The Disaster Management Plan - Essay Example

Designing and developing a disaster management plan Introduction Disasters can be natural or man-made which destroy the utilities. It is a perennial problem happening in one place or the other in the world on a regular basis. For United States, Hurricane Katrina (2005) has been one of the worst weather related disaster. These random occurrences such as earth quakes, fire and floods or manmade threats like terrorist acts, workplace violence, bomb threats, building collapse, civil disturbance, labor dispute, utility failure and internal/ external cyber acts on the utility industries such as Insurance Companies cast greater responsibilities on the management. The focus in the recent years has been shifted from the restoration of services at the earliest possible time to continuity of the business operations without loss of time. The utility industries are in a very piquant situation in view of various statutory compliances involved in the business operations apart from protection of employees, losses on account of disruption of the services, damages to the properties and machineries and civil and criminal liabilities arising out of such situations. It is pertinent to note that ‘accidents in the transportation field have had significant impacts on expenditure to reduce risks and increase safety, in some cases quite independently of the technical and economic arguments for investment but merely because public perception demands that particular ghosts be laid.’ (Perrow, 1984). Security Program A good disaster management plan envisages establishment of security policies and implementation of procedures in practice. Physical Security of the executives is of paramount importance, because avoiding breakdown in the decision making machinery is very crucial. Identification, analysis and evaluation of the facilities which are prone to disasters based on the available data may be the starting point. Security Understanding of peoples perception of and relationships with disaster should reflect in the personnel policy. No orders can be issued and effectively acted upon if there is inadequacy in this respect, because, these are the factors which govern their choices and actions. Honesty and integrity of an employee is very important in dealing with emergencies. Success of all management plans hinges on the company’s policy with regard to recruitment, background investigation, orientation provided and the continuous performance appraisal in relation to the employees. Security of data especially for a company in insurance sector is very important. Secret and confidential data should have very limited accessibility, and available only for the people designated by the management for this purpose. Information Security system in respect of all the files with reference to theft or loss of data should be designed and implemented after taking into consideration the factors such as nature of data, need for accessibility at various levels in the organization, the frequency of use, chances of theft or misuse of data, requirement of back-up, source(s) of data, the team responsible for security, the technology used in machines, software used for operations, data recovery system available in the software and authorization for classification of data with regard to confidentiality and secrecy. The disaster management consequent upon disruption/wreckage of the system or loss of data depends on the control mechanism installed for identifying the problem immediately without loss of time, the speed with which the company is able to respond to the envisioned situation and the knowledge/procedures available for taking precise measures in such an eventuality. This needs high level coordination with the software and hardware consultants, control over source of data and end use of the data to prevent its misuse. Segregation of data into parts and storing it separately by different persons with the use of unique individual passwords is important for minimization of loss and damages. Vijayan, J. (2010) quotes ‘Paul Wood, a senior intelligence analyst at Symantec Corp.s MessageLabs Intelligence unit, said that cloud-based security controls could help IT managers better detect targeted attacks’. Policy and procedures Keeping the company in full preparedness depends upon updating the procedures and preparing staff for crises, especially by instilling confidence and developing culture among the employees through interactions, classes and seminars. The procedures developed based on the past experience and evaluation of the available data should be recorded to form the basis for policies. The various terms need to be defined to avoid ambiguity. Policy and procedures also establish the reporting system and stipulate the methods of reporting. Prompt and clear reporting is essential for carrying out the various tasks involved and evaluation of the results. Training Disaster management includes all employees irrespective of their positions in the organization. The training to employees involves understanding the basis of the policies and procedures and the need for compliance with the procedures stipulated. The training is a continuous process which is required due to changes/developments in respect of the factors such as law, technology, method of operation, expansion and diversification. Program review Continuous evaluation of the program based on various developments that take place continuously in an organization or the environment is essential. Conducting test exercises, mock operations and surveys to improve the responsiveness and preparedness of the organization to the unforeseen acts of god or manmade disaster is very important since the factors involved are multifarious, and the organization is anticipating the imponderables. Disaster Management Plan A good disaster management plan considers the issue from various angles after careful analysis of various factors involved, with sense of proportion and attention to cost of alternative solutions available. Estimates: Establishment of proper system for estimation of restoration costs is essential for preparation of a contingency budget. The restoration process calls for different approaches at the ground level. Proper central back-up is required for this purpose with necessary tools, because at the time of emergency, availability becomes a major issue due to increased demand for such products. Identification of the critical issues: This include information related to Geographical locations, location of critical facilities, resources available locally, likely impact due to disruption of services, service areas affected, manpower involved and possibility of outsourcing. Oosterom, Zlatanova and Fendel (2005) state ‘Geo-information technologies offer a variety of opportunities to aid management and recovery in the aftermath of industrial accidents, road collisions, complex emergencies, earthquakes, fires, floods and similar catastrophes’. Establishing communication system: There is a need to be perfect coordination between the control room and the ground crew in the process of disaster management. The procedures to be adopted for this purpose and the trouble shooting mechanisms for effective interference during the process should be worked out in detail at the stage of design and incorporated into the master plan. External Agencies: The efficiency in dealing with the critical situations in disaster management depends upon the company’s relationship with several external agencies whose active support is very essential in resolving several crucial issues. Communication with the utility service providers such as electricity and water supply companies/agencies, hospitals, transport companies, weather department and communication services should be restored on priority basis or augmented for efficiency to meet the additional burdens at the time of emergency. Therefore, the planning process involves streamlining the relationship with these agencies for up-to-date information with regard to the developments related to the functioning of these agencies. Therefore, maintaining good Public Relations with these agencies is a part of the strategy, because, however efficient the internal operations in disaster management is, many a times, the outcome depends upon the cooperation and support of these external agencies to a greater extent. Prioritizing functions in disaster management: Another important phase in planning is identifying various functions involved in the operations and prioritizing it. Several activities are interrelated and depend upon completion of other activities. Therefore the plan calls for logical flow in the process, and the order of priority in the event of a disaster should be foreseen based on the past records and statistics, after taking into account the factors related to the particular operation or location to avoid delays or stagnation in the process. Security and public safety: It is important to ensure that the security and public safety is given importance in the disaster management. There are so many issues related to fire, pollution, toxins and contamination which may result into accidents or other serious security and safety concerns. Identification of the areas related to security and public safety before embarking on mitigation, recovery or restoration process is important. Otherwise, the disaster management process may be burdened additionally with the public safety and security problems to make it worse, and beyond redemption in some cases. Statutory requirements: While dealing with the recovery or restoration process, compliance with the statutory requirements, information to the statutory authorities wherever required and obtaining necessary approval of the concerned government departments under certain circumstances may be necessary. This will avoid unnecessary litigations or penalties. Mitigation, Recovery and Restoration of operations: The operations involve interaction with the control room, procurement of the materials needed, deployment of manpower required, organizing logistics, internal coordination among various functions such as civil, mechanical and electrical maintenance, interaction with the sub-contractors, coordination with the external agencies and statutory authorities and reporting to the management about the progress problems on day to day basis and special reporting on specific issues. Therefore, the design and development of the disaster management plan is broken into several functions with clear cut procedures for evaluation, estimation, and resource management with time schedule as well as integration of the various functions as a unified process. Tentative or pro forma budgets for various tasks involved with time schedule enables the management to work out the impact immediately which makes the decision making process easier and quicker. These flexible budgets, prepared in anticipation of a future event, could be modified with reference to the extent of damages, usually by the method of extrapolation based on the previous experiences or estimates. This process ensures clarity in thinking and focus in the approach, with a definite action plan in hand. Contingency plans with alternative strategies. When the damages are difficult to estimate, the estimates prepared on a set of data will be inadequate for obvious reasons. The management should be ready with a contingency plan to meet such unforeseen developments. Disaster Management Committee: Dedicated management team and staff should be made available for continuous evaluation of the disaster management system for the companies whose operations are carried out in different countries, and the facilities at one or other place is susceptible to fire, floods, storm or terror strikes. The company learns new ideas and techniques to deal with such situation through experience and accumulated wisdom and fine tune their strategies to be in thorough preparedness at all times. Role of technology in disaster management: Gadgets with new technologies such as use of GPRS, GPS in mobiles and cars makes coordination easier. In Geo-spatial information system (GIS) information or data with reference to geographical locations is captured and stored for analysis which will be useful in the areas such as remote sensing, emergency management, logistics and geographical surveys for various purposes. GIS will be very useful in assessment of the damages, planning for restoration/recovery and task management. Installation of GIS-enabled infrastructure is essential for control of the operations and for decision making for a multi location organizations. This system will ensure protection of employees and the facilities. Efficiency in the analysis of spatial information by means of GIS will enable the management to quickly respond to the emergency situations. This means capability of tracking the vulnerable machines, trucks and working groups at various locations. The idea is to ensure that the mitigation efforts are efficiently handled to avoid any crisis, and the recovery process is synchronized with the advance plans. This is also useful in elimination of the effect of the disaster in future operations. Therefore, the integration of GIS in the designing and the conceptual stage of the disaster management plan are essential for the development of the plan to be meaningful, considering the nature of the industry with facilities throughout the country/world. Also, the industry is tied up with the customers and the business of the customers and/or their assets which are located in different geographical locations. At the time of emergency, accuracy of the response and reassurance given to the customers hinges on the management’s grip of the situation-. Prevention Though it is understood that natural or manmade disasters cannot be prevented, vulnerability of a location to disasters can be assessed. The risk levels with regard to areas prone to earth quakes, hurricane, tsunami etc. can be determined based on the available statistics. The companies can increase the level of preparedness accordingly. Also, the company may establish disaster management centers to avoid disruption in the services to ensure business continuity. Advancements and innovations made in technology are useful for taking preventive measures in disaster management. For example, Rao states ‘The Earth Observation satellites provide comprehensive, synoptic and multi temporal coverage of large areas in real time and at frequent intervals and thus - have become valuable for continuous monitoring of atmospheric as well as surface parameters related to natural disasters’. Establishment of Disaster Management Centers: Many organizations like Stock Exchanges, Banks and software companies in Service Industries Sector have established Disaster Management Centers with complete backup facilities in different locations to meet the unforeseen disasters. This will enable them to render services effectively on real time basis without any disruption. The infrastructural facilities are fully geared up in these centers, and it is only the question of scaling up the operations at the time of emergency to maintain continuity by relocating additional employees required to deal with the increased work load. Wherever, additional machines such as computers and communication equipments are required for this purpose, usually they are readily available in the market and could be installed immediately without loss of time. Periodically mock operations at these centers are conducted to ensure readiness of the system at all times. Conclusion Risk aversion prompts the companies to design and develop a disaster management system to avoid disruption in services in the event of disasters. The impact of the disasters and the responsiveness vary from organization to organization. However, advanced plan of action enhances the level of preparedness to face the challenges effectively. It will be useful in speeding up the recovery/restoration process and minimizing the damages caused by disasters. Development of a comprehensive disaster management plan should not be construed as a cost and burden on the organization, but treated as benefit in view of the perceived security and business continuity. References Oosterom, P. V., Zlatanova, A. and Fendel F. (2010). Geo-information for Disaster Management, Directions Media, Retrieved from http://www.directionsmag.com/articles/geo-information-for-disaster-management/123549 Perrow, C. (1984). Normal Accidents: Living With High Risk Technologies. Basic Books, New York. Rao, D. P. Disaster Management, GIS Development, Retrieved from http://www.gisdevelopment.net/application/natural_hazards/overview/nho0004.htm Vijayan, J. (2010) Targeted cyberattacks testing IT managers, Computerworld, Retrieved from http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/348137/Targeted_Cyberattacks_Testing_IT_Managers . Read More