Friends and Maritime Professionals,

We pray for our fellow professionals and hope they and their families are safe and sound in the aftermath of Harvey. Whenever we go through a crisis, we focus (as we should) on our families, loved ones, and friends. Lower on our list of priorities is often the security of our facility.

We learned many lessons during and after events like Super Storm Sandy and Hurricanes Katrina, Ike, and Rita, when complete facilities were under water. Many facilities had no operational back-up plans, or their plans overlooked the security aspect of recovery. Other facilities had plans, but did not exercise or practice their plans, so the stage was not set for success when the time came for action.

While those affected by this storm respond and recover, we can take this moment to ensure our Facility Security Plans are fully integrated with our Emergency Response Plan and Natural Disaster Plans. The time to test our FSP is not when the storm hits!

While there are many aspects to security’s role in an event requiring emergency response, some minor preparation can save countless hours in the recovery operations aftermath. Your security continuity of operations plans should address protecting your facility and what remains after an event.

For example, simple things like protecting your Sensitive Security Information and having electronic back-ups should be on your checklist. Maintain a secondary site for your SSI material. When disaster strikes and you have to conduct a full evacuation, you should have at least electronic copies of your Plans, including your FSP, and lock up your documents in a Restricted Area. If your hard copies are completely destroyed, then you can reproduce your (password protected) files from an external memory device. If you find yourself in this situation and your documents are destroyed, then we can help you recover with a documentation kit that can be repopulated with your documents very quickly.

Remember, we all need to stay prepared. Integrate your facility’s plans, exercise your plans, conduct drills to test individual elements of your plans, and use checklists to ensure consistent, reliable performance.

Keep your powder dry…

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