Emergency and Disaster Planning – PACE Yourself!

First, do not interpret the title literally! Societally, we are woefully behind as individuals, families, business owners, corporate executives and local government officials (and many would say federal) in developing real world “what-if” emergency and disaster response plans. Today, previously thought “what if” emergencies are readily becoming all too real and it’s sad to say not many are ready, not even some of the largest companies in the world. This fact can be best highlighted by the massive Deep Water Horizon oil spill, a true man-made environmental disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

Hurricane Preparedness Week is an excellent opportunity to introduce our readers to P.A.C.E. P.A.C.E. is an acronym for Primary, Alternate, Contingency and Emergency planning. If you’ve read anything on the subject of planning, whether it’s from the military perspective or the latest popular business management book, the ultimate objectives are the same in terms of developing a sound plan that is:

1. Simple to understand
2. Realistic and implementable
3. Properly resourced and provisioned
4. Read, understood, comprehended and practiced by all involved
5. Flexible

Developing emergency preparedness and disaster response plans that have depth provide a greater range of options for successfully coping with a disaster, period…Keep in mind that disasters are terribly difficult on everyone and especially harsh for elderly, physically disabled, hearing and sight impaired, pet and live stock populations.

Depending on your perspective, emergencies can quickly become disasters where the positive outcome may well come down to how well you’ve planned. The stark reality of disasters forces those who are of a resilient mindset to accept Murphy’s Law, “if it can go wrong, it will” and it’s critically important to get out in front of the situation before it overtakes you. Of course there are sage experienced professionals that have cautioned me that O’Malley’s Law states that Murphy’s Law was overly optimist! Once you’ve made your plans, understand that they must evolve and be updated. An interesting yet true saying worth passing on is that “No Plan Ever Survives First Contact…”. Emergencies and disasters have a very bad, but consistent habit of getting worse before they get better.

There is no better time than the present to either sit down create and or update your emergency preparedness and disaster response plans. The Resources Section of our ICE-PACK.com website is a good starting point, but please remember to P.A.C.E. yourself!

Facta non verba…