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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