Emergency preparedness

Guide on Emergency and Disaster Control

Scope

This guide identifies and establishes procedures to deal with three principal phases of emergency/disaster control:

• Response notifying departmental officials of any serious situation, actual or imminent, that requires prompt action to control both the event itself and its aftermath.
• Recovery restoring damaged records and facilities to their normal condition and resuming operations.
• Readiness Preventing when possible future emergencies or disasters; developing operational strategies for dealing with disaster; and fostering staff’s preparedness to respond to any serious situation quickly and efficiently.

Principles

Both the preparation of this guide and the successful implementation of its requirements depend on a number of factors, including:

• strong commitment from departmental senior management;
• adequate human and financial resources;
• acceptance by the department of the policy directions and procedures;
• clear assignment of leadership roles and responsibilities;
• dedicated staff to deal with emergency and disaster situations;
• departmental policies, procedures, and checklists;
• setting priorities for records;
• careful assessment of threats and risks;
• exercising emergency and disaster control requirements;
• periodic, formal testing and monitoring of preventive and emergency measures;
• appropriate training; and
• formal, mandatory awareness programs for managers and all those managing records in their daily work.