Shelter-in-Place

Mar 1, 2006 12:00 PM, By Andrea Houtkin

ON SEPT. 11, 2001, an evacuation took place at Tower 1 of the World Trade Center (WTC) complex after the tower was hit by a terrorist-piloted plane. People at WTC 5, WTC 2 and at 130 Liberty Street began to evacuate as well — before Tower 2 was hit. Although the evacuation was known to have been orderly at both towers, there appeared to have been some confusion regarding communications from building management to the inhabitants of Tower 2 as they were in the process of evacuating. Possibly in order to avoid additional congestion in the streets below, building management informed the tenants that it was safe to return to their desks. Many people followed this direction.

Either no information or the same kind of direction was given to those at Tower 5 as well. The result of this deadly confusion has resulted in an almost knee-jerk reaction by business tenants of office buildings in New York City to evacuate at any hint of concern. After the Sept. 11 attacks, people became nervous about delegating decisions regarding their safety and their lives to anyone, let alone facilities or building management. One reason is that they remember what happened to colleagues and loved ones who turned around and went back to their desks on that day. Clearly, no one can predict the full extent of any attack, and people mostly want to get out of the building, out of the city, go home and assess later. Essentially, people are shell-shocked. Many are still trying to process what happened on Sept. 11, 2001.

Beginning in 2003, there was increased focus on chemical, biological and radiological methods of instilling terror on American soil. Dirty bombs, weapons of mass destruction, sarin and anthrax became prominent in the headlines. A result was realization of a need to review evacuation processes to avoid endangering building inhabitants by permitting them to respond to their fears and evacuate without considering what might be happening outside, in the street. A re-education program can raise awareness of the importance of a shelter-in-place disaster recovery scenario.

As a security professional, how does one even suggest to people that they not follow what their instincts tell them? How can one suggest that they not evacuate their building, especially in a place like Manhattan, where one cannot always determine where the source of the problem is? Although most people believe that a high-rise building permits uninterrupted views of the city and beyond, it offers only the vista seen from one's own office. In multi-tenant buildings, it may be almost impossible to know what is occurring at the other three sides of the floor, let alone within the building. There is no visual perspective.

The challenges of shelter-in-place

The shelter-in-place process is tough to plan, practice and implement. There are many difficult aspects. One cannot know the root cause of the event and the time it will take for city, state and federal agencies to determine its validity. Multiple steps are required to keep tenants in a building until the building manager is notified by city, state and federal agencies of the nature of the emergency. It is a challenge to deal with tenants who choose to leave during the process. Tenants sometimes interpret the process as impeding their rights to make decisions about their own safety. Preserving the emotional well-being of those participating in the process is difficult. In summary, how can direction be set when there is little or no information and no guarantee of how long it may take for federal authorities to provide information? How can those affected be convinced that the process is really in place to help them, not impede their rights?

The foundations of educating tenants on shelter-in-place

The goal of a shelter-in-place educational program is to teach tenants to trust the process by extending an invitation to tenants to take — and then maintain — their stake in the process.

How is this done? By defining a schedule of regular and consistent communications, strong process and related procedures and practice drills that teach tenants to trust the process while accepting responsibility for their own safety and considering the safety of others through their actions. It is essential to establish a partnership with tenants and to understand their business and disaster experience so that there will be a sense of cooperation and support should shelter-in-place be warranted.

STEP 1: Know building management. Know each tenant's business.

• Is the building a multi- or single-occupancy building?

• Is the building in a major part of the city, near tourist areas of interest?

• Is the building in a business district? What kind of business is it?

• What guidelines are offered by the building management?

• How old is the building structure? How well fortified is the core?

• How many floors are in the building?

• How often are evacuation drills performed?

• Is the business related to the financial industry?

• Was the company in or near the World Trade Center complex on Sept. 11? Were current inhabitants evacuees on Sept. 11?

• What kind of experience did building inhabitants have in August 2003 as a result of the New York blackout?

STEP 2: Identify outside help.

If the tenants have experienced a traumatic event, it may be worthwhile working with human resources to schedule a professional to provide workshops or counseling for post-traumatic stress.

STEP 3: Create educational programs and tools.

• Set up a business continuity program or corporate security program if one does not exist already.

• Ask the tenants to identify volunteers who can help to present the safety processes and procedures to their colleagues. One volunteer for each business or 10 percent of employees is adequate. Schedule monthly meetings to communicate with the business volunteers.

• Create a monthly communications program with tenants to keep them informed and aware of the safety processes and procedures in place.

• Provide a Web site where tenants may review information at their own pace.

• Set an annual schedule of safety events: fire drills, evacuation drills, shelter-in-place drills, staff accountability drills, call tree drills, presentations by the fire department, police department, etc.

The most important thing one can do to gain the trust of tenants is to communicate clearly and regularly and to avoid the appearance of arrogance or apathy by establishing a partnership with tenants.

STEP 4: The educational foundations of the shelter-in-place program.

• One is responsible for his or her own safety and can play a role in the safety of others. Corporate tenants should be taught to think before they act and to understand that the moment they wake up, their actions touch the lives of others. A terrorist attack evokes many responses that we may not be ready for — in ourselves or in our colleagues and friends. Being responsible for one's own safety may mean learning to stop and think long enough to separate emotions from the realities of the situation. Setting an example may help others respond appropriately rather than reacting blindly.

• Tenants should be taught to trust the fire department and other first responders. This is a difficult issue for corporate tenants. Most people plan to leave the building immediately in case of an emergency event. It is extremely difficult to ask them to wait for directions from the building management via the public address system or to trust the Fire Department.

• Tenants should learn to trust the process and the professionals who carry it out: corporate security and building management. Additionally, the process in detail should be taught to provide tenants an opportunity to be part of the process by practicing it and providing feedback. Tenants are only too aware that it may take time for city, state and federal agencies to evaluate whether biological, chemical or other poisonous agents have been dispersed or to resolve civil unrest. Communicating with tenants on a regular basis about the safety program and security concerns may help to develop trust and a sense of partnership.

• Tenants should realize that their immediate building may not be physically impacted by an event. In some cases the trigger of the event may not directly affect the tenants' building, but may have taken place on the same street, in the vicinity or in another part of the city. The concern is that another event may follow, and it is safer to be sheltered than on the street. It may be difficult for tenants to understand that their building is not affected if they feel it shake, they smell smoke or the unfolding events are visible from their windows. Any of these may be enough to frighten them into a reaction.

• Staff should be educated that it may be safer to be inside than outside. Consider that police may lock down the city after an event, thus stopping commuter transportation and venues through and out of the city. Why not stay inside, safe and comfortable? If there may be too many people in the streets as a direct result of the event, the congestion could be a cause of additional concern. Furthermore, any chemical or bio-chemical substance would disperse within one-half hour and would affect anyone in the area. It is also not known whether another impact, closer to the building, may occur.

• Regular articles, notifications, communications and practice drills can ensure that tenants become comfortable with the process. Business heads should have business continuity plans, call trees in place, and they should practice regularly.

• Staff should be taught that it may be safer for them to move to another location within the building. They may be directed to move from their seats to the core of the building, away from the windows. For floors that are open and without a clearly defined core infrastructure, such as a trading floor, the shelter-in-place scenario may result in additional activities such as an internal evacuation to lower floors (below ground) that offer a degree of safety.

• A shelter-in-place scenario is maintained for as long as it takes for the EPA to determine whether it is safe to be outside or until it is clear that any civil unrest has subsided. This could be as little as a half hour to several days.

• To safeguard tenants' safety, a building may be locked down. Because of the uncertainty of the situation, a company and/or building management may lock down a building, thus making it difficult for those on the street to re-enter the building.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Andrea Houtkin is a consultant with Houtkin & Associates, which provides services in technical project management and business and technical process engineering with a focus on business continuity and disaster recovery. Areas of expertise include analysis of the business requirement and its manifestation into technical and logistical solutions. Contact her at houtkin@houtkin-associates.com

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