Is your staff prepared to handle an emergency in city hall?

It's likely that if an emergency occurs in your community, you currently have a plan in place as a response. Your community might participate in a hazardous material response team should a serious chemical spill occur on a nearby road. You probably participate in a mutual aid agreement with other communities should a police or fire emergency exceed your capabilities. And you very likely have a siren or some other emergency system to alert residents of impending severe weather.

Are you as well prepared within your own city or village hall if an employee or visitor has a medical emergency? If a fire occurs on your premises, or a tornado warning has been issued, do your employees know how to react, where to go, and from whom to take instructions?

If your answer is "Yes," congratulations! You have been successful in fulfilling your dual responsibilities to your citizens and your employees. If you can't answer yes, you surely are not alone, and you have the opportunity to develop and implement an emergency preparedness plan that will be enthusiastically received.

The Michigan Municipal League is currently reviewing its internal risk management and emergency preparedness procedures, including our training of new and veteran employees. We want to share some of the specific areas with which we're dealing, starting with medical and fire emergency planning.

Medical emergencies

Employees who are certified in first aid and/or CPR (there is a difference) and who are willing to help in an emergency should be identified. This can be done by having an additional listing on their name plate, or by posting a roster of trained employees. Employees should know who in their area has this training. If none or very few of your employees have training, you might want to encourage it by offering to reimburse employees for the cost of training, and letting them receive training during normal business hours.

CPR mouthguards should be provided to all trained employees who are willing to help in an emergency. A well stocked first aid kit is a must in any office. Someone should be responsible for regularly checking its contents and keeping it stocked with fresh supplies.

Most areas now have 911 service. If a medical emergency occurs, a designated person should be responsible for calling 911. This person should be able to provide the location address and clear directions to the location during an emergency.

A person should be designated to wait outside the building for the emergency vehicle, and to give directions to the entrance closest to the emergency. If the building has an elevator that will be needed by the emergency response team, the elevator should be secured and waiting for the response team to use immediately upon arrival.

One or more employees should be responsible for clearing the area around the person needing medical attention. Furniture, boxes or other office material should be moved to allow medical personnel a clear path to the patient with sufficient room to work. Only those employees with designated responsibilities should be in the area.

If the patient is an employee, employment records should be readily available to assist medical personnel in determining any allergies or other information that may affect emergency treatment.

Fire emergency

Advance planning is an absolute necessity to properly respond during a fire emergency. Every building should have an evacuation plan, regardless of how small the location or how simple it may seem to quickly leave. All employees should understand that their primary goal during a fire emergency is to evacuate, not to extinguish the fire.

All employees must be aware of the evacuation plan. In small buildings, one person should be designated to lead employees and others to a designated meeting area outside the building, and to take a roll call to ensure that all persons are accounted for. In larger buildings, more than one person should be designated as responsible for specific wings, floors or sections of the building.

Anyone who may need assistance in evacuating should be identified during the planning process. Identify the individuals who will help these people evacuate, making sure that the employees who will need assistance know who will help them. Remember that if your building has an elevator, it won't be used during a fire emergency. You may want to consider this fact when assigning office space to employees who will need emergency assistance.

Practice the evacuation plan with "fire drills." Contact your fire department and ask if the fire marshal will review your plan, observe the fire drill and offer any suggestions for improvement.

All employees should know how a building's alarm system, fire doors and fire extinguishers work, and where they are located. For new employees this training can be part of a safety orientation on their first day of work. For veteran employees, remedial training may be necessary, with annual or semiannual refreshers.

A common occurrence in many buildings with double entrance doors is to leave one of the doors locked. Double doors are a safety device to avoid bottlenecks at exits during an emergency. Please unlock both doors of a double door entrance.

Summary

Preparing for medical or fire emergencies is a complex task that these brief notes certainly haven't fully explained. But if you haven't implemented an emergency plan in your buildings, these reminders will give you a good start. For more information on this subject, you can contact the League's Municipal Resource Center, the League's Risk Management Services Division, Meadowbrook Insurance Group's loss control department, or your municipality's insurance representative.

Part Two

In the November issue of Michigan Municipal Review, we provided suggestions for dealing with medical and fire emergencies that may occur at city hall or another municipal location. This month's column focuses on weather emergencies and routines you can implement to encourage all employees to think safety first.

Weather emergencies

Weather emergencies run the gamut from windstorm (tornado or hurricane) to snow, to flood to extreme heat or cold. While procedures may differ for each type of possible weather emergency, what doesn't change is the need for advance preparation and clear communication.

Also, local citizens expect that their municipal services will be available when a weather emergency occurs. It is especially important for municipalities to have procedures in place to help ensure that normal service hours will be disrupted as little as possible.

Weather emergency information is readily obtainable through NOAA Weather Radio (operated by the National Weather Service), the Weather Channel or your local access cable TV station. Communicate to your staff that your emergency preparedness plan will be triggered by a severe weather warning issued by the National Weather Service (NWS).

Tornado procedures: Most important is to designate an area in each building as a tornado shelter. Basements or lower levels, preferably close to load-bearing walls, are best suited to withstand a tornado or windstorm emergency. At the Municipal League's Ann Arbor headquarters, the Educational Center, located on the lower level, is our designated tornado shelter. It is a fully enclosed room without windows. If your location lacks such a room, other suitable locations include interior hallways or rest rooms. The lowest level always is safest, so be sure to evacuate upper levels of your locations.

Once your plan is activated, normal activities should not be resumed until an "all clear" has been issued by the NWS. Once your emergency plan has been activated, no one should be allowed to leave the shelter area until the emergency has passed.

A battery operated radio should be available to keep track of developments, and flashlights should be handy in case electrical power is interrupted.

Severe thunderstorm procedures: It is important to move people away from windows and upper levels during severe thunderstorms. Hail and high winds that often accompany these storms are a major concern, as is the rapid accumulation of water on roads and low lying areas. After the emergency has passed, listen for travel information to make sure that staff members aren't leaving city hall only to encounter impassable road conditions.

Winter weather procedures: Unlike tornado, windstorm or severe thunderstorm activity, it is likely you will have sufficient time to prepare for severe winter weather. When the NWS issues a winter storm watch or warning, your first priority probably is to ensure that employees and equipment are prepared to keep roads clear and municipal services functioning. It is advisable to have a plan in place to alert non-emergency employees that they need not report to work. The Municipal League's administrative manual defines inclement winter weather as being when the Washtenaw County Office of Emergency Management declares that a snow emergency of "yellow" or "red" exists. It then defines what yellow and red snow alerts are, and provides detail on what our employees should do if either of these conditions exist before they report to work.

If severe winter weather strikes during a work day, there usually is sufficient information on local radio stations about expected accumulation, and how long the storm is expected to last. With this information, you should be able to decide whether or not to release non-emergency personnel before the storm severely hampers travel.

Employee training

An employee or administrative manual should provide specific information on the responsibilities and expectations of employees during a medical, fire or weather emergency. But a hands-on orientation and periodic safety exercises will improve the probability that your safety program will be carried out as planned.

New employees: Your current procedure for welcoming new employees may be similar to what I have encountered through the years: the new employee meets with the office manager and their immediate supervisor, and then is introduced around the office to his or her new colleagues. Making new employees feel comfortable should be encouraged, but you also should recognize an opportunity to begin safety training.

It is preferable to review the appropriate safety sections of the administrative manual with the employee, and follow this up immediately with a "safety orientation" of the entire office. Show the new employee where the fire extinguishers are located and how they operate, where the designated shelter areas are located, where fire doors are located, and which employees are trained in CPR or first aid. These "safety orientations" can be combined with introductions around the office; but your new employee should clearly understand that the priority is safety training and not social introductions.

Current employees: If you have never conducted safety orientations for current staff members, it would be a mistake to assume that current employees have any knowledge of the items mentioned above. But remedial training need not be overly burdensome. Depending on the number of employees at your location, you can either perform a single tour, or you can train department managers, who are then responsible for training their staff members on office safety procedures.

Safety exercises: We're all familiar with the term "fire drill." When evacuating a building for a fire drill, or evacuating to a designated shelter area for severe weather, note not only the speed with which your staff responds, but also the organization. Be certain that exit doors and fire doors are operating properly, that emergency lighting is operating, and that fire extinguishers are properly tagged. Ask your local fire marshal to attend your fire drill and offer suggestions for improvement.

It may not be feasible to conduct a mock medical emergency on your premises. But it is wise to remind employees at least annually which of their colleagues is trained in CPR or first aid, and what the general procedure will be if a medical emergency arises.

Summary

There is a wealth of information available on these topics that is readily available from the Michigan Municipal League's resource library, the National Fire Protection Association, the National Weather Services, and from other sources available on the Internet. You are encouraged to learn more about fire, medical and weather emergency preparedness, and to implement proper training procedures for all employees at all your municipal locations.