Responding to emergencies has become a predictable part of corporate, government, and school operations. Disasters like Hurricane Katrina and employee or student rage incidents are now far too familiar to us. They have indelibly changed common assumptions and expectations—and demonstrated that the ability of many organizations to manage catastrophes is grossly inadequate.

Government officials, executives, board members, and educators are now expected to anticipate emergency disruptions—natural, made-made, and terrorist related. Markets, public opinion, and the courts punish companies that do not adequately protect their people, physical assets, information, and supply chains. Standards of informed planning are beginning to affect the liability risks to which organizations are exposed. The White House has even elevated emergency planning to a national security priority.

Risk Solutions International’s Emergency Management practice helps companies, government agencies, colleges and school districts understand and manage threats from a holistic perspective. We use a standards-based approach to help them address all-hazards exposures across all phases of emergency management – prevention/mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery. Our strategies, advice and deliverables employ a proactive, all-inclusive approach that coordinates planning among all of the relevant private entities and public agencies, since the emergencies they face cross jurisdictional boundaries.

Corporate Emergency Programs

Financial and risk managers—and operations, facilities, and HR executives— are concerned for the safety and security of their employees, customers, tenants, and visitors. They are also charged with the protection of their companies’ physical assets and infrastructure. Our Emergency Management practice focuses on the emergencies faced by financial services, real estate and hospitality companies, manufacturers and petrochemical concerns, retailers, ports, and sporting arenas. We are experts in all-hazards, standards-based solutions that look at the region and surrounding community and its first responders, in developing plans that help limit damage and liability for our clients. Our senior emergency management consultants bring a rich set of experience in community police, federal law enforcement and extensive private sector security, safety and emergency management assignments. So we are equipped to see the “big picture”…and the details.

Governmental Emergency Preparedness

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security grants billions of dollars to state emergency management agencies. Metropolitan areas, coastal and port cities, and those in proximity to unique natural or made-made threats must now use this funding to aggressively plan for emergencies so they minimize loss of life and recover quickly from disasters. They must conform to federal standards in order to optimize inter-agency coordination. Our emergency management professionals help local governments with plans, exercises, evacuation, school district impact, and response and recovery, as part of their emergency management and continuity of operations (COOP) plans. We specialize in inter-jurisdictional coordination with affected stakeholders.

K-12 and Higher Education

School and college administrators, campus police, and safety officials share responsibility for ensuring a safe and secure learning and work environment. Risk Solutions International provides our education clients with unparalleled emergency preparedness expertise. We are prominent consultants to U.S. Department of Education Emergency Response/Crisis Management and Safe Schools Grant awardees, assisting thousands of schools in over 95 public school districts. We also help police departments and cities that win Department of Justice COPS “Secure Our Schools” grants. Our combined references, qualifications and experience in K-12 districts are unmatched. We help districts apply for the grants that can fund emergency preparedness programs, and we offer assessments, plan development, training/exercising and evaluations in a holistic and best practices approach to school safety. Our Campus Vulnerability Assessment Program enables colleges and universities to understand the campus-wide vulnerability of their physical plant and mitigate exposure for the safety of their students, faculty, and staff.

Port and Maritime Security

Exposure to catastrophic risk is perhaps no better illustrated than in the threats to our ports, the facilities that operate the infrastructure there, and the cargo receipt and handling that these ports process. Containers from over 10,000 foreign ports arrive daily at some 360 U.S. ports that employ thousands of workers. Vulnerabilities in this process are believed by many to be our most glaring exposure to terrorism. Risk Solutions International has created a Port and Maritime Security practice in partnership with Blue Water Partners Global. We offer a comprehensive Port and Maritime Security Compliance Assessment Program (PMS-CAP) that assists the industry meet and sustain MTSA compliance standards and understand the various MARSEC levels. We provide assessments, plan development, exercises/simulations /drills, MARAD-approved training and distance learning, compliance audit preparation and continuity of operations (COOP) planning.

Services and Solutions

We provide companies, municipalities, and school districts with a complete portfolio of safety, emergency, and crisis management services. Our deliverables address the four phases of emergency management: prevention/mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery.

Our solutions are compliant with the National Incident Management System (NIMS), the Incident Command System (ICS) and the Integrated Contingency Planning (ICP) approach to emergencies. They are considered industry best practices. Meeting these thresholds can be important to both operational and legal challenges after a critical incident occurs. Our solutions address all natural and man-made hazards including weather, civil unrest, strikes, workplace violence, chemical spills, biological releases, WMD, CBRNE, black-outs, floods, and terrorism. Our services include:

Emergency Management Assessment Program (“EMAP”) — Through a comprehensive review of your plans, Risk Solutions International assesses the capabilities and improvement needs of its clients current Emergency Management Program.  Moreover, our team of experts benchmarks its client’s current program against industry standards and leading practices. The EMAP report identifies strengths and weaknesses in current plans, flags gaps in preparedness and prioritizes improvements.

Policies and Procedures — Risk Solutions International designs entity-wide policies and procedures that adhere to regulatory requirements and industry leading practices. Its clients documented emergency response policies and procedures ensure that emergency management activities are consistent throughout the organization and meet corporate governance and audit requirements.

Risk Assessment — Risk Solutions International identifies, assesses and ranks the potential risks that may impact its client’s organization. Our team of experts provides management with risk assessment techniques and tools to identify exposures/risks that could impact its client’s organization. To ensure that Risk Solutions International provides its clients with a complete picture of their potential areas of exposure, it compares its client’s control environment to best practices that Risk Solutions International has both designed and observed at many of its clients.

Threat and Vulnerability Assessment Plan (“TVAP”) — Risk Solutions International’s TVAPs are based on similar programs developed by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Department of Transportation. The TVAP includes five core elements: Asset Analysis, Threat & Target Identification, Vulnerability Assessment, Consequence Analysis and Counter-Measure Recommendations.

Emergency Response Plan (“ERP”) — Risk Solutions International follows the U.S. National Response Team’s Integrated Contingency Planning (“ICP”) approach to complete Emergency Response Plans.   The firms “all hazards” ERPs incorporate the Incident Management System (“IMS”)— endorsed by the National Fire Protection Association — as the nucleus of the plan. Risk Solutions International’s emergency response plans contain easy-to-follow emergency procedure flowcharts, event aids, emergency phone numbers/phone trees, emergency response team roles and responsibilities, area specific actions, and supplemental support information.

Emergency Procedures Guides (“EPG”) — Risk Solutions International creates customized EPGs, providing employees and building occupants with a valuable crime prevention and fire/life safety tool that will enhance current emergency response procedures. The user friendly EPGs are designed to give employees the knowledge and awareness they need so that they will follow proper procedures when confronted with an emergency.

Training and Exercises — Risk Solutions International’s customized emergency management training and exercise programs allow its clients to test existing emergency response plans and increase emergency response comprehension. Its exercises are constructed to increase awareness among all stakeholders including your organization’s emergency response teams, employees, building occupants, public safety agencies and community members.

Program Evaluation — The focus of Risk Solutions International’s evaluation program is to determine the effectiveness of different components of the emergency management program and to guide plans to improve and sustain the project. Two evaluation methods are used.  Process Evaluation focuses on providing information for program improvement, adjustment and management.  Impact Evaluation focuses on determining program results and effectiveness (merit and value).

Emergency Management Expertise

Our experts include professional emergency managers, American Threat Assessment professionals, members of Emergency Corps, International Association of Chiefs of Police, National/International Crisis Negotiators’ Consortium, and International Association of Law Enforcement trainers.  Some are U.S. Department of Education (DOE) school trainers, experts from the FBI’s National Domestic Preparedness Office (for WMD), and former members of the U.S. Air Force Disaster Preparedness Program—who have dealt with chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and explosives (CBRNE) threats.

For More Information

For information about how Risk Solutions International’s Emergency Management Practice, please contact Scott A. Corzine at SCorzine@rsi-llc.com.