Earthquake Crisis Plan for NZ Organization

This article discusses the earthquake crisis plan for NZ organization, including emergency preparedness, response, mitigation, recovery, and financial arrangements. It also highlights the importance of having a crisis plan in place to handle disasters effectively.

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EARTHQUAKE CRISIS PLAN FOR NZ ORGANIZATION.
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EARTHQUAKE CRISIS PLAN FOR NZ ORGANIZATION.
Crisis plan element 1: Emergency preparedness
The action undertaken by the organization in preparedness for the earthquake will ensure that a proper
response capability is developed which will help a lot in handling the crisis when it occurs (Paek, Hilyard,
Freimuth, Barge & Mindlin, 2010). In NZ manufacturing operation, preparing earlier for the emergency crisis
will enable the operational unit to continue operating, and the lives of the employees will also be protected.
Therefore, the following are the procedures and strategies that will be followed in case the earthquake occurs as
it will guarantee the employees safety and the continuity of the company’s operation.
The first step in emergency preparedness is the formation of a crisis team who will work together to
ensure the organization survives the earthquake. According to Kapucu & Garayev (2011) a good crisis team
will consist of the top managers of the firm, the representative from human resource, senior operations or
manufacturing representative, technology officer and a leader from operations system. These team will come
together as one and work together on ways to face the impending crisis. When selecting the crisis team,
adjustments should be made on the team mix by ensuring that the team members comprised of individuals in
the organization who have more exceptional experience.
Additionally, experts who are experienced in disaster management will be employed, and their role will
be to assess the occurrence of the risk and ensure they provide early warning of the earthquake occurrence.
Their main focus will be to ensure that the organization prepares itself fully and earlier enough to be ready to
face the future disaster without jeopardizing the activities or reputation of the organization (Kapucu & Garayev
2011). However, the organization will also have to be ready in case the earthquake will occur. This will involve
formulating a team who have proper training and expertise to assess the damage of the earthquake on the
structures, products, and facilities of the organization in case the crisis occurs.
There will be first aid kits in every department including proper and ready transportation facilities for
any sick or injured employees to the hospital. This will ensure that any injuries are quickly attended to, and
there is easy transportation to the hospital ensuring that those who will be injured will be treated earlier enough.
Additionally, the organization will put hazardous installations in every department including creating awareness

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for the employees’ safety and health and they can carry themselves if the disasters occur to evade a lot of
damage (Cooper et al, 2010).
Crisis plan element 2: Response
This is the initial phase after the earthquake has been confirmed to occur. Once the message of
earthquake occurrence is received by NZ manufacturing operation, the crisis management team that had been
formed will immediately be activated and notified of the earthquake occurrence. The crisis team is the ones
who will then inform all the other departments in the NZ manufacturing operation for emergency response
(Choi, & Lee (2011). Additionally, since the crisis team will be responsible for handling the disaster, they will
then issue an instruction on the following information:
1) The exact amount of resources, equipment’s, workforce and other items from every department required
to respond to the crisis.
2) The kind of assistance that they will need from the organization.
3) The period within which they will require the assistance.
4) Descriptions of other task forces through which coordination will take place.
In response to the earthquake, several activities will be carried out to reduce its impact or avoid it. The
organization will respond to the crisis in the following ways:
 Conducting capacity building activities which includes employee training, updating plans and preparing
for the earthquake including procurement of the required equipment’s that will be used during the crisis.
 The organization management will remain standby and very ready to offer any assistance if the need
arises. If they are asked for any additional help, they will not hesitate to offer their services.
 The employees will be mobilized to actively participate in activities that will enable the organization to
be ready to face the crisis when it strikes. These activities may include attending training and workshops
which teaches on ways to evade the disaster.
 The team will give warnings to all the employees in the organization on the occurrence of the
earthquake and also alert them in advance when the earthquake through the use of signs like the alarm
(Will, Vandevanter, Myhre & Myhre, 2014).

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 Evacuating all the employees from the premises to ensure they are not harmed by the crisis. Therefore,
every employee will be required to leave the premises immediately when they see the signs of the
earthquake occurring.
 The organization will be very ready with its rescue team during the crisis to rescue any person who may
be harmed or injured by the earthquake. The will ensure vehicles are available, doctors, first aid kit and
any other kind of assistance that may be needed.
To ensure a faster response to the earthquake crisis, each member of the crisis team will be assigned a
specific role and will be given a particular action that he will undertake during the management of the crisis.
These tasks will be carried out by the crisis team in coordination with one another and other stakeholders to
ensure the success of the plan. All the team members will be liaising with one another and working together to
ensure that all the plan set aside towards facing the crisis is followed to ensure the safety of its employees and
protection of the organization structure (Lindell & Perry, 2012).
Crisis plan element 3: Mitigation
Mitigation measures that will be used for NZ manufacturing operation will involve both structural and
non-structural measures. Structural measures will include the use of capital investment or construction of
structures that will help in reducing the impact of the earthquake. It will also include the development of other
infrastructures that are hazard-resistant and will reduce the effect that may be caused by the earthquake.
Additionally, non-structural mitigation measures will comprise policies, training, practices, techno-legal
systems and capacity development. The company employees will be trained on the various ways to avoid or
reduce the impact caused by the earthquake. They will be taught how they can react in case the earthquake
occurs and what they are not supposed to do. Additionally, there will be the creation of awareness to all
employees notifying them of the impending danger ahead and preparing them to be ready to face it when it
occurs.
The structural mitigation measures that will be used in NZ manufacturing operation will include the following:

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1. Restricting and stopping any development that could be taking place in any highly seismic risk zone
within or around the organization (Teodorescu, 2015) This will ensure that these areas that can be
easily affected by the earthquake are not tampered with thus, reducing the impact of the earthquake.
2. The organization will incorporate designs that are earthquake resistant within the organization. This
will ensure that, when the earthquake strikes, it will not be able to destroy the structures of NZ
manufacturing operation due to the earthquake-resistant designs used within the organization.
3. Check its structures for the ones that require retrofitting and preparing a programme to retrofit these
structures to ensure they are in good state and earthquake resistant.
4. Set aside finances that can be used during the occurrence of the earthquake.
The non-structural mitigation measures that will be used by NZ manufacturing operation comprises of:
1) The organization will scrutinize its structures to ensure it has complied with the earthquake-resistant
designs and the requirements of construction set out by the law. This will ensure that the building will
be in ethical standards and able to resist earthquake if it occurs.
2) Organization of seminars, training and workshops to the employees and nearing communities on how to
prepare themselves in case the disaster strikes and ways to mitigate them.
3) Conducting tests of soil within the organization to determine weak areas where the earthquake is likely
to strike. These soils will be taken to the lab and analysed to determine if they are weak and if they can
be easily affected by the earthquake.
4) Conducting an audit on the organization structures together with electrical and fire safety audits on the
organization to ensure it ensures it abides by the required standards which are safe from disasters like
earthquakes.
Crisis plan element 4: Recovery
After the earthquake crisis, the organization will conduct a recovery plan with the aim of restoring the
organization and the employees after the effects case by the earthquake. These activities involved in the process
of recovery includes the reconstruction and rehabilitation of its employees or community who were injured or
lost their loved ones during the crisis. The principal activities that will be conducted in this phase comprise of:

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1. Conducting detailed damage and need assessment
Before the organization commences on rehabilitation and reconstruction activities, a need analysis and post-
earthquake damage assessment must be undertaken to give a clear picture of the situation after the disaster. This
assessment will enable the identification of damage that has been caused on the different departments and to
formulate strategies on how reconstruction, rehabilitation, and recovery will be conducted.
2. Approach for reconstruction
Depending on the kind of damage and the people affected, various measures will be initiated as a
comprehensive strategy towards recovery. These measures include:
 Repair of damaged structures and facilities within the organization that will have been destroyed by the
disaster.
 Strengthening and restoration of the structures affected by the disaster and ensuring they in good
condition again and functioning well.
 carrying out the reconstruction of the building in the organization that has been destroyed by the
earthquake
 Relocation of the organization if the earthquake destroyed the structures and the location. This will
involve moving into a new location and building the structures again.
3. Repair and restoration
The organization will formulate an assistance policy to aid the affected victims living near the organization
in repairing and restoring their houses which were damaged by the earthquake (Lindell, 2013). The
organization will also carry out repairs in the different departments in the organization to repair and restore
their facilities, infrastructures, their services among others.
4. Reconstruction
The crisis team is the ones who will oversee the rehabilitation and reconstruction work and ensure it restore
the organization to its initial state. During the restoration, the organization will actively involve the affected

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individuals through communicating with them regularly on activities n updating them on the state of the
reconstruction.
Crisis plan element 5: Financial arrangements and plan maintenance
The organization will put in place finances that will be used in managing the crisis. There will also be
various programmes, initiatives, and projects that will be set up by the organization which will be catering to
the different phases of the crisis management in the different departments of the organization. This will ensure
that they can meet the financial requirements of managing the crisis while also being able to meet the
operational expenses of the organization still (Veenema, 2018).
Furthermore, the organization will also raise the fund which will be used to support the employees who
have been injured and also to provide financial support to families of the employees who have been seriously
injured and hospitalized or to those whose family members were killed by the disaster. This will ensure that
their reputation is not tarnished and this will also give the employees confidence to continue working in this
organization.
Moreover, the crisis team will be periodically preparing, reviewing and updating the earthquake crisis
plan to ensure that the plan rehearsals are often carried out to be alert in case of another crisis in the future. The
crisis team will also be responsible for testing the plan regularly with the aim of determining its Feasibility,
identifying some areas in the plan that require modification, identifying the employees training needs including
assessing the organization ability to respond to earthquakes.
Conclusion
Therefore, a crisis plan is essential for any organization, country or nation. This is because, with a well-
formulated crisis plan, the organization will be able to prepare itself and be ready to face the disaster. The crisis
plan will enable the organization, nation or country to be well prepared for the emergency, respond accordingly,
determine the mitigation measure, and know how to recover from the disaster including the allocation of
financial resources for managing the disaster. This will ensure that the organization or nation will be very ready
to face and handle the disaster and reducing the magnitude of its impact.

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References
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Cooper, S., Cant, R., Porter, J., Sellick, K., Somers, G., Kinsman, L., & Nestel, D. (2010). Rating medical
emergency teamwork performance: development of the Team Emergency Assessment Measure
(TEAM). Resuscitation, 81(4), 446-452.
Kapucu, N., & Garayev, V. (2011). Collaborative decision-making in emergency and disaster
management. International Journal of Public Administration, 34(6), 366-375.
Lindell, M. K., & Perry, R. W. (2012). The protective action decision model: theoretical modifications and
additional evidence. Risk Analysis: An International Journal, 32(4), 616-632.
Lindell, M. K. (2013). Recovery and reconstruction after disaster. In Encyclopedia of natural hazards (pp. 812-
824). Springer, Dordrecht.
Paek, H. J., Hilyard, K., Freimuth, V., Barge, J. K., & Mindlin, M. (2010). Theory-based approaches to
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communication. Journal of health communication, 15(4), 428-444.
Teodorescu, H. N. (2015). Using analytics and social media for monitoring and mitigation of social
disasters. Procedia Engineering, 107, 325-334.
Veenema, T. G. (Ed.). (2018). Disaster nursing and emergency preparedness. Springer Publishing Company.
Will, T. E., Vandevanter, R. E., Myhre, S. M., & Myhre, M. J. (2014). U.S. Patent No. 8,866,606. Washington,
DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.