When Disaster Strikes, Take Nothing For Granted

Aug 1, 2007 12:00 PM

In case of a natural or man-made disaster, basic infrastructure services may be available at diminished levels or not at all. These include shelter, communications, transportation, power, food, fuel, emergency medical support, water and sanitary services, municipal services and public safety. Have you planned to replace or augment these basic services? If not, you may find yourself and your organization struggling to respond to and recover from an event that could shut your enterprise down for a long time.

Man-made crises — such as technological terrorism, intrusions targeting information networks or use of weapons designed to inflict mass casualties — will have longer-lasting impacts on society and will require ongoing response. Severe weather and pandemic events that cover larger geographic areas might last months instead of hours or days and require enterprise-wide planning, collaboration and changes in how we currently define the workplace.

To prepare for one of these disasters, ask yourself:

• Can you shelter your workforce, feed them and provide water and sanitary services?

• Can you provide power for basic services?

• Can you transport your vital workers and provide protection for them?

• Can you provide a basic but effective emergency medical first response to your facility?

• Can you fuel vehicles necessary to carry on your business's trade or services?

Work to develop formal and informal relationships to help you deal with such requirements. Without them, you will struggle to manage one or all of these basic needs during a significant event or combination of events. And consider this: Have your competitors made such arrangements and tested them? If so, they have a distinct competitive advantage that will demonstrate itself in no uncertain terms when disaster strikes.

William Besse is director of corporate security for Belo Corp. and a member of the Security Executive Council (www.csoexecutivecouncil.com/?sourceCode=access).

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