Security can be somewhat of a swiss army knife for your organization. It's valuable because it does it's job well, but it has the capacity to facilitate other valuable services that are closely related.
As a matter of fact, security professionals live in a world where risks, threats, assets and resources are constantly balanced, contrasted and compared. This way of thinking transfers well into many other functions other than security, and it's one reason we see security professionals venture outside their lane from time to time.
Since many of the same measures are used to protect resources from both security risks as well as emergencies, it only makes sense to roll emergency planning and protection into your security work.
I guess that's a lengthy way of saying - security professionals should help with emergency management.
And it's a lengthy way of leading up to my suggestion to seriously think about how close your assets are to interstate highway travel. In the last five years, it seems there has been an increase in highway related hazardous materials incidents. But the interesting thing is, there doesn't seem to be an increase in protection measures.
We've all seen railroad routes being considered in this kind of thing - for good reason. But they are not the only option when transporting hazardous material by any means.
So here we have another threat to mitigate? Another thing to be worried about?
I wouldn't consider this something to base an entire assessment or plan on. But I would suggest keeping this issue in mind, and looking for opportunities to protect against it instead of marginalize the risk.
Every hour of every day tons of hazardous material is shipped over US highways, many times in vehicles you wouldn't think twice about. And even wrecks involving non-hazardous material can seriously screw up your operation - especially if you rely on the highway daily - or for critical emergency response or evacuation routes.
This does not mean expensive technology to detect incidents, or video monitoring to be the first to know if there is an issue - but it does mean:
- Considering what impact the loss of the highway would have to normal and emergency operations and plan for back-up routes.
- Consider what effect hazardous materials (liquids, solids or gasses) would have on your operations or assets directly adjacent to the highway.
- Consider what your organization may be able to assist with if in the event of an emergency on the highway.
