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Howard County Community Readiness Week: Most Businesses Unprepared for Disaster, Experts Say

(The Business Monthly) -- By Len Lazarick



Most businesses are unprepared to deal with a natural or man-made disaster, an expert on emergency management told a group of business leaders as part of last month's Community Readiness Week.

Kevin O'Brien, a project manager with Innovative Emergency Management, Inc., said surveys by Michigan State University and others have shown that most companies do not have an emergency plan to cope with a flood, fire or even a long-term power outage, no less the aftermath of a terrorist attack. These surveys also found that 40% of companies that lose their records in a disaster wind up going out of business.

"Having no plan in place will make you reactionary and that will make you a victim," said O'Brien.

His comments came at the kickoff of a county-organized series of events that asked the question: "What's your plan, Howard County?"

The answer appeared to be that Howard County's official first responders and a core of volunteers to help them is reasonably well prepared, but the members of the business community may not be. "Howard County is far ahead" over many places in the rest of the country, said Pam Klahr, president of the Howard County Chamber of Commerce. But surveying the sparse crowd of about 100 in the George Howard Building's Banneker Room, Klahr said, "I wish we had three times the number of people."

"What do individuals do to prepare themselves?" asked Howard County Executive Jim Robey. Robey, the fire chief and police chief all said that even well-prepared first responders can only do so much in the first hours and days of a disaster. One of the first questions residents and businesses need to ask is: "Who's taking care of my family at home?" If that question is unsettled, business managers and employees are going to be conflicted about their work duties.

Robey recalled his own experience as a young Howard County police officer during the massive flooding from Tropical Storm Agnes in 1972, putting in a 16-hour shift, wondering what was happening to his parents in the low-lying town of Daniels on the Patapsco. He said they were ultimately rescued by a National Guard helicopter from the roof of their house before it collapsed. (The old mill town was largely wiped out in the storm.) "They were not prepared —. Each of you — has a responsibility to be prepared," Robey said.

That's especially true in light of a slide of an organizational chart of the federal Homeland Security Department put on the screen by Richard Krieg, chairman of the Community Emergency Response Network (CERN), the county's official volunteer coordinating group. The confusing and complicated chart is "not very reassuring - that does not give many people solace."

However, much of the thick binder given to participants in the Oct. 17 meeting were printouts of emergency planning tools from Homeland Security's preparedness web site, Ready.gov. It includes long checklists, explanations and step-by-step procedures for both businesses and households in putting together an emergency plan.

Other resources for businesses and residents can be found on the CERN web site, including links to other preparedness cites run by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and cyber security organizations. The CERN web site is also available in Korean and Spanish, the two most prevalent non-English languages spoken in Howard County.

O'Brien emphasized the need for business continuity planning. This planning includes written plans and procedures, identifying essential functions, delegating authority, succession planning within the organization and locating alternate facilities for operation.

"How much would it cost you to be out of business for one hour?" O'Brien asked. If your firm is knocked out of commission for days, "other businesses may capitalize on the situation and pick up the work."

One strategy to cope with a shutdown of a business is to identify an alternate location for doing business that employees can use, including computers and connections to databases. In response to a question from a small business owner who suggested that this strategy is difficult for a small operation, O'Brien suggested identifying another small business in the same line of work that might be willing to set up cooperative arrangements in the event of a disaster.

Robey and O'Brien both emphasized that written plans that sit on shelves or in file drawers don't do much good if they have not been practiced through some sort of drill that tries to duplicate conditions of a disaster. "Plans are worthless," said O'Brien, quoting Dwight Eisenhower, the late general and president. "Planning is essential."