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The NFPA 1600

In November, 2004, the National Fire Protection Association 1600 Standard on Disaster/Emergency Management and Business Continuity Programs (NFPA 1600) was designated as the National Preparedness Standard for public sector preparedness at the federal, state, territorial, and local levels.

ANSI/NFPA 1600 was revised, released and made available to the public in March, 2007 to incorporate and expand the concepts for disaster/emergency management and business continuity programs. The previous 2004 edition focused on the four aspects of mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery. The 2007 edition adds prevention to the other four, and expands on the planning process. This aligns the standard with the disciplines and practices of risk management, security, and loss prevention.

Given that 85% of our national infrastructure is controlled by the private sector, and for the purpose of unified public/private response to catastrophic events, in 2004 the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and Homeland Security Standards Panel (HSSP) determined that endorsement and adoption of the ANSI/NFPA 1600 standard was also to be included for preparedness by the private sector. In March of 2007, the ‘‘Implementing the 9/11 Commission Recommendations Act of 2007" (HR1), also adopted ANSI/NFPA 1600.

Purpose and Scope:

The ANSI/NFPA 1600 establishes a common set of criteria and terminology for disaster management, emergency management, and business continuity programs. This standard provides those with the responsibility for disaster and emergency management and business continuity the specific criteria to assess current programs or to develop, implement, and maintain a program to prevent, mitigate, prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters and emergencies.

General Definitions:

  • Disaster. An occurrence of a natural catastrophe, technological accident, or human caused event that has resulted in severe property damage, deaths, and/or multiple injuries.

  • Emergency. Any occasion or instance, natural or man-made catastrophe-- that warrants action to save lives and to protect property, public health, and safety. ·

  • Business Continuity. An ongoing process supported by senior management and funded to ensure that the necessary steps are taken to identify the impact of potential losses, maintain viable recovery strategies and recovery plans, and ensure continuity of services.

  • Damage Assessment. An appraisal or determination of the effects of the disaster on human, physical, economic, and natural resources.

  • Disaster/Emergency Management. An ongoing process to prevent, mitigate, prepare for, respond to, and recover from an incident that threatens life, property, operations, or the environment.

  • Emergency Management Program. A program that implements the mission, vision, and strategic goals and objectives as well as the management framework of the program and organization.

  • Entity. A governmental agency or jurisdiction, private or public company, partnership, nonprofit organization, or other organization that has emergency management and continuity of operations responsibilities.

  • Impact Analysis (Business Impact Analysis, BIA). A management level analysis that identifies the impacts of losing the entity's resources.

  • Incident Action Plan. A verbal plan, written plan, or combination of both, that is updated throughout the incident and reflects the overall incident strategy, tactics, risk management, and member safety that are developed by the incident commander.

  • Incident Management System (IMS). The combination of facilities, equipment, personnel, procedures, and communications operating within a common organizational structure, designed to aid in the management of resources during incidents.

  • Mitigation. Activities taken to reduce the severity or consequences of an emergency.

  • Mutual Aid/Assistance Agreement. A prearranged agreement between two or more entities to share resources in response to an incident.

  • Preparedness. Activities, tasks, programs, and systems developed and implemented prior to an emergency that are used to support the prevention of, mitigation of, response to, and recovery from emergencies.

  • Prevention. Activities to avoid an incident or to stop an emergency from occurring.

  • Recovery. Activities and programs designed to return conditions to a level that is acceptable to the entity.

  • Resource Management. A system for identifying available resources to enable timely and unimpeded access to resources needed to prevent, mitigate, prepare for, respond to, or recover from an incident.

  • Response. Immediate and ongoing activities, tasks, programs, and systems to manage the effects of an incident that threatens life, property, operations, or the environment.

  • Situation Analysis. The process of evaluating the severity and consequences of an incident and communicating the results.

  • Stakeholder. Any individual, group, or organization that might affect, be affected by, or perceive itself to be affected by the emergency.

ANSI/NFPA 1600 Program Elements:

Program Administration - A documented program must exist that includes a vision and mission statement, defined roles and authorities, plans and procedures, applicable legislation, regulations and codes of practice, budgets, schedules and records management. The program must be administered by a program coordinator in cooperation with an advisory committee and must be periodically evaluated against defined objectives.

General Program Requirements - The program must be based on hazards affecting an organization and must contain elements applicable to prevention, mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery.

Laws and Authorities - The program must comply with legislation, policies, regulatory requirements and directives and must include a strategy for dealing with changes to the same.

Risk Assessment - An organization must identify, monitor and determine the likelihood of occurrence and its vulnerability to hazards. Hazards must include natural, human caused and technological and a thorough impact analysis must be conducted which includes health and safety, continuity of operations, property and facilities, delivery of service, environment, financial considerations, regulations, the reputation of the organization and other considerations as appropriate.

Incident Prevention - An organization must develop a strategy to prevent incidents identified in its risk assessment and must keep this strategy current. Preventive measures must be adjusted commensurate with risks.

Mitigation - When a potential incident is identified that cannot be prevented, an organization must develop a mitigation strategy to reduce the impact of the potential incident. The mitigation strategy must be based on risk assessment, impact analysis, program constraints, and experience and cost-benefit analysis. The strategy must include interim and long-term actions.

Resource Management and Logistics - Resource management objectives and procedures must be established. Resource objectives must be comprehensive and include all possible aspects internal to the organization as well as resources external to the organization. Resource management must include specific tasks, an assessment of resources to identify continuing needs, an inventory of resources and identification of any donated resources.

Mutual Aid / Assistance - The need for any mutual aid or assistance must be identified. Agreements must be established and be included in the program.

Planning - An organizations program must include the following plans:

  • Strategic - which includes a vision, mission, goals and objectives.

  • Emergency Operations/Response - which includes specific responsibilities of personnel during an emergency.

  • Prevention - which includes interim and long-term actions to eliminate hazards that impact the organization.

  • Mitigation - which includes interim and long-term actions to reduce the impact of hazards that cannot be eliminated.

  • Recovery - which includes priorities for restoration of functions, services, resources, facilities, programs and infrastructure.

  • Continuity - which includes notification of stakeholders, identification of alternate work sites, vital records, contacts, maintenance of processes and functions as well as resources necessary while recovery is underway.

These plans must meet common plan elements as defined in NFPA 1600 and must be communicated to those assigned specific tasks within the plans.

Incident Management - An incident management system must be developed that includes specific roles and responsibilities and coordination procedures for response, continuity and recovery with appropriate authorities and resources. Activation and deactivation of plans must be addressed. Incident management may be in the form of action plans or management by objectives.

Communications and Warning - Communications systems and procedures must be established and exercised regularly including the capability to alert officials, emergency response personnel and people potentially impacted by an actual or impending emergency. An organization must identify communication needs, provide capabilities and review the interoperability of multiple responding organizations.

Operational Procedures - An organization must develop procedures to support the program and execute plans. Procedures must be established for response and recovery from the consequences of hazards identified. Procedures must thoroughly address all aspects of an incident including safety, stabilization, business continuity, property conservation and environment. Procedures must also include a situation analysis, needs assessment, damage assessment, identification of resources for response and recovery and succession of management/government. Facilities - Primary and alternate emergency operations centers (EOC's) must be established and identified and must be capable of managing continuity, response and recovery operations.

Training - A training and education curriculum must be established to support the program. Training objectives must be established as well as frequency and scope. Personnel must be trained in the organizations program and records must be maintained. All training must comply with applicable regulatory requirements.

Exercises, Evaluations and Corrective Actions - The program must be evaluated through periodic evaluations. The frequency of these evaluations must be determined and may be increased based on post incident analysis, reports, lessons learned and performance evaluations. Exercises must focus on individual program elements, interrelated elements or entire plans. When any deficiency is identified, corrective action must be implemented.

Crisis Communication and Public Information - Procedures must be established for requests for information prior to, during and after an incident and must address information to be provided to internal and external audiences. The capability to address public information must be maintained and must include a central contact, a system for gathering and disseminating information, pre-scripted information, coordination and clearance of information for release, special needs communication and protective action guidance. Procedures must also include public awareness communication and advisement through authorized agencies.

Finance and Administration - Procedures that address financial and administrative support for the program must be established and must include pre- incident, incident and post incident requirements. Expedition of fiscal decisions must be addressed and procedures must include responsibilities, procurement, payroll, accounting to track costs and management of external funding.

Click here to acquire a copy of the ANSI/NFPA 1600 Standard (requires Acrobat Reader)

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