BUILDINGS & ENVIRONMENTS
access to cell service or email, how do you get updates to them on the status of their homes? Creating a call center where tenants can call to get periodic updates no matter where they are is one way to provide updates. Putting this call center answering service in place before disaster strikes can help ease stress for your tenants. Another option is to place posters and signs at the entrance to the property and local shelters and alert local authorities of your updates as well.
Assembling your Emergency Response Plan Team and Resources The first and most crucial element of an Emergency Response Plan is your emergency preparedness planning partner. An expert who can help you with building due diligence, research, facility structure analysis, and planning, the partner who will be the first contact who will enact your response plan and your support team from beginning to end. They will help you define the objectives of your emergency response plan depending on building size, tenant count and demographics, and the location of your building. There is a two-sided response to every disaster, your response as a business owner, and your tenant’s response or ability to respond. If you have a large population of senior citizens who have limited mobility, this is a risk factor that you and your team will account for during your planning phase. Your team should include your board, business partners, staff, community emergency response
teams, critical infrastructure partners like electric, water, gas, and phone services, as well as the medical facilities you would depend on nearest your property. Working with local municipalities to establish tenant shelter locations can ease the flood of tenant calls and/or questions at the onset. If they know where to go and what to do, it makes it easier for you and your staff.
Roles and Responsibility Defining the roles and responsibilities of your post-disaster Emergency Response team with backups should someone be affected by the disaster and not be able to report for duty is crucial to making sure your plan does not break down. Followed by your evacuation and shelter plan for tenants, security, and/or lockdown of your facility with 24-hour security in place to deter possible looters and tenants wanting to gain unsafe access to their unit.
When to Establish your Emergency Response Plan Establishing an Emergency Preparedness Plan should take place annually during your business planning phase and could be part of your business continuity plan or SWOT analysis. You should review this plan if you have completed a building addition or major renovation. If you don’t have an emergency preparedness plan, you should start now. A large number of resources, money, and time can be thrown away into reacting to a disaster that, if not executed properly, can mean the loss of business and or tenants. Being a smart business owner and property manager means taking the mindset of its not a matter of if, but when a disaster will occur. Being prepared gets you ahead of the risk and allows you to act fast, deter further damage to your property, and minimize the cost of a disaster. $
COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION MANAGEMENT
Al Schroeder
aschroeder@hhsg.net
Heil Heil Smart and Golee, Inc. has served Chicago and its suburbs Residential Management since 1885, by combining our lasting integrity with a cutting-edge approach.
Experienced Leadership, Todays Technology 5215 Old Orchard Road, Suite 300, Skokie, Illinois 60077
847-866-7400 / www.hhsg.net 10
CHICAGOLAND BUILDINGS & ENVIRONMENTS
S P R I N G 2020