You must consider how each hazard could affect the critical infrastructure and key resources in your community. Remember, essential facilities are those that are necessary for the health and welfare of the population of your community. By including essential facilities, transportation systems, lifeline systems, high potential loss facilities, and hazardous material facilities as part of your community exposure profile, you can plan appropriate response and recovery actions to be implemented following a hazard.

Lifelines and infrastructure that should be considered include roads/streets, highways, services, potable water, and electrical systems. Keep in mind that damage to any of these systems could have severe detrimental effects to the community as a whole. For example, if a bridge is damaged, then emergency medical services, law enforcement, and firefighters may be unable to get to the people and places where they’re needed most.

Be sure to keep current information about critical facilities. Having a database of this information available will be useful when allocating resources following a hazard. You should have a list of the name and location of all critical facilities in your community. Other information kept on file should include the location of each facility (including GPS and/or National Grid System coordinates), contact information, a note about any special response equipment that may be needed for that facility, and an inventory of any hazardous materials stored onsite.

This assessment of critical infrastructure and key resources will help you determine priorities for allocating resources or activation of additional resources so infrastructure can be restored quickly after a hazard event. It will also help you determine potential costs for responding to and recovering from the hazard event.