Disaster Plan Workbook

TABLE OF CONTENTS

POLICY STATEMENT

North Shore - Barrington Association of REALTORS® is committed to maintaining a vigilant state of disaster preparedness.  Our goal is to have a plan to assure the continued member services.  In recognition of the possibility of both small and large disasters, the Disaster Preparedness Committee devised the following plan to ensure that appropriate actions are taken in the event of a disaster. This plan provides staff with a set of disaster priorities, emergency procedure guidelines, lists of personnel.

DISASTER PLAN WORKBOOK

CHAPTER 1

When there is a fire alarm, turn off all terminals. Save documents before turning off word processing terminals. Clear the building.

FIRE SAFETY TIPS:

• ALWAYS REPORT A FIRE BEFORE ATTEMPTING TO EXTINGUISH IT.
• ALWAYS KEEP YOUR BACK TO YOUR ESCAPE ROUTE.
• NEVER ATTEMPT TO EXTINGUISH A LARGE FIRE.
• WHEN USING A FIRE EXTINGUISHER REMEMBER THE ACRONYM
  P.A.S.S.
  • Pull
  • Aim
  • Squeeze
  • Sweep

DISASTER PLAN WORKBOOK

CHAPTER 2

SUMMARY OF EVACUATION PROCEDURES

1. Go to the nearest door or if need be break a window.
2. For a bad storm in Barrington go to the basement and in Northbrook go to one of the bathrooms.
3. No one is allowed back in the building until the person in charge says.

DISASTER PLAN WORKBOOK

CHAPTER 3

STAFF MOBILIZATION - Phase 1

A major disaster would necessitate the evacuation of all personnel. In such a situation, actual recovery procedures to salvage the collections would have to wait until the building was officially declared safe to enter. Although such a situation is impossible to predict, the brief outline of procedures listed below will be followed.

The Web is hosted off site and should be available. 

The CEO, Terry, is to be contacted and the Information Service Director, Steve, 312-804-1559

Information System:  The first priority is to get the administrative computer system up and running.  A daily back is always made so the most we should loose in one day.

Membership:  The administrative computer system must be up to retrieve records but NRDS could be used to view current member list.

Supra:  Call 800-

Education department: 

The Education Department disaster plan relies on NSBAR having data backup of the company drive and Rapattoni records on a remote server. Assuming that is the case, departments should have access codes to the data. Records are updated by us on a daily basis, so we will not have lost anything, again assuming that NSBAR performs remote backup on a daily basis.

If Education staff arrive one morning and find that the building has burned down, we will immediately notify the CEO. If there is a class that day, we will see if the Renaissance has a room for us. If so, we will call the instructor and one of us will stay at the building site to notify arriving students. The other will be at the Renaissance. As soon as we can, we will return home and use our personal computers to access the backed-up files. Classes in Barrington will not be affected, of course.  1.  Arrange for emergency classroom and direct students and instructor there, if a class is scheduled; and/or

2.  Work from home, accessing the Web site for class schedule information. We can receive registrations just as soon as the phone lines are reestablished at a new location or switched to another number. We phone IAR to notify them and arrange for additional test answer sheets and a new education binder to be sent to us. We will arrange space for upcoming events, or reschedule them. All students will have to be notified of the change of location and/or date. That will keep us busy.

We now have all of our computer files backed up on our company drives, so we can access them as soon as Steve makes the backup data available.

Education Assistant will call a short list of hotels to arrange rooms for classes that are pending. If there is a class the day of the fire, we may be able to get an alternate side at the Renaissance, time permitting.

Temporarily, Education Director, can generate rosters at home and do whatever other printing is required. IAR can ship a box of answer sheets to my home or another location.

Assuming both offices would not be effected at the same time if NSBAR can have telephone calls forwarded to the other office, we will pick up education messages from that number so that there is no break in registrations. Picking up e-mail messages will depend, again, on whether or not we have remote server access.

Except for class proctoring, work will be done at home until a temporary office is located. Once we have a temporary office location, we can possibly hold some classes there, or continue to use hotel sites. Depending on when the disaster occurs (i.e., in prime C.E. season, such as this spring), it could be cost-effective to rent a storefront to use as classroom space.

With respect to files maintained by the Education Dept. that are not part of Rapattoni (correspondence, classroom materials, etc.), we should each keep a copy of all files in our respective folders on the company drive so that our access to them is not dependent on the computers we use in the office.

I'm updating my Palm every day, which also gives me the complete Outlook calendar and my current e-mail files. I can also send/receive e-mail from my Palm, which has wireless Internet access. Of course, the calendar is also available from the Internet, which would also be useful in an emergency.

DAMAGE ASSESSMENT - Phase 2 Meeting location for reports and first phase planning:

If the building can be entered, meetings will take place in the main room. If the building cannot be entered, meetings will take place at the Renaissance in Northbrook and the Chamber in Barrington. Basic site visit procedures:

The CEO or IT Director will enter building to assess damage when entry to the building has been approved by fire officials. High priority areas will be assessed first, followed by other affected areas.

The Disaster Preparedness Committee and Building Manager record extent of damage in disaster recovery charts (Appendix A), indicating the following:

• Type of damage (water, fire)
• Type of material damaged (photographs, books, etc.)
• Extent of damage, i.e., how much (computers, #'s)
• Brief environmental conditions (dampness, heat, etc.)
• Wet carpets, broken files
• Condition of surrounding area

Photographs of damage should be taken for recovery planning purposes.

RECOVERY PREPARATION - Phase 3 Second meeting of Disaster Preparedness Committee:

After Phase 2 damage assessment, the Disaster Preparedness Committee will return to the designated Control Center and begin to plan a salvage operation for computer access. Based on information recorded in disaster recovery charts completed during the site visit of affected areas, the committee will:

• Establish priorities.
• Develop and assign teams for affected areas.
• Assemble supplies from Quill and other suppliers listed in the Disaster Plan Workbook.
• Develop a schedule for implementation.

The chair of the Disaster Preparedness Committee will appoint an assistant to take minutes during all meetings, telephone for supplies and other necessities, organize deliveries of supplies, answer telephones, and assist in the management of the recovery process from the Control Center, as needed.

DISASTER PLAN WORKBOOK

CHAPTER 4

RECOVERY PROCEDURES FOR DAMP BOOKS AND MINOR EMERGENCIES

DAMP BOOKS are defined as books that are not dripping water. They can be wet around the edges or wet half-way through or just cool to the touch. These materials can be AIR DRIED.

CAUTION:

1. All air drying MUST take place in a cool, dry place. Warm humid air encourages mold and mildew growth which can be more damaging than the original emergency. Try to keep the temperature below 70 Fahrenheit and the relative humidity below 55%. Use fans and dehumidifiers if needed. Keep the air in the area circulating.
2. Keep the drying area clean by removing wet debris such as wet carpeting and furniture as soon as possible because they contribute to a humid environment.
3. Never try to reshape or force damp volumes open as this will cause harmful distortion. They can be treated AFTER drying.
4. Sponge off mud and debris using clean water but ONLY if material does not have water soluble components such as watercolors, runny inks, tempera and dyes. Instead, air dry materials and brush off debris when completely dry.
5. Minimize handling of water damaged books. Paper and bindings are very fragile when wet.

PROCEDURES:

If books can be dried in immediate area, see #8 and #9 below for air drying instructions.

If books must be packed up and moved to drying area:

1. Keep a written record of what volumes are in which box (by floor, range number and call number) and remember to clearly label each box.
2. Use 1 and 1½ cubic foot, 200 test lb. cardboard boxes to pack-out and transfer damp books to the drying area. A one cubic foot box will hold about 15 volumes and weighs about 50 pounds when loaded.
3. Wrap each book in one piece of unprinted newsprint; this will prevent colors bleeding into one another. Precut sizes to save time.
4. Pack books SPINE SIDE DOWN IN A SINGLE ROW ON THE BOTTOM OF THE BOX.

5. Stand books upright (head to toe) in well ventilated drying area with fans or air conditioners to keep the air circulating. A book is completely dry when it is no longer cool to the touch.
6. While air drying, in the manner described above, the pages of some books may start to pull out of their covers under the extra water weight. Turn these books over (head to toe, toe to head) every 30 minutes to evenly distribute the pull.
7. Especially damp books can be interleaved to remove additional excess moisture. Place unprinted, clean flat paper towels every 20 or 30 pages; be sure to change toweling and alternate pages every 15 minutes to prevent distortion. DO NOT USE FOLDED TOWELS AS THEY WILL PERMANENTLY DISTORT PAPER.
8. Some books will dry distorted and misshapen. This can be greatly reduced AFTER completely drying by placing volumes under light pressure or, in extreme cases, rebinding.

SUPPLIES:

pens
dehumidifiers
note paper
large strong trash bags
fans
sponges
clean water source
unprinted paper towels

CAUTION:

1. Never let water-damaged photographic materials dry out.
2. Handle wet photographic films very carefully, touching only the edge of the film. When wet, the emulsion layer of photographic films soften and are very fragile and can be easily damaged.
3. Handle dry photographic films with white cotton gloves.

PROCEDURES:

1. Remove microfilm from their containers and their reels. Remove format films from their sleeves. If film cannot be separated from sleeves, enclosures, or each other, soak them as instructed below before trying to separate them. If possible, try to retain labeling/cataloguing information for identification purposes later.
2. Transfer the film into large PLASTIC (not metal as the chemicals in the film will react) garbage containers filled with COLD CLEAN water, preferably running water. If running water is not available, agitate water periodically. Change the water when it becomes warm or dirty. Wash for 30 minutes. If necessary, photographic films can stay in water for up to TWO DAYS without damage.
3. Black and white films should be dipped, or rinsed in a wetting solution such as Kodak Photoflo. Color slides and transparencies should be rinsed for 10 to 15 seconds in Kodak E6 stabilizer. Color negatives should be rinsed for one minute in Kodak C41 stabilizer.
4. After rinsing, dry at room temperature in a dust-free area.
5. Or, contact a professional photographic film reprocessing company as soon as possible.

SUPPLIER LIST Cleaning supplies: mops, brooms, etc. - see Hardware Stores Cold storage facilities: Dust masks:

GRAINGER
527 West 34th Street
New York, NY 10001
(ph.) 212-629-5660
(fax) 212-629-5816 Garbage bags and containers - see Hardware Stores Garden hoses - see Hardware Stores Generators: Hardware stores: Humidity Indicators:

LIGHT IMPRESSIONS
439 Monroe Avenue
P.O. Box 940
Rochester, NY 14603-0940
(ph.) 1-800-828-6216
(fax) 1-800-828-5539
Overnight delivery available Humidifiers and Dehumidifiers:

* Services
MUNTER'S MOISTURE CONTROL SERVICES
85 Fulton Street, Unit 9D
Boonton, NJ 07005-1912
(ph.) 201-334-7442
(fax) 201-334-7253 Paper towels - see Hardware stores Rubber gloves - see Hardware stores Safety Equipment:

GRAINGER
527 West 34th Street
New York, NY 10001
(ph.) 212-629-5660
(fax) 212-629-5816 Stationery stores: Trucks, rental: Trucks, refrigerated - see Appendix F, "Document Reprocessing Companies" Vacuums, wet/dry - see Hardware stores Wax paper - see Newsprint (unprinted) White cotton gloves: