Disaster preparedness in the office is key, too

A disaster plan is crucial for you and your family, but have you ever given more thought to a preparedness plan for your job - your work family? If it hasn’t crossed your mind, training with the Offices of Guam Homeland Security and Civil Defense in collaboration with FEMA is inviting people like you. 

Ever thought about how many people rely on what you do at your 9 to 5? What about how essential your job operation may be if disaster strikes? Denise Chrosniak, a continuity specialist for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, is on island helping others find the answers to those questions.  She is working with the Guam Homeland Security/Office of Civil Defense to train organizations realize the importance of a continuity plan. 

"Continuity is the continuation of the concept of being able to do your job or your functions no matter what emergency can happen - so when you think about power outages, to here, you could have a typhoon - and still being able to get those essential functions out, still being able to run your government, still being able to run your business, every organization has certain things that they do that they have to continue no matter what the bad day is," she explained.

Chrosniak says step one begins with assessing any threats or hazards to your work’s function, mainly natural, manmade, and technological hazards. Step two:- compare potential threats to your operations. 

And thirdly, as she said, "Make sure that you have ideas of where to evacuate to if you need to evacuate; when it comes to communications, do you have a communications plan?"

Though Chrosniak emphasizes continuity begins at the personal level before elevating to an organizational level, she stresses collective preparedness is crucial to the overarching function of a community.  "Let’s take a pizza parlor: a pizza parlor was not a life or death situation if something were to shut them down. However, first responders to an event—if that pizza parlor is still able to operate, it can feed first responders, which could assist the rest of our community. So, that one little difference—that one organization, that mom-and-pop shop, is important to the overall community, and we’re all in it together," she said.

Denise invites you to be that difference when it comes to preparedness by starting on your plan. For more information on where to begin, visit ready.gov.