000 nerve cells, as compared to billions in the human brain. Aplysia’s simple brain structure allowed Kandel and his colleagues to study how memories are created and stored.
It was General Sun Tzu who first said, “know your enemy, and you shall win a hundred battles without loss.” Unfortunately, as our businesses become ever more dependent on the digital economy a new type of enemy has emerged – cybercriminals. Described by the news outlet CNBC as a pandemic, global cybercrime is estimated to have cost businesses around $600 B in 2017. In keeping with the general’s advice this article will help you prepare for “battle” by giving you an overview of the ten most common tactics used by cybercriminals today; and end with some advice on how to deal with these attacks.
As a Ready Rating member, you already know how you will act in a crisis. But do you know what to expect from other community members, especially your local government officials and first responders? Detailed information on their plans is readily available. Nearly every town and city, not to mention county, tribal, and state government, publish their emergency response plans online. To access this material, enter the name of your locale along with the term “multi-hazard mitigation plan” (e.g. New York City Multi-hazard Mitigation Plan) into any popular search engine. Follow the links and read about possible road closings, shelter locations, and evacuation routes which will be set up in response to various types of hazards
A study sponsored by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) found that nearly 60% of American adults have never participated in an evacuation or shelter-in-place (SiP) exercise. The study also found that only 39% had any type of emergency plan or even discussed the topic with their family. This, even though over 80% of the respondents live in communities impacted by a weather-related disaster.1
Today, concerns over systemic partner vulnerabilities such as dependence on unstable energy suppliers, the impact of armed conflict on the supply of raw materials, and cyber security concerns plague businesses around the world. Increased targeted hacking of financial institutions has affected the banking and payment industry driving up transactional and insurance costs while raising concern over the inherent security of such networks. The more extended the supply chain, the greater the vulnerability.
More and more we hear news of how climate change is affecting our lives. Storms are increasing in intensity, snowfalls are becoming more intense, and seasonal weather changes are occurring earlier. Residents in artic areas such as Alaska and Greenland are finding their hunting grounds diminished and their seacoasts eroded. Inhabitants of island countries in the South Pacific are witnessing their lands disappearing under rising ocean levels.
Henry Ford once said, “Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.” That was the spirit with which, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the federal government introduced its new vision for building national resilience against disasters. The report, The Federal Response to Hurricane Katrina: Lessons Learned, proposed the creation of an ambitious “culture of preparedness,” or a commitment by the public and private sectors, communities and individuals to maintain a state of readiness.[i] Sadly, more than a decade later, the vision remains unrealized.
