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Red Cross has New Tools to Help Businesses Prepare for Emergencies.
With April comes the possibility of tornadoes in Northeast Texas. Disasters have the potential to cause disruptions to workplaces and schools to close. The American Red Cross has developed the free, web-based Ready Rating™ Program to help businesses, schools and other organizations prepare for emergencies.
Ready Rating Program members complete a confidential assessment of their current readiness level for emergencies and receive immediate, customized feedback with tips and resources for them to improve their readiness.
New program components make it even easier to get started or to enhance current emergency response plans:
• An Emergency Response Plan Tool, which enables program members to build a customized plan to help their employees know their roles in the first 24-72 hours of an emergency;
• A Next Steps report that recommends specific actions members should take and the level of effort required to execute them;
• A Resource Center that includes preparedness tools including activities and exercises so businesses, employees, and students can better develop and practice preparedness plans;
• A Ready Rating Store with emergency supplies at the click of a button.
Companies and schools realize that contingency planning is a crucial element to running a successful operation. St. Louis-based Express Scripts, which provides medications to patients across the country, was ready for last year’s tornadoes, thanks to its robust preparedness planning which takes advantage of the Ready Rating program.
“We had conducted shelter-in-place drills, and everyone followed the playbook seamlessly,” said Gene Weber, the company’s director of business continuity. “While the tornadoes did not damage the company or interrupt its operations, employees and customers could feel confident that Express Scripts had a plan in place.”
The Ready Rating program is consistent with Private Sector or PS-Prep Standards developed by the Department of Homeland Security. Anheuser-Busch Companies is the program’s national founding sponsor, and Sam’s Club is a national sponsor. You can find more information about this valuable program and the new components at readyrating.org.