Terms and definitions (4 of 4)
What types of emergency are there?
The types of emergency that are experienced by an organisation will depend to a certain extent on where that organisation is located. In the UK, we are fortunate that we are not generally affected by earthquakes, hurricanes or tornados, so we do not often experience severe building damage. However, we do experience heavy rainfall, which can increase the risk of flooding.
The political environment of an organisation's country will also affect the likely types of emergency. There is currently a higher risk of terrorism in the UK, so bomb damage should be considered.
Both the environmental and political climates should be monitored regularly, and types of emergencies added and removed as situations change.
A survey carried out between 2005 and 2006 showed that 30% of museums in the UK had experienced a "disaster" in the past 5 years, and 21% had experienced more than one. The types of disaster (or emergency) were broken down as follows:
- 68% water damage
- 11% fire
- 3% vandalism
- 6% theft / break-in / burglary
- 2% bomb incident / terrorist threat
- 10% other (building collapse, IT / power failure, etc.)
From these results, we can see that water damage is by far the most frequent type of emergency experienced. For Emergency Planning, this means that resources would be best utilised by concentrating on mitigating the risk of flooding and leaks.
