A Year after Haiti. Is Communication Still a Big Issue in Preparedness?

Wow. A year has already passed since that mind-numbing earthquake devastated Port-au-Prince. Ringing in my ear since has been a soundbite from Jill Dougherty, CNN Foreign Affairs Correspondent, reporting the morning after:

“But when you have an operation like this, you have to be coordinated, you have to know where you’re going. And one of the big issues at the beginning was just communication. Think of it—the State Department couldn’t even talk to the officials in the Haitian government initially.”

Can We Communicate Better Today?

What if a Haiti-like event—or any disruption that knocks out communications and power—happened in your community today? Could your government officials call anyone outside the area to coordinate critical resources?  Could your county emergency managers reach the governor to identify needs and request support? Could the governor and his or her staff email or call FEMA? Would anyone be able to tweet or update the community on Facebook or other social networks? Would they be in the same boat as Haitian officials were a year ago today?

If Haiti’s leaders had portable satellite communications kits with solar power, Washington could have known what they needed within minutes—instead of hours, even days—of the 7.0 quake.

To honor the memory of those lost a year ago and to respect the lives of people everywhere, let’s resolve to be resilient. Let’ accept the fact that communications networks can and do fail—more often than we like to admit. Without adequate communications for sharing situational awareness, people unnecessarily suffer—even die. Let’s commit to having a Plan B so lack of communications is never a question for rapid response when lives are at stake.

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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Comments Due on Private Sector Preparedness Standards

The Department of Homeland Security is soliciting comments – by January 15 – on their proposed standards for the new Voluntary Private Sector Preparedness Accreditation and Certification Program (PS-Prep). Recommended by the 9/11 commission, PS-Prep was developed for private entities to receive certification for emergency preparedness from DHS.

“Preparedness is a shared responsibility and everyone—including businesses, universities and non-profit organizations—has a role to play,” said Napolitano when announcing the proposed standards in October. “Ensuring our private sector partners have the information and training they need to respond to disasters will strengthen our efforts to build a culture of preparedness nationwide.”

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