Writing Emergency Plans

The Rule of Threes (in survival): Shelter — Three hours Water — Three days Food — Three weeks In other words, you should assume you can survive without shelter for three hours, without water for three days, and without food for three weeks. In an urban environment, the Rule of Threes still applies. The solutions are just easier to find, probably as close as your nearest Costco. At the very least, go out and purchase the following: Emergency blankets and sleeping bags. Make sure they’re rated for the lowest recorded temperature in your area. In a home robbed of power, “shelter” equals warmth. If you have a chimney, get seasoned wood; if not, get a vent-free gas stove. Don’t forget the fuel. Two weeks’ worth of water. Budget at least one gallon per person per day, and backup water purification tablets are a good idea. If you live close to the ocean, you could also buy a desalinator for turning salt water into potable water. Two weeks’ worth of food with a long shelf life. Lentils, rice, beans, canned vegetables, etc. Protein bars are a good supplement and provide some variety, as do military MREs. Emergency lighting, including a few headlamps, and a ton of batteries. First-aid kit and (for the ambitious) extra antibiotics. Ciprofloxacin (Cipro) and Azithromycin (Z-Paks), while imperfect, are good broad-spectrum antibiotics. This basic prep might seem crazy if you’ve never been caught in a disaster. No one in SF expected the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, either, but it left thousands without running water for 10 days, and without power for four days.

🚨 Closing the Gap: Strengthening ICT Resilience 💪🏽 When ISO/IEC 27031:2025 was published, it caught my attention immediately. While ISO/IEC 27001 and ISO 22301 provide strong foundations in information security and business continuity, they treat ICT as a supporting player, not the lead. Yes, I know ISO/IEC 27031 isn’t a certifiable standard. My posts are about creating robust resilience frameworks that extend beyond achieving certification as a company. This is where ISO/IEC 27031 can be used as a supplemental guideline to create additional company controls to mature/improve resiliency. In today’s reality, ICT is the backbone. If it fails, everything else follows. That’s why I’ve moved quickly to integrate new ICT-specific controls into the framework my team has developed. Why? 1️⃣ Bridge the gap between security, continuity, and ICT readiness. 2️⃣ Reduce recovery times and data loss after incidents. 3️⃣ Align with global best practices and demonstrate resilience maturity. How? Here’s what you should consider implementing: ✅ Set precision recovery targets: Establish ICT-specific Minimum Business Continuity Objectives (MBCO), Recovery Time Objectives (RTO), and Recovery Point Objectives (RPO) for every critical service. ✅ Map the entire digital backbone: Document end-to-end system dependencies, data flows, and architecture to prioritize recovery where it matters most. ✅ Plan for the unthinkable: Build ICT-specific disruption scenarios into our enterprise risk models, from ransomware to cross-region outages. ✅ Know exactly when to act: Define explicit triggers for activating ICT continuity plans and integrating them into enterprise incident response. ✅ Engineer resilience into the core: Require tested redundancy strategies for infrastructure, applications, and data layers. ✅ Prove it in the field: Expand exercise programs to validate full ICT restoration capabilities under realistic, high-pressure scenarios. ✅ Put vendors on the hook: Hold critical third parties to contractual recovery SLAs, with testing and performance reporting. ✅ Track readiness like a KPI: Measure ICT resilience through dedicated metrics, scorecards, and internal audits to ensure continual improvement. 🤌🏽 The result: The framework my team has developed now forms a three-standard powerhouse, ISO/IEC 27001 + ISO 22301 + ISO/IEC 27031, that strengthens our ability to operate through anything, from cyberattacks to data center failures. 🤪 (Don’t worry, we’ve included NIST to develop our framework as well) 📘 Next step: I’ll continue to share lessons learned with the broader resilience community and encourage adoption across industries as we continue to implement any changes. #ISO27031 #ResilienceByDesign #ICTResilience #BusinessContinuity #CyberResilience #ComplianceCulture #RiskManagement #ISO27001 #ISO22301 #Resilience #ProgramArchitecture #BCDR

☎️ Public Safety Communicators (Emergency Managers, 911 Dispatchers, Law Enforcement, and others): if you are responsible for alerts and warnings in your community, you should know about these FREE tools that were paid for by FEMA-IPAWS to help you do your work better. ⚠️ 1. The Warning Lexicon bit.ly/WarningLexicon provides you with templates for 48 hazards. Download the supplemental material that will direct you on how to write a message that includes the Source, Hazard + Impact, Location, Time, and Protective Action Guidance. The contents are provided in the document making it a simple process of selecting pre-vetted and pre-verified messaging contents. ⚠️ 2. The Message Design Dashboard, hosted on the FEMA-IPAWS Assistive Tools Platform. The MDD was built under a contract from FEMA-IPAWS to integrate the data from the Warning Lexicon into a simple to use software that is freely available here: atp.aws.fema.gov ⚠️ 3. Self-Paced Training on how to write effective messages for alerts and warnings. This is NOT a 'how to use the IPAWS technology' course. It teaches you the science behind alerts and warnings and will improve your ability to write effectively for short messages. Go here: bit.ly/Learn2Warn ⚠️ 4. Not paid for by FEMA, but free to access and use: Evidence-based analyses of historical WEAs, with explanations on why the WEA was effective or not, can be found on the blog posts contained in The Warn Room. Go here: thewarnroom.com Please share these resources with your friends and colleagues. Effective messaging is the last mile of an effective warning system and we can improve outcomes by applying evidence-based guidance. #notwrittenbyAI Steven Kuhr Steve Staeger Kelly McKinney Zach Stanford Ron Prater Seth Schalet Rob Dale, CEM Manny Centeno Micki Olson, Ph.D Hugh Walpole, PhD Madison McGuire Carol Freeman Carol Parks Travis Cryan, CEM Brian Murray Clint Osborn Kim Zagaris

We Mandiant (part of Google Cloud) have just released our analysis on time-to-exploit trends for 2024. Google Threat Intelligence Group (#GTIG) analysed 112 #vulnerabilities that were disclosed in 2024 and that we tracked as exploited in the wild. Time-to-exploit (TTE) is our metric for defining the average number of days taken to exploit a vulnerability before or after a patch is released. In 2024, we observed a TTE of -1, marking our first observed negative TTE. This TTE indicates a more rapid rate of zero-day exploitation compared to n-day exploitation, as a negative average signifies that exploitation is more frequently occurring prior to patch dissemination. Full report is available here for Google Threat Intelligence (#GTI) customers - https://lnkd.in/gg8KanBi #infosec #cybersecurity #CISO #DFIR #vulnerabilitymanagement

Emergency Procedures During Aircraft Refueling Operations Aircraft refueling is one of the most sensitive and high-risk ground operations in aviation maintenance. In this video, we can see how a small mistake — an improperly connected fuel hose — can quickly escalate into a serious safety incident. Once the hose valve was pushed in, fuel sprayed under high pressure, striking the technician and covering the surrounding area — a dangerous reminder of how crucial emergency preparedness and proper supervision are during fueling operations. Key Emergency and Safety Procedures: 1. Two-Person Operation: Refueling should never be conducted alone. At least two qualified technicians must be present — one operating the fueling system and another monitoring for leaks, grounding, and any irregularities. 2. Pre-Fueling Safety Checks: • Confirm proper bonding and grounding of the aircraft and fueling equipment. • Verify hose coupling integrity before opening the valve. • Ensure all valves and vents are positioned correctly. 3. Emergency Response Readiness: • A fire truck or fire extinguishing unit should always be on standby near the fueling area. • Spill kits and absorbent materials must be easily accessible. • Communication with the operations control or fire department should be immediate in the event of a spill or fire. 4. Personal Protective Equipment (PPE): • Safety goggles or face shields to protect from fuel spray. • Chemical-resistant gloves and anti-static clothing. • Proper footwear to prevent slips in case of fuel on the ramp. 5. Immediate Actions in Case of Fuel Spray or Spill: • Stop fueling immediately and close all valves. • Evacuate the area of unnecessary personnel. • Treat any eye or skin contact immediately with clean water and seek medical attention. • Contain and clean the spill using approved methods — never use water to wash it away. 6. Training and Continuous Improvement: Regular safety drills, procedural reviews, and team briefings are essential to ensure readiness and minimize the human factor risk in critical operations. Safety is not optional — it’s operational discipline. Every refueling task, no matter how routine it seems, deserves full attention, teamwork, and adherence to established procedures.

Land the plane. If you’re in it right now, dealing with a missed goal, a major bug, a failed launch, or an angry keystone customer, this is for you. In a crisis, panic and confusion spread fast. Everyone wants answers. The team needs clarity and direction. Without it, morale drops and execution stalls. This is when great operators step up. They cut through noise, anchor to facts, find leverage, and get to work. Your job is to reduce ambiguity, direct energy, and focus the team. Create tangible progress while others spin. Goal #1: Bring the plane down safely. Here’s how to lead through it. Right now: 1. Identify the root cause. Fast. Don’t start without knowing what broke. Fixing symptoms won’t fix the problem. You don’t have time to be wrong twice. 2. Define success. Then get clear on what’s sufficient. What gets us out of the crisis? What’s the minimum viable outcome that counts as a win? This isn’t the time for nice-to-haves. Don’t confuse triage with polish. 3. Align the team. Confusion kills speed. Be explicit about how we’ll operate: Who decides what. What pace we’ll move at. How we’ll know when we’re done Set the system to direct energy. 4. Get moving. Pull the people closest to the problem. Clarify the root cause. Identify priority one. Then go. Get a quick win on the board. Build momentum. Goal one is to complete priority one. That’s it. 5. Communicate like a quarterback Lead the offense. Make the calls. Own the outcome. Give the team confidence to execute without hesitation. Reduce latency. Get everyone in one thread or room. Set fast check-ins. Cover off-hours. Keep signal ahead of chaos. 6. Shrink the loop. Move to 1-day execution cycles. What did we try? What happened? What’s next? Short loops create momentum. Fast learning is fast winning. 7. Unblock the team (and prep the company to help). You are not a status collector. You are a momentum engine. Clear paths. Push decisions. Put partner teams on alert for support. Crises expose systems. And leaders. Your job is to land the plane. Once it’s down, figure out what failed, what needs to change, and how we move forward. Land the plane. Learn fast. Move forward. That’s how successful operators lead through it.

In the event of a radiation emergency at a nuclear power plant, comprehensive emergency plans are crucial to mitigate risks, protect workers and the public, and regain control swiftly. These plans are meticulously crafted with three primary objectives. 1. Minimizing Radiation Exposure: The foremost objective is to limit radiation exposure to levels as low as reasonably achievable (ALARA) and prevent exposures surpassing established safety limits. This involves swift and effective measures to contain and control the release of radioactivity within the plant and its vicinity. Evacuation, sheltering, and distribution of protective measures such as iodine tablets may be implemented to safeguard individuals from potential harm. 2. Incident Understanding and Consequence Assessment: Gathering accurate information about the incident is paramount. Emergency response teams are equipped to assess the causes of the situation, employing monitoring systems and specialized equipment. This information aids in understanding the extent of the incident and evaluating potential consequences. Communication channels, both internal and external, play a critical role in disseminating information to relevant authorities, the public, and international organizations, fostering transparency and cooperation. 3. Swift Restoration of Control: The ultimate goal is to bring the emergency situation under control as expeditiously as possible. Emergency response teams, often comprising highly trained personnel, utilize specialized equipment and protocols to stabilize the plant, contain the release, and mitigate further risks. Simultaneously, ongoing monitoring helps track the effectiveness of implemented measures. Learning from past incidents, these plans are dynamic and subject to continuous improvement, incorporating the latest technologies and best practices. Key Components: Early Warning Systems: Rapid detection of anomalies triggers immediate response actions. Evacuation and Sheltering Protocols: Defined procedures for relocating personnel and the public to safe areas. Communication Strategies: Timely and transparent dissemination of information to relevant stakeholders. Training and Drills: Regular exercises to ensure the readiness and effectiveness of response teams. Continuous Improvement: The dynamic nature of nuclear technology necessitates ongoing review and enhancement of emergency plans. Regular drills, feedback analysis, and incorporation of lessons learned from global incidents contribute to the adaptability and resilience of these plans. In essence, the emergency response framework for nuclear power plants is a multifaceted system designed to prioritize safety, communication, and the swift restoration of control. While the probability of such events is low, the meticulous planning and preparedness are paramount for ensuring the well-being of both workers and the public in the unlikely occurrence of a nuclear power plant emergency.

Resource planning separates successful firms from those constantly scrambling to meet deadlines 📊 Most finance teams operate in reactive mode, putting out fires instead of preventing them. I've worked with dozens of clients who struggle with this exact problem. They're always stressed, always behind, and wondering why profitability suffers despite working harder than ever. ➡️ CAPACITY PLANNING FOUNDATION You know what I've learned after years of helping firms optimize their resources? It all starts with forecasting your hours correctly. See, when you can predict workload based on historical data and upcoming client needs, you avoid that feast or famine cycle that absolutely crushes profitability. Monthly recurring revenue clients need consistent attention too. Don't make the mistake I see so many firms make by forgetting about them during busy season. Client volume scaling requires a completely different approach. Growing your client base means different staffing patterns and retention strategies. Plan resources based on both current clients and realistic growth projections. ➡️ BUDGET VS ACTUALS Track your planned versus actual resource utilization religiously. Variance patterns tell you exactly where your assumptions are off. Sometimes it's scope creep eating up resources. Sometimes it's inefficient processes slowing everyone down. Sometimes it's just unrealistic estimates from the start. Your resource planning gets better when you learn from what actually happened versus what you expected. Create accountability across your team so everyone understands how their work impacts overall capacity. ➡️ TIME TRACKING Without accurate time data, resource planning becomes pure guesswork. Monitor your billable versus non-billable ratios to understand true capacity. That administrative time still consumes resources and needs planning. Track project profitability in real-time so you can course-correct before it's too late. Waiting until project completion to assess profitability costs money. Use time data to identify productivity bottlenecks. Maybe certain work takes longer than expected, or specific team members need additional training. ➡️ STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURES Document your repeatable processes and workflows. This dramatically reduces training time for new team members. Consistent processes mean more predictable resource requirements. When everyone follows the same approach, you can actually forecast capacity accurately. ➡️ CLIENT SCOPE DEFINITION Clearly define project boundaries upfront. Scope creep destroys resource planning faster than anything else I've seen. Set realistic client expectations from the start and stick to them. When clients want additional work, have a system to price and resource it properly. === Resource planning isn't glamorous work, but it's what separates profitable firms from those working harder for less money. What's your biggest resource planning challenge?

Tackling Crisis, Finding Your Own Way Out Crisis is inevitable. Whether it’s on the job site, in business, or in personal life, challenges arise that test our limits. But here’s the truth: no one else can rescue you from a crisis. You must take ownership, think creatively, and find solutions that work for you. Recently, I witnessed a powerful example of this mindset. Faced with a seemingly insurmountable problem, instead of panicking or waiting for help, someone found another way around. It wasn’t the obvious path, but it worked—and it reminded me of some key strategies for navigating tough situations: 1. Accept Reality The first step to overcoming a crisis is acknowledging it. Denial wastes time and energy. Accept what’s happening and shift your focus to what can be done. 2. Think Creatively Standard solutions don’t always apply in extraordinary situations. Think outside the box. Ask yourself: Is there another resource I can use? Can I reframe this challenge as an opportunity? What haven’t I tried yet? 3. Take Responsibility No one else can own your crisis like you can. It’s your challenge, and you’re best equipped to tackle it. Don’t wait for rescue—start taking action, no matter how small the steps. 4. Leverage Your Network While the responsibility is yours, collaboration is invaluable. Reach out to trusted teammates, mentors, or peers for ideas. A fresh perspective can unlock solutions you hadn’t considered. 5. Adapt and Overcome Sometimes the path forward isn’t a straight line. It might mean going around, over, or under the problem. The key is to stay adaptable, resilient, and focused on the goal. The Hard Truth No one can save you from a crisis, but you can save yourself. Whether it’s finding an unconventional solution, changing your mindset, or rallying the right resources, the power to move forward is in your hands. Crisis is not the end, it’s a challenge to grow stronger, think smarter, and emerge better. Remember, it’s not just about finding one way out; sometimes, it’s about finding another way around.

A recent cyberattack on the CodeRED emergency notification system, operated by OnSolve, has resulted in a nationwide outage since early November 2025, severely disrupting public safety communications across multiple regions. In the St. Louis area, including cities such as Eureka, Glendale, and O'Fallon in Missouri, as well as Warren County, authorities can no longer deliver targeted alerts for severe weather, evacuations, water main breaks, and traffic closures via text, phone, or email. Local officials are relying on alternative channels like social media and dedicated webpages to inform residents, though these methods lack the precision and speed of the original system. While no confirmed data breaches have occurred, O'Fallon officials have warned of potential leaks involving user names, addresses, emails, phone numbers, and passwords, advising residents to update credentials on related accounts. The implications of this incident extend far beyond the St. Louis region, highlighting vulnerabilities in centralized emergency alert infrastructure used by thousands of public safety agencies nationwide. CodeRED's role in delivering location-based notifications underscores the risk to community preparedness during critical events, prompting a swift transition to interim platforms without a clear restoration timeline. Nationally, the outage amplifies concerns over third-party dependencies in cybersecurity, as similar disruptions could cascade into broader delays in life-saving responses. This event serves as a call for enhanced resilience measures, including diversified notification systems and proactive data protection protocols, to safeguard public safety amid rising cyber threats. OnSolve has migrated users to a new platform by Crisis24, with no timeline for full restoration, underscoring the need for diversified emergency communication strategies amid evolving cyber threats. Additional news: https://lnkd.in/gdNpGkXw #cyberattack #codered #emergencynotification #publicsafety #cybersecurity #databreach #stlouis #missouri #onsolv #criticalinfrastructure #intrusion #emergencyalert #firstresponders #communitysafety #gardaworld https://lnkd.in/gKCcXhf4