The purpose of BERT is to prepare and protect employees and their families before and during a catastrophe, and to provide a job for us to come back to after the event has been mitigated. The BERT training is based on the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) curriculum developed by the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and classes are organized utilizing the Incident Command System (ICS).

Emergency Operation Managers are generally granted protections under the Good Samaritan Law. The Good Samaritan Law states that if you do something that a prudent person in your situation would do, you are covered. Of course, this also means that you should not...

Mitigation is "the process or result of making something less severe, dangerous, painful, harsh, or damaging," according to Merriam-Webster. Mitigation extends to every aspect of emergency preparedness, but non-structural hazard mitigation is also a key factor to...

Hazards are present in every realm, and one area of concern is with structural hazards. You may not have the opportunity to select the type of structure that you are in when an emergency occurs. However, if you can, you want to be in the sturdiest environment that is...

Self-preparedness is a significant part of emergency preparedness. Learn about community alerts, warnings, and evacuation routes; furthermore, make sure everybody knows what they are. Take some training classes offered by local community and first responders. Practice...

You want to set forth lines of authority, establish what kind of authority they have in those individual groups, and most importantly, ensure the ways people will be properly protected. Do you have equipment for these people in positions of authority? Are they trained properly? It is important to continually ask yourself these questions throughout the process.

Your business has the responsibility to participate at some level in community emergency preparedness. All of your neighboring businesses should ideally get together and form a committee to collaborate with the City Council or Planning Commission. If there is a systemic emergency, you can all pull together and help mitigate the problem.  

Any emergency response should adapt to the situation. You can always expand or contract the scope as needed, especially as new information presents itself to you. Of course, the primary focus at all times and under all circumstances is safety. Communicate that everyone needs to take care of themselves, their co-workers, their families, their homes, and their neighbors.