Out of Disaster into Preparedness

The Time is Now to Capitalize on Risk Mitigation Opportunities

Major disas­ters provide impor­tant learn­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties. People are motivated by the loss of life to be more recep­tive to new approaches and strate­gies for risk reduc­tion in the after­math of a crisis. In 2008, 321 natural disas­ters claimed more than 235,000 lives and cost the world an estimated $181 billion (accord­ing to The World Bank).

A long-term approach to build­ing disas­ter resilience is criti­cal, sadly however, disas­ter risk is often only fully acknowl­edged follow­ing a major event. The disas­ter recov­ery period thus provides an oppor­tu­nity to once again sound the alarm and prose­ly­tize for increas­ing disas­ter prepared­ness and risk reduc­tion funding at the federal, state and local levels.

Climate change now compounds the risks for natural disas­ters, but also provides an oppor­tu­nity to empower commu­ni­ties to manage that risk. Consider that disas­ter risk reduc­tion and climate change adapta­tion funding can actually be integrated into relief and recov­ery budgets. How about an in-depth review of the relevant funding instru­ments and practices to ensure that those insti­tu­tions most able to effect change have access to relevant funding  facil­i­tated by local and national governments?

Let’s get serious about risk reduc­tion partner­ships and collab­o­ra­tion with practices that engage local govern­ment, civil society and NGOs in collec­tive decision-making and tangi­ble strate­gies to reduce risk and strengthen early warning. Technology MUST be utilized more effec­tively if we are to achieve enhanced resiliency and risk reduc­tion with the limited funds we are currently willing to allocate.

This fleet­ing moment needs to be capital­ized upon by policy­mak­ers, practi­tion­ers and the public alike — let’s do it together.

Disaster Strikes When You Least Expect It

The night­mare in Haiti once again hammers home this age-old axiom.

How many more people will die in the future because of our compla­cency — in this country and elsewhere?

How many times do we have to witness such disas­ters only to find that once again lack of commu­ni­ca­tions is the great­est hindrance to rapid and accurate assess­ment of the impact? How many people could have been saved if commu­ni­ca­tions were avail­able to quickly obtain accurate situa­tional aware­ness and better coordi­nate the resources for search and rescue?

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Let the (Disaster) Games Begin

Now surely you’ve never thought to make a game of disas­ter prepared­ness!? Well … 2010 may be a good time to rethink your approach to improv­ing your business conti­nu­ity readiness.

Games are essen­tial to our human experi­ence and they form a part of every culture.

Defined as struc­tured activ­i­ties under­taken for fun, games are more and more being used as educa­tional tools. By making aspects of educa­tion and work fun through games, atten­tion and reten­tion among partic­i­pants can be greatly enhanced. The defense indus­try has under­stood this for many years — invest­ing heavily in gaming software to enhance soldier training.

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Preparedness as a Gift

The holiday season, for many, is a time of gather­ing with family and friends. It’s a time when we share gifts, and as a prelude to the new year, it is also a time of reflec­tion. However, many through­out the world are not at peace, are not gather­ing with friends and family, are not sharing gifts. It is time we awaken to the fact that we are indeed in a new age — an age in which we need to stop think­ing just about ourselves and begin to care more about other people and indeed all living things.

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Resiliency=f(comms)

Organizational resiliency is a function of avail­able commu­ni­ca­tions which is a direct function of your prepared­ness posture. Without commu­ni­ca­tions you are up zee creek (if there’s any water left)! Ok if there’s no water left you are really up zee creek! Better call somebody…oh darn…the phones aren’t working and the power is out! … Geez my cell phone battery is dead…oh well the cell service is down too. — Now what! … Hope I can find my car keys.

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Are We Prepared? Why Bother?

Did  you ever think to ask your local first respon­ders (fire, police, emergency manage­ment)  how prepared we are for natural disasters?

Is your local commu­nity suffi­ciently prepared to meet the needs of you and your neigh­bors when a disas­ter strikes? Do you know who is respon­si­ble, what resources they can access, and how quickly they can respond?

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Never Forget Disaster while Enjoying Peace

Complacency turns mere emergen­cies into disas­ters. Much like taking the bless­ings of nature for granted has yielded a fragile environ­ment intol­er­ant of more abuse,  postponing disas­ter prepared­ness because it’s been awhile is like piling combustible materi­als in the direct path of a raging forest fire. It will burn out of control.

Do you ever wonder why most experts suggest stock­pil­ing 2 weeks of criti­cal supplies when, until recently, the recom­men­da­tion has been 3 days?