September: Disaster Preparedness Month

Do you want to build a resilient public garden that is prepared for all hazards? True business resilience means maintaining safe facilities, educating your workforce, investing in supplier relationships, and building community connections. Why? Being prepared can mitigate any hazards you face and decrease your overall costs of disruptions.

In September, improve your disaster readiness business and garden plans. Preparedness is Key!

September is Disaster Preparedness month!

The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s National Preparedness Goal is to create “A secure and resilient nation with the capabilities required across the whole community to prevent, protect against, mitigate, respond to, and recover from the threats and hazards that pose the greatest risk.”

How can your garden use testing and exercises to improve your disaster readiness?

All organizations should conduct testing and exercises to ensure that their preparedness program is ready in case of an emergency. Testing is essential to ensure employees know what responsibilities they have and to find potential gaps in the plan. It is necessary to determine whether the various parts of the preparedness program will work.

Training workshops, tabletop exercises, and drill can help to:

• Evaluate your preparedness program and its capability to protect your employees, facilities, business operations, and the environment
• Clarify roles and responsibilities
• Test recently changes procedures
• Obtain recommendations for program improvement
• Increase awareness and understanding of hazards
• Identify planning issues

More information on how to develop an exercise program and resources for exercises is available here.

Should your garden conduct a program review?

Periodically, your public garden should conduct reviews of the preparedness program to ensure you are meeting the needs of your organization. A review could be triggered by regulatory changes, funding changes, significant changes to site, or changes in processes. Some goals for program reviews can include:

Learn more about when your organization should conduct a program review and what you should be reviewing.