Facility Management & Disaster Response: How To Implement Effective Emergency Plans

In emergencies, seconds make the difference between recovery and ruin. Your minute-by-minute actions can determine whether you're back to normal in days, weeks, or months. 

While you can't prevent every disaster that comes your way, you can control how you respond and recover. As a former Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge puts it, “You can be afraid, or you can be ready.” 

This guide equips you to respond with strength, not hesitation, to protect your facility and whoever might be in it. Curious how some businesses bounce back in days while others struggle for months after the same disaster? You'll find out when you see the two revealing stories at the end that show exactly what made the difference.

What is emergency planning and disaster management and why is it so vital?

Emergency planning and disaster management is the processes of preparing for, responding to, and recovering from emergencies. It includes assessing risks, creating plans, training teams, and setting up systems to quickly bounce back while protecting people and assets.

Emergency planning specifically refers to the plans you have in place before, during, and after an emergency. Disaster management refers to how your facility copes with disasters thanks to careful preplanning. 

This work is vital because emergencies don’t come with warnings. A well-prepared organization can prevent chaos, reduce damage, save lives, and recover faster—turning a potentially catastrophic event into a manageable disruption. Without proper planning and management, even a small incident can spiral into a crisis.

The 4 phases of emergency planning

Emergency management isn't a one-time plan, it's a cycle of mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery. Each phase plays a vital role, but they’re most effective when working together.

Here's an example: When Hurricane Sandy hit the Northeast in 2012, NYU Langone Medical Center had to evacuate 280 patients because of flooding and power failures. 

In contrast, Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn kept operating owing to a generator. However, when that generator failed, they quickly solved the problem by opening their post-anesthesia care unit for critical patients. They kept operating and saved lives. 

Here’s more information on each phase and how you can implement them in your facility.

1. Mitigation

Mitigation means taking actions ahead of time to reduce or eliminate risks. It's the quiet hero of emergency management, saving lives and money behind the scenes. 

The FEMA found that for every $1 spent on hazard mitigation, the U.S. saves $6 in future disaster costs.

Mitigation is often related to good maintenance and proactive actions like: 

• Trimming trees near power lines so they don’t take out your power during the next big storm

• Moving expensive equipment off the ground floor if you're in a flood zone

• Installing backup generators that kick in automatically

• Choosing fire-resistant building materials in high-risk areas

PRO TIP: Accelerate mitigation by using 3D scans of your facility and environment to track and identify problems like blocked emergency exits or outdated electrical panels before they cause trouble.

2. Preparedness

Preparedness is about planning for emergencies you can't prevent. Much like having a spare tire in your car, you hope you’ll never need these plans, but when you do, it's invaluable.

Common preparation tasks include:

• Maintaining emergency supplies like first aid kits, flashlights, and water

• Marking clear evacuation routes with signs everyone can understand 

• Running regular drills and training so people know what to do without thinking 

• Creating backup plans for when the first plan doesn't work

One of the most famous examples of preparedness is when the Twin Towers were attacked on 9/11. Morgan Stanley's security chief, Rick Rescorla, forced employees to practice evacuation drills regularly despite heavy complaints. While Rescorla lost his life helping others escape, his preparation meant that when a real disaster happened, employees knew exactly what to do. His preparation directly saved nearly 2,700 employees.

When planning for disaster, remember that it's not just physical elements that pose risks. Cybersecurity threats are increasing. More than two-thirds of all IT outages in 2022 had costs exceeding $100,000, with 91% of businesses experiencing at least one network outage per quarter.

3. Response

Response happens during and immediately after an emergency. You want to know exactly: 

• Who's in charge during different types of emergencies

• How people should communicate when normal systems are down

• Where people should go to be safe

While your emergency response might be relatively quick compared to the other phases, it’s where all the plans suddenly launch into action.

4. Recovery

Recovery means getting back to normal after an emergency. It's often the longest and hardest part of the process. Every hour of downtime could equal millions in losses, with 40% of businesses reporting never reopening after a disaster.

Your recovery plan should cover:

• How to get the essential services running first

• What to do about damaged equipment or spaces

• Who to call for repairs and rebuilding

• How to help employees cope with stress and trauma

• Ways to learn from what happened so you're better prepared next time

• Having before-and-after digital records also makes insurance claims easier.

In real-world scenarios, recovery can be the difference between success and failure for entire organizations. For example, Disaster Restoration Services used digital scans after disasters and reduced their estimation time by 75%. Their team restored 20 properties, while only physically having to go on site once.

5 Steps to create your emergency disaster plan

But creating a solid emergency plan doesn't have to be complicated. Follow these five steps to build a plan that works for your specific facility.

1. Conduct a thorough disaster and hazard assessment

Start by figuring out what could go wrong at your facility. Once you identify vulnerabilities, you can address them systematically.

It’s unlikely that you can prepare for absolutely every disaster imaginable, so you need to begin by predicting the most likely disasters and the cost of preparedness. 

Good questions to start asking yourself are:

• What natural disasters are common in our area? (Hurricanes? Earthquakes? Flooding? Tornadoes?)

• What systems could fail? (Power? Water? HVAC? Computer networks?)

• What would hurt us the most if it stopped working?

• What problems have we had in the past?

When conducting an assessment, it's crucial to not only identify the necessary actions but also to prioritize them based on their urgency and impact. This means categorizing tasks according to their importance to business continuity and recovery. 

PRO TIP: Good documentation before disasters can cut assessment time by 60% because you have a crystal clear ‘before’ and ‘after’ understanding of your facility to compare and use for insurance.

2. Define roles and responsibilities

Everyone in your facility — visitor or employee — needs to be able to respond in a disaster. By assigning key employees roles, you can respond with calm efficiency. 

Your emergency team should include:

• A leader (and a backup if that person isn't available)

• People in charge of different areas (operations, planning, supplies)

• Clear instructions about who reports to whom

• Someone to liaise with outside groups, like the media or government agencies

3. Develop clear communication strategies

Communication breaks down right when you need it most. Make sure you have multiple ways to share information during emergencies.

For communication inside your organization:

• Use several methods to send alerts (texts, emails, PA systems)

• Have backup methods ready when the main systems fail

• Create clear steps for who should talk to whom and when

• Test your communication systems regularly

Government agencies using digital facility models can share critical information faster during emergencies. When everyone sees the same detailed pictures of your facility, coordination improves dramatically.

4. Implement training and scenario-based exercises

Plans that live only on paper won't help in real emergencies. Your training program should include:

• Basic emergency information for everyone in your facility

• Special training for emergency team members

• Leadership training for decision-makers

• Technical training for people handling specialized equipment

Different types of practice build skills over time:

• Tabletop exercises, where you talk through scenarios

• Functional drills testing specific skills

• Full-scale practice runs that simulate real emergencies

Virtual 3D models make training more effective and affordable because they let employees practice in a digital version of your facility. This helps early responders learn the layout before they ever need to respond to a real emergency.

These virtual environments let you:

• Run realistic scenarios without disrupting normal operations

• Include team members who work remotely

• Practice dangerous situations safely

• Review what happened and improve future responses

5. Continuously review and update

Your emergency plan isn't a "set it and forget it" document. As your facility changes, your plan needs to change too. Set a schedule to:

• Do a complete review once a year

• Check high-risk sections every few months

• After any emergency, big or small, look at what worked and what didn't

• Update the plan whenever you change your facility or operations

How digital twins support emergency response

3D digital models (often called digital twins) are changing emergency management. Digital twins are a virtual replica of your entire facility that can be accessed digitally, no matter where you are, to help plan evacuation routes, store documentation, or show before and after states. 

Case study #1: Streamlining disaster recovery with ATI Restoration 

In the video below, ATI Restoration — the largest family-owned disaster restoration contractor in the U.S. — explains how virtual tours and scans can also be shared with insurance assessors or contractors, speeding up the claims process and recovery efforts.

Before implementing Matterport, they struggled with:

• Relying on traditional photos that lacked sufficient detail

• Manual measurements that were time-consuming and prone to error

• Multiple site visits to gather necessary data

• Difficulty sharing critical information between teams and stakeholders

Today, they save more than $110,000 a year in hard costs just by using the sketch feature. Their results include: 

• 4x faster loss estimation time

• Increased measurement accuracy from 87% to 97%

• 5x faster sketch productivity

• Fewer site visits, saving valuable time and reducing operational costs

By storing 95% of project data in one accessible platform, ATI was able to create a seamless workflow, ensuring that all teams could access up-to-date, accurate information at any stage of the recovery process.

Case study #2: Winning FEMA appeals in tornado-affected areas

When tornadoes hit Kentucky in December 2021, many people struggled to get FEMA assistance because they couldn't properly document the damage to their homes.

A nonprofit called SBP partnered with Matterport to help homeowners who had been denied aid to appeal their case by:

• Creating detailed 3D models of damaged homes

• Digitally show exactly what was damaged and how badly

• Provide FEMA with clear, measurable evidence of the destruction

This program helped people who had trouble navigating the complex FEMA system on their own. The detailed digital evidence made a huge difference in getting fair assistance.

Be ready for disasters with Matterport

Disasters are unpredictable, but your response doesn’t have to be. With the right preparation, every minute counts in your favor—not against you.  Matterport’s digital twins can help you in every phase of emergency planning. 

Book your demo now and see what’s possible.