Emergency procedures – flowcharts

Joseph McHugh and Sandesh Sheth describe how to construct an emergency

procedure flowchart.

Introduction: Emergency procedures are the foundation of any crisis management plan.
The objective of the emergency procedures is to be able to protect lives and minimize
damage to assets and to try to ‘nip the incident in the bud’ before it escalates into a
disaster. The authors developed the following emergency procedures flowchart during
the implementation of a business continuity management system. The process flows
depicted by the flowcharts enable easy understanding and also provide a quick
reference guide for all concerned.

Caveat: Please adapt them based on your organization’s uniqueness.

List of incidents covered: emergency response procedures are used to address

incidents that may occur during routine operations. Below is a list of some of the
incidents that would trigger the initiation of emergency response procedures:

Emergency
Response
Procedures

Explosive Civil Power Water

Fire Disturbance Severe Wind Snow
Devices Outage Incident

We will address each of the emergencies in detail in the following flowcharts.

Need: The need is to create flowcharts that convey the first actions to be carried out and
the escalations and process flows based on the emerging scenario.

Before the construction of the flow charts the following need to be defined:

• Primary contacts
• Emergency response team members
• Crisis management team members
• Floor Marshals
• Roll call / head count lists
• First aid trained personnel
• Emergency service providers contact numbers
• Emergency contact numbers for all employees
• Vendor contact numbers
• Call trees for employees, contractors and vendors
• Floor plans with detailed information
• Building evacuation drills
Fire

Fire
Incident

Employees
Activate Auto Alarm Activate
manually No
evacuation activated evacuation
activates alarm

Yes

Evacuees report
Employee Alarm to Gathering
informs monitoring Point / Safe Area
primary service provider No
contact contacts
organization

Roll call taken by

Yes
team leads
Primary
Primary contact
contact contacts Fire
confirms fire Department
incident

Primary contact
Service informs
Provider Emergency
contacts Fire Response Team
Department

Emergency
Response
Fire Engines Team informs
arrives Crisis
Management
Team

Crisis Floor Marshals

Management brief Crisis
Team Leader Management
briefs Team using floor
Battalion Chief plans

Fire Department
becomes Incident
Commander

Fire Department
gives All-Clear
signal

Crisis
Management
Team directs
future actions

The following additional details need to be defined

Alarm monitoring service provider details- contact number, disabling procedure, testing
procedure.
Bomb threat

Em ployee
receives a
threat

Type of
Verbal W ritten
Threat

Collect additional
Inform
inform ation and
Prim ary
inform Prim ary
Contact
Contact

Contact 911

Inform Inform
Inform Crisis
Em ergency Em ergency
Managem ent
Response Response
Team
Team Team

Activate Alarm

Activate
Evacuation

Bom b squad
arrives
Evacuees report
to Gathering
Point / Safe
Area
Crisis
Managem ent
Team briefs
Bom b Squad Roll Call taken
Representative by Team
Leads

Bom b Squad
Leader becom es Crisis
Incident Managem ent
Com m ander Team is
briefed

Bom b Squad
gives All-Clear
signal

Crisis
Managem ent
Team directs
future actions

The following additional details need to be defined

Procedure to handle bomb threat calls – bomb threat checklist and agencies to be
notified.
Civil disturbance

Civil
Disturbance
Observed

Location of
Internal External
Unrest

Inform Inform
Primary Primary
Contact Contact

Contact 911

Inform Inform
Inform Crisis
Emergency Emergency
Management
Response Response
Team
Team Team

Police arrives Activate Alarm

Crisis Shelter-in-
Management Place
Team briefs
Police Team
Leader

Police Team
Leader Crisis
becomes Management
Incident Team is
Commander briefed

Police gives
All-Clear
signal

Crisis
Management
Team directs
future actions

The following additional details need to be defined

- Shelter-in-place procedure
- Flooding within premises.
Water related
incident

Water
Related
Incident

Location of
Data Center affected Office Area
area

Employees in Data Employees in Office

Center will activate the area will activate the
Incident Procedure Incident Procedure

Employee contacts
Primary the Primary
Contact Contact
informs
Emergency
Response
Team

Emergency
Response
Team informs
Crisis
Management
Team

Emergency
Response
Team contacts
Vendors

Crisis
Management
Team directs
JIS actions

The following additional details need to be defined

Flooding incident procedure – mapping of vital records locations to danger areas,
location of shielding material, contact numbers of restoration vendors.
Power outage

Power
Outage
Incident

Data Center
runs on UPS

Backup Primary Contact

Generator No informs Emergency
starts Response Team

Yes Emergency Response

Team informs Crisis
Primary Contact informs Management Team
Emergency Response
Team

Crisis Management
Team authorize Soft-
Emergency Response
Shutdown
Team checks with
service provider for
status report

Crisis Response
Primary Contact informs Team contacts
Fuel Service Company to Backup Generator
refill after every X hours Vendor
of continuous operations

Emergency Response
Team informs Crisis
Management Team

Crisis
Management
Team directs
JIS actions

The following additional details need to be defined

- Soft shutdown procedures
- Determine reorder point of fuel for backup generator.
Medical

Medical
Incident

Employee
notices the
injured

Injured is
No
alive

Yes

Employee informs Employee informs

Primary Contact Primary Contact

Primary Contact Primary Contact

calls 911 calls 911

Primary Contact informs

EMT and Crisis Response Team
Police arrives

Emergency Response
Team contacts First-Aid
EMT and trained personnel
Police
verifies
cause of
First-Aid trained
death
personnel provide
EMT arrives medical services
Emergency
Suspicious Response Team
informs Crisis
Management Team
Police seals Natural First -Aid trained
area for people transfer
investigation the patient to
EMT
First-Aid
trained people
update Crisis
EMT assumes Management
control and Team
takes actions

Crisis
Management
Team directs JIS
actions
Severe windstorm / hurricane

Severe
Wind
Incident

Watch Alert Warning

issued Alert issued

Emergency
Response
Team is on
alert
Emergency
Response
Team verifies
Emergency alert
Response
Team verifies
alert

Emergency
Response
informs Crisis
Emergency
Management
Response
Team
Team
prepares for
any
mobilization

Crisis
Management
Team directs
future actions

The following additional details need to be defined:

- Equipment for keeping alert
- Mobilization resources and procedures.
Snow storms

Snow
Storm
Incident

Snow Storm
Impending
occurrence

Crisis
Management
People onsite
Team verifies
alert

Employee informs Emergency

Emergency Response Team is
Response Team put on alert

Emergency
Emergency
Response Team
Response Team
prepares for
informs Crisis
mobilization
Management Team

Snow Storm
occurrence

Crisis
Lights Out Management Skeleton Crew
Team declares

Lights Out Skeleton Crew

Procedure Procedure

Crisis
Management
Team directs
future actions

The following additional details need to be defined

- Lights out procedures
- Skeleton crew operations procedures
- Mobilization resources and procedure.
Conclusion
This article highlights the process to develop flow charts for emergency procedures.
Each flow chart has to be complemented by the required details. The flow charts in
themselves are only able to summarize what needs to be done and should be used
during top-level designs, trainings and awareness campaigns.

About the authors

Joseph McHugh is the Executive Deputy Director Operations for Judiciary Information
Systems (JIS) of the State of Maryland Judiciary, US. With more than 30 years of IT
experience, he is responsible for providing mission supportive facilities and
infrastructure, ensuring security and optimizing operations at JIS. He is the project
champion for Business Continuity Management System implementation project at JIS.
Joe can be reached on joe.mchugh@mdcourts.gov

Sandesh Sheth is a business continuity consultant, developing and implementing

business continuity management systems for organizations worldwide. He represents
the Enterprise Risk Management Consulting Group of Satyam Computer Services
Limited. Sandesh can be reached on sandesh.sheth@yahoo.com.