Emergencies happen everywhere people gather.
What the record shows for schools, houses of worship, warehouses, offices, care facilities, hospitals and apartment buildings — and why a written, practiced plan is what decides how the first minutes go.
About 40% of small businesses never reopen after a disaster.
FEMA estimates another 25% close within a year. Out of every hundred, that leaves roughly thirty-five still operating.
- Never reopen — 40
- Close within a year — 25
- Still operating — 35
Source: Milken Institute, citing FEMA
Schools and universities
96%
of U.S. public schools had a written active-shooter plan in 2021–22, up from 84% in 2009–10. 96% also ran lockdown drills that year.
- 2009–10 (%)84
- 2021–22 (%)96
Source: NCES
Every year
Under the federal Clery Act, every college and university must have emergency response and evacuation procedures, and must test them at least once a year.
Source: 34 CFR 668.46(g)
Churches and places of worship
415
hostile acts against U.S. churches in 2024: 284 vandalism, 55 arson, 28 gun-related incidents and 14 bomb threats. That followed 485 in 2023.
- Vandalism284
- Arson55
- Gun-related28
- Bomb threats14
Source: Family Research Council, via CNA
1,300
fires a year occur at places of worship, causing an average of $74.6 million in property loss each year (2020–2022).
Source: U.S. Fire Administration, via Illinois State Fire Marshal
Manufacturing facilities and warehouses
1,500
warehouse structure fires occur each year, with roughly $323 million in direct property damage (2018–2022).
Source: NFPA
2,600–3,100
more industrial and manufacturing structure fires occur each year (2016–2020). OSHA requires most employers to keep an Emergency Action Plan.
Source: NFPA via Lead Stories; OSHA 1910.38
Corporate office buildings and campuses
1.3 million
nonfatal violent crimes happen at work every year, and there were 454 workplace homicides in 2019.
Source: BJS/BLS/NIOSH, Indicators of Workplace Violence 2019
3,340
office-property fires a year draw a fire-department response, with $112 million in direct damage annually.
Source: NFPA, 2007–2011 data
Daycares, senior care and nursing facilities
14
residents' deaths were eventually linked to a Florida nursing home losing the power that ran its air conditioning after Hurricane Irma in 2017. A generator plan and an evacuation trigger were the missing pieces.
Source: NBC News
48%
of the roughly 5,750 healthcare-facility fires each year happen in nursing homes.
Source: NFPA, 2011–2015, via HFM
18 + D.C.
states were still missing basic emergency-planning requirements for schools and child care — evacuation, family reunification, plans for children with special needs — in Save the Children's last national report card (2015).
Source: Save the Children, via PreventionWeb
Health facilities and hospitals
1 in 7
of the estimated 1.14 million healthcare-worker injuries treated in emergency departments (2015–2017) were intentional injuries caused by another person.
Source: CDC/NIOSH
47%
of more than 3,500 emergency physicians surveyed in 2018 said they had been assaulted at work.
Source: ACEP survey, via NBC New York
Residential, apartments and condos
106,700
multifamily residential building fires are reported each year, causing about 400 deaths (2017–2019).
Source: U.S. Fire Administration
Less than half
of Americans have a home fire escape plan, and only half of those have ever practiced it.
Source: American Red Cross
Top reasons you need an emergency safety plan.
- 1
Emergencies don't check your plan first. A school that never planned for a winter storm still gets the ice storm. The plan must exist before the day you need it.
- 2
The first minutes belong to you, not 911. Before police, fire, or EMS arrive, your own people decide who evacuates, who locks down, who calls, and who is accounted for.
- 3
Requirements and accountability. OSHA (workplaces), CMS (nursing homes and healthcare), the Clery Act (colleges), state school-safety rules, insurers, and boards all expect a written, practiced plan.
- 4
Staying in operation. A plan is the difference between closing for a day and closing for good. See the FEMA figure above.
- 5
Trust. Parents, congregants, residents, patients, and employees assume you have a plan. A plan you can show them builds credibility. Not having one is a liability.
The five things every facility's plan needs, following the FEMA structure.
- 1
A hazard assessment of the emergencies this specific site realistically faces: fire, severe weather, active threat, medical, utility failure, and so on.
- 2
Clear command roles using the Incident Command System: who is in charge, who backs them up, and how to reach them.
- 3
Step-by-step procedures for each hazard, covering evacuation, shelter-in-place, lockdown, routes, assembly points, and how everyone is accounted for.
- 4
Communication and notification: how the alarm is raised, who calls 911, how staff and families are reached, and how people are reunified.
- 5
Site maps, equipment and practice: where the AEDs, extinguishers and shutoffs are, plus a drill and review schedule so the plan stays current.
The top barriers to keeping a plan up to date.
- 1
No one owns it. Most organizations don't have an emergency manager. The plan lands on an administrator who already has a full-time job.
- 2
Cost and complexity. Consultants are expensive, and the FEMA templates are long and full of jargon.
- 3
Plans go stale. Staff turns over, phone numbers change, and buildings get renovated, but the binder on the shelf doesn't keep up.
- 4
Plans aren't usable in the moment. No one reads an 80-page document during an emergency.
- 5
Drills and reviews aren't tracked, so nobody notices when the plan falls out of date.
Five things a small organization can do now.
- 1
Name one person responsible for the plan, and a backup.
- 2
List the 3–5 emergencies you are most likely to face.
- 3
Write a simple one-page procedure for each one: evacuate, shelter, lockdown, medical emergency.
- 4
Keep an up-to-date contact list and a fast way to reach everyone.
- 5
Practice at least twice a year, and update the plan after every drill or staff change.
This is exactly the gap Emergency Safety Planning fills. A guided interview builds the FEMA-structured plan, and the platform keeps it current with reminders, drills, and one-tap activation.
Give it one afternoon.
Sit down with whoever knows the building best. By the end of the day you will have a real plan, real workflows, and a team that can be reached in seconds. Not a binder. A light left on.
No credit card to start. Export your plan at any time, even if you leave us.