Planning for emergency response plan or effective emergency response planning or the acronym ERP which stands for emergency response plans the best practice that you can do is to imagine here the worst case scenario. In light of Hurricane Sandy you want to ensure that you practice what to do before an emergency happens so you are prepared for the worst and can mitigate some of your losses.
So you want to do tabletop exercises. Tabletop exercises are where you have a scenario and you walk through it like an emergency situation like a flood and you discuss the best outcome with your staff and practice drilling or what you would do if there was a flood. You would ensure that machinery can continue to operate and you would flood-proof or barricade those areas that are critical to your operation for example and you would provide mop up or products that could capture water or spills.
You should perform tabletop exercises for all your personnel to walk through and practice and assign responsibilities for every employee and drill it into them so they know precisely what to do and they can operate as a well-oiled machine.
Practice a different scenario through each safety meeting which should ideally be held monthly so you will have 12 emergency scenarios that are the most likely and at the end of 12 months you walk through them again to really reinforce what you need to know.
So the key I want to emphasize and your call to action is be prepared. Practice for the unthinkable so when the unthinkable occurs you can react in a polished, efficient and effective fashion just like the Girl Guides, “Be Prepared.”