Open Forum

Our institution received a grant to hire a consultant and create an Emergency Operations Plan. We are a historic house museum that has live in caretakers. 

Our consultant has asked me to work up policies for volunteers in case of a major disaster that might possibly require volunteers, staff, and visitors to 'shelter in place.' I don't mind the concept but am trying to figure out how exactly to make that work. 

We don't keep food or other emergency rations here. Should we? Has anyone else thought through this eventuality?

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Leah Murray
Executive Director
Shelton McMurphey Johnson House
Eugene OR
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Leah,

The first step would be to assess the potential threats.  What potential event is the most likely to occur in your area that would require folks to shelter in place?  Instructions for a tornado might be very different from those for a flood or winter storm, for instance.  Once you have identified the most likely events, that will direct your planning.

In general, think about the basics as they relate to the potential situation. These might include: the location of your museum and surrounding area (is it in a flood plain, for example?), shelter (where on your site or in your house provides the most protection?), access to water that is safe, but does not require electricity to obtain, food, heat (in the case of a winter storm with no power) and communications.  What means would the folks at your museum have to communicate with others, and who should they call?

I would also recommend that if you have contact lists, or other written resources that you place them in an easily identifiable and accessible binder.  Computer files are great, but you cannot access them with no power.

We have people that live on our site at certain times of the year and have had to consider some of these questions.  You have already taken the most important step of realizing that it is an area to be addressed.  Perhaps the most important step is to make sure that after a plan has been made everyone is aware of it, practiced at it, and comfortable with it. Just realize that it is an ongoing process and don't get discouraged!

Deborah Bigness
Manager of Site Operations, Lubbock Lake National Historic Landmark
Museum of Texas Tech University
Lubbock TX

the first thing is that the term "major disaster" needs to be defined.  Does it only mean natural, or does it include man-made. Also shelter-in-place will be to be defined.  Does it mean long term or short duration?  Natural or man made disasters?  I developed our Emergency Action Plan/EAP.  In developing the EAP, the individual procedures cover both man-made and natural disasters.  It also broadly defines shelter-in-place/sip  I believe that you need to have a broad definition of SIP.  Here are some titles of our procedures:  Aggressive-Belligerent-Drunk Person; Chemical Spill; Code Adam; Aggressive-Disruptive Demonstration; Earthquake; Lockdown Inside & Outside.  With changing weather patterns, I now have to develop a Tornado procedures.

As far as food, water, cots, etc., we only have a limited supply of snack food/water in our gift shop.  Our keep our shelter in place time period as short as possible.  The intent is to provide for guests, visitors, staff immediately immediately after an emergency has occurred, and to have them depart the Museum and the immediate area as soon as it is safe to do so.  

Your consultant should assist you with making a threat assessment of your facility.  The threat isn't restricted to terrorists, but included the threat of wildfires, flooding, criminal activity, etc.  Basically events that can disrupt your normal business.  Also you'll have to take into consideration persons with disabilities. US Dept of Justice has divided the US into several regions and contracted with a specific ADA consultant for each region.  You can locate the appropriate on on the DOJ ADA web site.  Your consultant probably has knowledge of this so discuss it with him/her.  

Our Museum adopted the Incident Command System/ICS to use during emergencies or when any part of the EAP is activated. ICS is a system to manage resources, personnel during events.  The main position is Incident Commander/IC.  The IC is the person in charge of all resources being used, makes overall decision an appoints others to positions within ICS.  Federal laws and regulations, along with state laws, required government agencies, public safety personnel/first responders, and certain private organizations and companies operate under the ICS system at emergencies.  By adopting the system, Museum employees can tell arriving fire, police and ems who to contact.

But it depends on how involved your consultant wants you at this point. 

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Raymond Meyer
Safety & Security Manager
Aerospace Museum of California
McClellan CA
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