“An emergency plan is like having insurance – you hope you never need to use it but you can’t take the risk or afford not to have it.” These are the words of Laurence Jones, global risk assessment director for TT Club’s agent, Thomas Miller, who adds: “Emergencies can happen at any time, anywhere. If a business does not have a good emergency plan, then lives, the environment, property and the business itself are at risk.”
To use a cliché, accidents happen, even to the best of them. And ports have some unique hazards and challenges to deal with.
Belfast-based company Emergency Planning Solutions uncovered many of these when working on its first (recently completed) project involving a major port.
“The first thing we recognised was that their existing emergency plan was in fact very insular – it hadn’t really considered the wider issues that might happen in the port, and it also made assumptions about what other bodies and external organisations might do if there was a problem at the port,” says EPS business continuity services director Alan Elwood.
“Assumptions were made, for example, that the police would do certain things – but on looking into this, it turned out not to be the case.”
There were also mismatches between what the port authority presumed various companies would do and what a ferry operator, for example, thought was important.
And insufficient thought had been given to “outside” risks. What about factories or power plants close to the port, for example? Or the use of acetylene welding equipment within the port estate (if there is a fire in an acetylene tank, a 200 m exclusion zone has to be set up)?
“It became very clear to us that it didn’t take much actually to stop a port operating. It could be just the fact that the main entrance was blocked or the security staff went on strike.”
Who takes responsibility for what in emergency situations varies from country to country, of course. But based on the EPS example: a ferry operator would be responsible for evacuating a vessel; once the passengers are on dry land, the port authority would be responsible; if further care or shelter is required for those passengers, it would be up to the local authority to identify an appropriate location and put the arrangements in place. If there was a ship in trouble at sea, the captain would be in command; in the UK, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency would be responsible for search and rescue; the port authority would take over responsibility if the stricken ship came into the harbour; the fire service would take over if there was a fire, or police would get involved if there was a scene of crime.
“So inside 40 minutes, the incident could pass through perhaps five chains of command,” says Mr Elwood. “The whole issue of understanding the rules and responsibilities, and understanding who is in charge, is crucial.”
Working with the emergency services and local authorities is vital in drawing up, practising and maintaining an emergency plan, and he advises setting up a planning group which involves all of these bodies – and more. “That way, a port plan isn’t seen as being its own plan but everybody has ownership of it and a vested interest in it working. People know what their part is in making that plan work. It is not just based on assumption and guesswork.”
Accidents, by their very nature, tend to surprise. And it isn’t possible to have an emergency plan exactly fitting every possible cause. “But I do think it is possible to think about all the consequences, which tend to be fewer in number. For example, whether a ship is on fire, has a hole in the side or has someone on board presenting a danger, many of the outcomes of evacuation remain the same.”
Drawing up a detailed emergency plan is just the start. If the plan is actually to be of any use, then regular training, exercises and good communication are all required.
Mr Elwood, a member of the British Standards Institute committee which is drawing up new BSI guidelines for testing and exercising, says: “If you don’t train people and have exercises, then all you have is a bit of paper. You do need to consider risks. But ultimately the big issue is consequence management rather than being fixated on causes.”
Many emergency plans fail because they sit in a folder in a filing cabinet and no one knows their roles and responsibilities, says Laurence Jones. “Having regular rehearsals or drills which simulate an emergency, and having the entire workforce involved, allows everyone to be aware of and practise their roles and responsibilities. Emergency plans are useless and they normally fail without these regular drills – each time a drill occurs, improvements to the emergency plans are nearly always identified.”
Emergency plans should be reviewed and updated regularly – Alan Elwood suggests a minimum of every six months. After all, if your plans were drawn up allowing for vessels carrying a maximum of 500 passengers, and then you hit an emergency involving a 700-passenger vessel that has since started calling, what are you going to do with the additional 200 people?
“There will always be new hazards developing or ones initially overlooked,” says Mr Jones. “Any business cannot afford to become complacent and think they always have it under control or planned for. If a new hazard is identified, then the emergency plans must be reviewed and updated immediately if necessary.”
