The Relationship Between Business & Family Disaster Preparation

In the face of a growing threat of a global pandemic, it is imperative that both individuals and businesses initiate disaster preparation and contingency planning to ensure that businesses can operate under the challenging circumstances presented by the bird flu.  It’s estimated that less than 30% of U.S. businesses are engaged in such planning, but these are mostly large corporations.  Yet if there is a bird flu pandemic, everyone will be impacted: families, neighborhoods, and businesses, small and large. 

If this crisis occurs, many startling changes can be expected. The bird flu would pass through a community two to three times with each wave lasting several months. The public systems we count on like health care in hospitals, mail delivery, public transportation, and normal delivery of goods may falter.  In a worst-case scenario, normal supply lines could be disrupted creating a domino effect that would impact what goods are available to all of us.  Quarantines could impact the flow of goods, or transportation carriers might be re-routed elsewhere for emergency purposes.   After Hurricane Katrina refrigerator trucks were requisitioned to the New Orleans area, impacting deliveries elsewhere.  Our water supply and electrical grid could be damaged as supply lines are disrupted.  The invisible connections that keep everything running smoothly may become frayed.

The potential for a bird flu pandemic is not a normal business risk because it does not fall within the type of risks we have faced before that are usually time-limited or confined to a particular geographic area.  A pandemic might last for up to two years, passing through communities worldwide in waves lasting several months.  The CDC estimates 25% of workers will become sick, and another 25% will stay home with their families because they have no childcare, someone is sick at home and they need to be taken care of, or they are afraid to come to work. People may be asked or told to stay at home for their safety.  Some businesses might close, while others will try to alter the way they do business, having more people work from their homes.

Joshua Lichterman, an emergency consultant notes, “Many businesses have suffered in the recent past from natural disasters because they did not plan ahead of time, and some have never reopened their doors. Businesses have this choice as we face the coming pandemic: Take their chances, do nothing, and risk major negative impact, or be prudent, develop the necessary plans to be able to decrease the impact of a natural disaster, and recover quickly afterwards. Whether the bird flu becomes a pandemic, it’s both practical and far-sighted for all businesses, (large, medium, and small), to determine their ability to maintain operations by evaluating their vulnerability to disasters and developing a plan for the business to function despite a disaster (e.g. “a business continuity plan”). Organizations, like people, need to prepare to survive.”

Now is a window of opportunity where families, communities, and businesses can prepare before a crisis occurs.  The first step is understanding the challenges that your particular organization might face.  All businesses should take into account the following: financial losses due to exposure to lawsuits; operating costs that continue despite system slow-downs or shut-downs; loss of skill and knowledge bases resulting from the loss of employees; loss of customer bases; disruption in cash flow; and soaring unemployment.  All of these factors will hinder your ability to continue with ‘business as usual.’

The second step is planning for these contingencies, both in the workplace and at home. This includes the following checklist for businesses, provided by Joshua Lichterman:

 Perform a vulnerability and business impact analysis.

•  Is the business tourism related?

• Would the business suffer if people avoided shopping malls, restaurants, public transportation, other public places?

• Are your products and services considered vital to the national interest?

• What are the consequences of a supply chain interruption?

• Do you have alternative means of transporting finished goods?

Develop a business continuity plan to mitigate the impacts of a pandemic. Such a plan should include:

• An employee notification plan re the threat and how you will conduct business if there is a pandemic.

• Determining how to minimize its impact on your business.

Employees must be informed of the business continuity plans at their workplace.  But it is also essential that businesses play a key role in encouraging employees to prepare with their families at home and in their neighborhoods.  Having resilient employees during a time of crisis is essential.  Disaster preparation at the family and community level creates a sense of sturdiness and resilience on the home front that can supplement and benefit workplace preparation.  

In writing Bird Flu What to Do: Prepare to Survive, my goal was fill the gap between the efforts being made by public health and what ordinary citizens can do to empower themselves, their neighborhoods and communities to be disaster resilient.  Families need to know how to prepare for this new kind of disaster including what supplies to stockpile, how to handle power and water outages, how to address sanitation issues, how to care for someone at home if the hospitals are overloaded or the infrastructure becomes frayed, and how to work with neighbors to create a supportive network.  If employers encourage families to “be prepared” they will have an employee base that is not only informed about workplace and home emergency protocols, but that has a sense of mastery over unpredictable circumstances that will enhance performance during stressful times in the workplace.  Should any natural disaster strike, businesses and individuals will know how to react to minimize loss at work and at home. Now, before the next crisis occurs, is the time to prepare. 

By Verona Fonté, Ph.D.