The 2007 edition of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Standard on Disaster/Emergency Management and Business Continuity Programs is now available for download at no charge, NFPA has announced.
The standard establishes a common set of criteria that sets a foundation for disaster management, emergency management, and business continuity programs using a total program approach. The standard is aimed at organizations and parties responsible for developing programs on emergency management, prevention, mitigation, preparedness, response, recovery and business continuity.
“Whether they are initiated by nature or human caused, disasters and emergencies wreak havoc,” says James M. Shannon, president and CEO of NFPA. “As organizations plan for unpredictable situations that may arise, NFPA 1600 has become the gold standard to help organizations develop an inclusive plan – a plan that will prove essential in achieving the most successful outcome possible when disaster strikes.”
NFPA 1600’s latest edition incorporates changes to the 2004 edition and expands the conceptual framework of the earlier version. Aspects of mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery which are focused on in earlier versions have been updated, and prevention has been added as a fifth and distinct concept.
In 1991, NFPA’s Standards Council established the Disaster Management Committee to develop a preparedness standard that identified key components of a comprehensive plan that could be used by a variety of organizations, a process that led to NFPA 1600. The plan was intended to address preparations for, responses to, and recovery from disasters resulting from natural, human or technological events.
Utilized by and developed for organizations in both the public and private sector, more than 115,000 copies of NFPA 1600 have been downloaded from NFPA’s Web site since 2004.
The Emergency Management Accreditation Program (EMAP), a program available to state territorial and local government programs, bases its voluntary national accreditation process on NFPA 1600. Nine states, two counties and the District of Columbia have earned EMAP accreditation by ensuring that their disaster preparedness and response systems meet national standards in 15 areas, including: planning; resource management; training; exercises, evaluations and corrective actions; and communications and warning. EMAP accredited states include: Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, Montana, New York, North Dakota, Pennsylvania and Virginia.
