Emergency Management Plan

The Georgetown Emergency Management Plan establishes the framework to ensure that the university is prepared to deal with critical incidents that would require extraordinary protection of life, property and continuity of operations. The plan provides an integrated approach to respond to and recover from the impacts of a crisis on Georgetown’s campuses in coordination with federal and local law enforcement agencies and authorities in the District of Columbia.   

Georgetown’s Emergency Management Plan is a comprehensive emergency management system that ensures coordination and cooperation among multiple departments, organizations, and jurisdictions. It addresses the responsibilities of university departments throughout various phases of emergency management and recovery. The plan outlines how individual departments will respond to, recover from, and mitigate the impact of a disaster. 

The plan provides response scenarios to predictable emergencies such as severe weather conditions, utility outages, hazardous material spills, and physical damage and destruction and allows the flexibility for officials to respond to unforeseen catastrophic events that may occur as a result of random incidents such as terrorism, regional crises and unique national threats. Georgetown’s plan coordinates the efforts of representatives from all units of the university to ensure that critical functions are performed. 

The plan also provides for a seamless transition from a temporary emergency response to a more long term recovery effort, in as much as all the university officials involved in emergency preparedness will continue their involvement in any long term recovery plan. Similarly with emergency response, the long term response will be directed to maintain the mission of the university, instruction, research and all supporting operational and administrative functions.

This plan describes the organization, staff, and coordination necessary to ensure the continued operations of Georgetown University in the Washington, DC metro area and its various sites abroad under any emergency condition. The plan recognizes the university’s responsibilities and prescribes actions to be taken by respective departments to respond to an emergency, mitigate damage, and recover operations as soon as possible.

The plan establishes responsibilities for university leaders and each department in the university; sets forth lines of authority and organizational relationships; identifies, in general terms, personnel, equipment, facilities, resources and supplies; identifies required mitigation steps; and focuses on measures integral to the protection of the community. It establishes the concepts and policies for the integration of resources under which all elements of the university will operate during emergencies.

This plan covers students, faculty and staff at Georgetown University’s campuses and facilities in the Washington, DC metro area or its affiliate programs abroad. Georgetown’s individual campuses have protocols specific to those entities but all utilize the resources set forth in this overall plan as needed. The plan prioritizes the safety of those who live, work and study at Georgetown University and provides communications methods to inform internal and external stakeholders of security issues and emergency responses. In the event of any campus emergency, the safety and security of Georgetown’s students, faculty and staff are the highest priority.

The Emergency Management Plan provides a framework for the university to manage unique campus emergencies. In the event of an incident with long-term implications, the university’s focus would transition from immediate response and recovery to the continuity of operations in order to fulfill its academic mission with minimal disruption. These two functions complement one another and rely upon many of the same resources but are distinct in their planning. 

This plan, as part of the university’s overall safety and security efforts, is regularly reviewed through the ongoing work of the OEM and members of the Emergency Response Team to ensure that it best responds to changing campus needs and external factors.