Published November 2002

Disaster planning should be on everyone’s radar

How times have changed.

Last month’s Northwest Construction Consumer Council education conference in Bellingham — “Disaster Preparedness: What Owners and Contractors Need to Know Now” — focused on emergency response plans for terrorist attacks, workplace violence and earthquakes.

Not so long ago, the focus might only have been on earthquakes.

But now disaster planning for a variety of situations has become increasingly important to employers. Even so, according to an American Management Association survey, more than half of the employers who responded have no disaster plans at all. Even among those who have designated crisis management teams, most don’t conduct drills, the survey showed, and more than 70 percent said they hadn’t trained their appointed employees in crisis management skills.

As our world changes, there is more emphasis on workplace security, including more stringent background checks on new employees, more security cameras and guards, more use of electronic key access to buildings and a crackdown on substance abuse and on-site weapons, said Davis Wright Tremaine attorney Michael Killeen.

Other changes, he said, include more attention to developing business continuity plans, defining responsibility for rebuilding in landlord/tenant contracts, mapping evacuation routes in high-rise buildings and increasing use of Employee Assistance Plans for dealing with post-disaster reactions.

There also is substantial corporate responsibility for adhering to the new Patriot Act’s anti-money laundering laws, particularly when dealing with foreign companies or individuals, he said, plus the challenges of rising insurance premiums, more litigation by employees or surviving family members, and proving that corporate disaster plans were in place at the time of a disaster.

Also, quake dangers in the Northwest are getting more attention, particularly since the 6.8-magnitude Nisqually earthquake shook the Puget Sound area in 2001.

John Hooper, Director of Earthquake Engineering for Skilling, Ward, Magnusson Barkshire in Seattle, the structural design firm for the World Trade Center in the 1960s, said, “Clearly, we don’t (normally) design for airplanes (hitting buildings) … but buildings can be better designed for earthquakes, hurricanes and other natural disasters.”

Today’s seismic design criteria are for “life safe” performance, he said. Even if the building is damaged, it will remain standing, protecting the people inside, he said.

Many of the area’s newer buildings are well designed to withstand earthquakes, he said, among them the expanded Washington State Trade & Convention Center, with its steel-braced frame; the new Women and Children’s Pavilion hospital in Everett that uses truss frames to absorb quake shocks; and concrete reinforcement in the Bellevue Arts Center.

To help prevent terrorist attacks, he suggested designing building sites so that large trucks can’t park close to the structure, wrapping support columns with fiber-reinforced materials that prevent collapsing, and lining outside walls with metal-fabric plates that can absorb car-bomb blasts without caving in on the occupants.

Eric Holdeman, manager of King County’s Office of Emergency Management, said he is focusing on improved coordination between fire, police, cities, hospitals, school districts, utility companies, government agencies, businesses and industries to make the county’s emergency management plan more effective.

“We need to view the plan regionally and talk about it in advance. If Shoreline had to be evacuated, what should Seattle be doing? How do we manage donated goods and shelters? Mutual aid is a key factor in preparing for cross-disciplinary interaction. We need to set a legal and financial framework and create an incident command system (ICS),” Holdeman said.

Over the past three years, 92 agencies and businesses have become involved in planning the ICS, including Boeing, the Port of Seattle, Sound Transit, Puget Sound Energy and others, “but we need more private industry involved,” Holdeman said.

For more information, visit the Web sites of the Northwest Construction Consumer Council (www.nwccc.org), King County Office of Emergency Management (www.metrokc.gov/prepare/), FEMA (www.fema.gov/library) and the Institute for Crisis Management (www.crisisexperts.com).

Back to the top/November 2002 Main Menu