Meet The Experts

Rebuilding the Gulf Region
By George Haddow & Jane Bullock

Several factors must be considered by local, State and Federal government officials, the business sector and those non-profit groups that will be critical players in the rebuilding of New Orleans, outlying Parishes and communities in southeastern Louisiana and communities in Mississippi and Alabama devastated by Hurricane Katrina. These factors include: how to rebuild in a way that reinvents how humans live in a high risk areas; how to involve all segments of society and all stakeholders in each community in the recovery planning and rebuilding processes; designation of an effective administrator to manage the Federal resources involved in the recovery with the authority to make multi-million dollar investments and the confidence of the President; the development of a broad variety of mitigation options both structural (levees, flood control, etc.) and non- structural (wetlands restoration and conservation, building codes, etc.) for building back these communities to disaster resilient standards; and, strong participation by the business sector and the business continuity planning community in the recovery process.

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Redefining the "72-Hour Rule"
By Judy Bell, CEM

Last week, we all watched with horror and a sense of helplessness as the 72-hour clock ticked away. As the Gulf Coast experienced its “worst case” scenario, desperation and panic drove people to take whatever actions were necessary to survive. Due to their isolation, those who were experiencing the hardships had no way of knowing about the massive recovery effort that was underway. Furthermore, it didn’t matter how massive the effort was. In any disaster, great harm is done any time people are separated from their life-sustaining necessities.

Now it will take months to discover what caused that 72-hour clock to tick so interminably long. New “lessons learned” will create lists of action items to streamline the recovery process. Whatever the findings, it is clear that a coordinated community response is not adequate for protecting life-sustaining necessities in a “worst case” scenario.

To read the complete article, Click HERE.

Hurricane Katrina Vital Records & Facility Restoration Issues
By Pat Moore, CBCP FBCI

Past disaster history has shown people all over the world that they cannot wait until the disaster hits to determine what critical belongings or information they need to take with them when they evacuate an area or facility. A national catastrophe, such as Hurricane Katrina, is an example of how important ''individual and family' preparedness is. Every person, and every business should be pre-determining not only what critical information they need to store offsite or protect long before any type of disaster occurs, but also pre-determine what information they may have in their immediate possession that will be necessary to save for post-disaster use. Emergency contact information, irreplaceable family photos or memorabilia, or other vital records, e.g. prescriptions, stock certificates, medical records, etc., may well be as important as critical business records when a disaster happens.

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Emergency Preparedness: A Personal Responsibility - Your Responsibility
By Kathy Rainey

Since the mid 80’s, the emergency management community has preached a clear and consistent message: Prepare yourself and your family to be self sufficient for 3 days. Some radicals even suggested 7 days! Why? Because after a disaster, it may be days before help arrives.

The magnitude of some disasters may always be outside the scope of the government’s ability to handle quickly—especially incidents without warning such as a major earthquake in California or a nuclear attack by terrorists. Preparing our country must be done at the grassroots level—family by family, business by business, and community by community. Hope for any other plan will remain just that—hope but not reality.

To read the complete article, Click HERE.