Verizon Prepares for Mother Nature and Man-Made Events With an All-Hazards Approach to Emergency Management

NEW YORK, Sept. 13, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- September has been designated as National Preparedness Month in the United States, but Verizon's Business Continuity and Emergency Management teams are busy every day of the year monitoring, preparing and responding to weather-related and man-made events throughout the world.

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The company carefully monitors major events such as hurricanes, tornadoes, typhoons, floods, wildfires, earthquakes, train derailments, hazardous material incidents, pandemics, data breach attempts, terrorism and workplace violence, as well as any issue that could impact areas where the company has employees, network facilities and other assets. The company also is responsible for preparing for special events where network assets are involved.  This year, such special events included the Super Bowl in Indianapolis, the Summer Olympics in London, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization Summit in Chicago, the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., and the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C.

(Note: See related news releases on Verizon's business continuity tips for enterprises and government, and consumer emergency-preparedness tips.)

"Verizon uses an all-hazards approach to emergency management, which allows us to prepare for almost any type of event that could impact our business operations," said Dick Price, Verizon's chief business continuity officer. "No matter what type of catastrophic event occurs, we must be prepared to facilitate immediate recovery so we can continue serving our consumer, small and medium business, large enterprise, government and wholesale customers in the U.S. and throughout the world."

Offering communications solutions in 150 countries and more than 2,700 cities, Verizon Business Continuity and Emergency Management (BCEM) teams are responsible for facilitating the development and maintenance of business continuity and disaster recovery plans across all Verizon enterprises. These BCEM teams are staffed by certified business continuity professionals and industry experts who are positioned around the globe supporting North, Central and South America; Europe, the Middle East and Africa; and the Asia-Pacific region, Australia and India.

Key global focus areas for the teams include network operations and security, IT applications, data centers, customer service and support centers, technical sites and administrative centers.

Staying abreast of potential threats to Verizon and its network assets is critical to business operations. Using its Information Sharing and Analysis Center (ISAC), Verizon's BCEM staff is watching the world 24/7 for potentially disruptive events. The ISAC team actively monitors, analyzes and disseminates situational information and intelligence regarding potential issues that could impact Verizon's wireline operations in the U.S. and worldwide. For example, during hurricanes the ISAC team alerts appropriate company personnel of storm activity, anticipated paths of travel and rainfall predictions 96 hours before the expected impact.

When a major incident occurs, Verizon Wireline activates its National Emergency Coordinating Center. The center engages more than 65 Verizon departments worldwide, develops overall incident priorities and coordinates the execution of a single-incident action plan of recovery and restoration activities until the incident no longer is a threat to the company.

Verizon has developed long-standing relationships with many federal, state and local agencies through the years of working together during disasters. Verizon manages many emergencies and disasters using the National Incident Management System (NIMS), an  incident management system published by U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which enables responders at all levels, both public and private, to work together more effectively and efficiently to manage U.S. domestic incidents.  NIMS integrates effective practices in emergency response work into a comprehensive national framework for incident management. Verizon also uses the Incident Command System (ICS), which is a management approach for command, control and coordination of emergency response.

During numerous exercises throughout the year, Verizon employees have opportunities to use NIMS and ICS while testing and refining their business continuity plans. Verizon business continuity plans are tested and updated annually.

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE, Nasdaq: VZ), headquartered in New York, is a global leader in delivering broadband and other wireless and wireline communications services to consumer, business, government and wholesale customers.  Verizon Wireless operates America's most reliable wireless network, with more than 94 million retail customers nationwide.  Verizon also provides converged communications, information and entertainment services over America's most advanced fiber-optic network, and delivers integrated business solutions to customers in more than 150 countries, including all of the Fortune 500.  A Dow 30 company with $111 billion in 2011 revenues, Verizon employs a diverse workforce of more than 188,000.  For more information, visit www.verizon.com.

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SOURCE Verizon