FEMA offers the following 10 steps for businesses like hotels to develop an emergency response plan.
1Review hazard or threat scenarios.
Review hazard or threat scenarios identified during the risk assessment. A risk assessment is a process used to identify potential hazards and analyze what could happen if such a hazard occurs. Understanding your own vulnerabilities by conducting a risk assessment is the first step in developing an emergency response plan.
2Assess resources.
Assess the availability and capabilities of resources for incident stabilization including people, systems, and equipment available within your business and from external sources.
3Talk with public emergency services.
Talk with public emergency service agencies (e.g., fire, police, and emergency medical services) to determine their response time to your facility, knowledge of your facility and its hazards, and their capabilities to stabilize an emergency at your facility.
4Determine regulations.
Determine if there are any regulations pertaining to emergency planning at your facility; address applicable regulations in the plan.
5Develop protective actions.
Develop protective actions for life safety, including evacuation, shelter, shelter-in-place, and lockdown actions.
6Develop emergency procedures.
Develop hazard and threat-specific emergency procedures.
7Write an emergency response plan.
Emergency response plans should define the most appropriate protective action for each hazard to ensure the safety of employees and others within the building and determine how to warn building occupants to take protective action.
8Coordinate emergency planning.
Coordinate emergency planning with public emergency services to stabilize incidents involving the hazards at your facility.
9Train personnel.
Train hotel staff so they can fulfill their roles and responsibilities.
10Facilitate exercises.
Facilitate exercises to practice your plan.
