Being Prepared: Disaster and Crisis Planning

1. Sarah Daignault Executive Director, NBOA Mohonk Conference May 3, 2007 Being Prepared: Disaster and Crisis Planning

2. Why are you here today? Pandemic Info

3. Why Plan? • Disasters and Crises are a part of human history • Planning will allow for better response, even though you can’t plan for every contingency • Planning can be adapted to fit other disaster scenarios • Once a disaster hits, there is no time to plan

4. How Many Plans? • By type of Disaster • Fire • Flood • Pestilence • By type of Response • Evacuation of Buildings • Lockdown • Evacuation of Campus

5. Assess the risks for your school High High Low Severity Low Likelihood

6. NBOA Disaster Planning Experience • Institute for Advanced Financial Management held in October 2006 • 25 business officers and 9 experts worked through a pandemic flu scenario • Created outline of a disaster plan for independent schools

7. NBOA Disaster Planning • Breakout Groups Focused on: • Business Operations and Governance • Employee Issues • Facilities • Students and Education

8. Business Operations and Governance • Risk Management/Crisis Management Team • Enrollment Contracts • Review now, with your culture in mind • Keep it flexible • Cash Flow & Institutional Relationships • How much cash required for critical needs, and how much do you have at lowest point? • Are bank and payroll provider prepared?

9. Business Operations and Governance • Outside Service Providers • Have they made adequate plans? • Look for backups and cooperative options. • Technology & Redundant Communications • Arrange for backup or remote web-hosting. • Arrange for remote access to your system and to bank and payroll providers. • Automated Communications to Families

10. Business Operations and Governance • Business Continuity • Identify essential functions • Cross-train staff • List of passwords, important websites, etc. • Plan for Shutting Down Facility • Disposal of perishable goods • Maintenance issues - how to keep pipes from freezing, etc.

11. Employee Issues • Employment Contracts • At will language • Don’t define school year - make it flexible • Leave Policies • Standard policy that allows flexibility • Return to work guidelines • Work from home guidelines

12. Employee Issues • Ability to Continue Salaries and Benefits • Work with faculty to determine best course of action • Coordination of benefits, COBRA, etc. • Emotional/Psychological Toll • People will lose loved ones • Acknowledge losses in keeping with your school’s culture

13. Facilities • Evacuation Plans (particularly for boarding) • How will you get students home? • If they can’t go home, where will they stay? • Proper Hygiene • Constant hand washing • Sneeze and cough etiquette • Stay home if you’re sick!!!

14. Facilities • Stockpiling • Need1000 calories and 2 gallons of water, per person per day • Community Use of Facilities • Check with local emergency management officials - might be planning to use your school • Work with them - what are their priorities and what might your school offer?

15. Facilities • Physical Security • Hope for the best, expect the worst • To what extent are you willing to protect your assets? • Isolation, Quarantine, Morgue • Separate those who may be sick and those who are, and plan for a place to hold the dead • If you evacuate, plan for the animals.

16. Students and Education • Continuing education during closure • Assess ability to offer e-learning • Faculty to create 3 weeks’ worth of lessons • Effect of long-term closure (college placement, lost credits, etc.) • Communications plan to parents • Deep emergency contact list

17. Vocabulary Lesson • Pandemic • Mutation • Reassortment • H5N1 • U and W shaped mortality curves • Social Distancing

18. What is a Pandemic? • An epidemic (outbreak of infectious disease) that spreads across a wide geographic region or the world • According to the WHO, a pandemic exists when: • there is the emergence of a disease new to the population • the agent infects humans, causing serious illness • the agent spreads easily and sustainably among humans

19. Recent Epidemics • AIDS • Ebola • SARS • Monkey pox • Bird flu

20. Seasonal vs. Pandemic Flu • Seasonal influenza • Peaks December thru March in U.S. • 36,000 deaths/200,000 hospitalizations • Frail, elderly and very young – U shaped distribution • Pandemic influenza • No seasonal preference • Comes in waves, lasting a year or more • Millions of deaths

21. Pandemic Flu History • Ten recorded over past 300 years • 10-49 years between events, with an average of 24 years between events • No predictable pattern • Three in the 20th century • 1918-20 – mutation event with markers similar to those found in birds • 1957-58 – reassortment event • 1967-68 – reassortment event

22. Mortality Rates • 1918 Spanish Flu • 20-40 million deaths worldwide • 675,000 deaths in U.S. • 1957 Asian Flu • 1-4 million deaths worldwide • 70,000 deaths in U.S. • 1968 Hong Kong Flu • 1-4 million deaths worldwide • 34,000 deaths in U.S.

23. Why the Concern About H5N1? • Highly lethal virus that has resisted eradication efforts (culling of birds) • Crossed species, infecting 49 animal species beyond birds, including humans • Limited human-to-human transmission has occurred • Human infections result in rapid deterioration and high mortality rates (50%, most of those healthy young adults)

24. Similarities to 1918 Pandemic • High mortality rate • Appears to have W shaped mortality curve • Has the same protein tag • NS1 protein found in H1N1 (1918 Spanish flu) and H5N1 only ones alike out of 169 viruses • May explain the events leading to respiratory failure and death

25. 1918 Pandemic Statistics projected onto 2007

27. WHO Pandemic Stages • Phase 1 - Influenza virus subtype may be present in animals, risk of human infection low • Phase 2 - Influenza virus subtype may be present in animals, risk of human infection substantial • Phase 3 - Cases of human infection reported, no human-to-human transmission • Phase 4 - Small clusters of limited human-to human transmission • Phase 5 - Larger clusters of human infection • Phase 6 - Increased and sustained human infection

28. Public Health Challenges • Short incubation period (2-17 days) • Virus can survive on surfaces for several days • People may be infectious days before symptoms are evident • Droplet infection (sneezing/coughing)

29. Likely Government Actions • Isolation of the sick • Quarantine of the exposed • Protective sequestration • Isolating a community before illness enters • Social Distancing • Actions taken to discourage close social contact between individuals

30. Social Distancing • No group gatherings (classes, worship services, athletic events, concerts) • Risky to use public transportation - people may defer travel or it may be cancelled • People can work alone in spaces, drive in their own cars

31. Social Distancing • Maintain working distances of 4-6 feet • Do not share equipment (computers, telephones) • Meet by phone or video conferencing, avoid face-to-face meetings

32. Residences Workplace/Classroom Social Density Offices Hospitals 7.8 feet Elementary Schools 16.2 feet 11.7 feet 3.9 feet http://buildingsdatabook.eren.doe.gov/docs/7.4.4.xls

33. School Closures • Perceived risk will influence behavior • Will teachers and students show up? • What level of absenteeism will force closure? • Pulling the trigger early may help delay outbreak and diminish the overall number of cases • Issues with calling it early • Social disruption • Child care issues • Workforce issues

34. Resources • Personal • http://www.fema.gov/plan/prepare/plan.shtm • http://www.pandemicflu.gov/plan/individual/index.html • http://www.ncdp.mailman.columbia.edu/program_citizen.htm • Institutional • http://www.fema.gov/institution/university.shtm • http://www.pandemicflu.gov/plan/school/index.html • http://www.ncdp.mailman.columbia.edu/program_school.htm

35. www.nboa.netnboa@nboa.net (720) 564-0475