Disaster Preparedness Roundtable LSNTAP 20 March 2013
Key Terms A disaster is anything that effectively stops you from doing your work (i.e. causes a business interruption). Can be small (a computer crash) or large (a tornado). A crisis is an event which may be detrimental to an organizations profitability, reputation, or functioning. Disaster response is the initial period following a disaster in which the community attempts to minimize damages, provide basic services to its members, conduct search and rescue operations, and meet other immediate needs. Disaster recovery is the process of minimizing the interruption to and restoring the organizations normal functioning. Business continuity is the process of getting your organizations behind the scenes functions back to normal as quickly as possible. This includes planning ahead of time. An impact analysis is the process of describing your organizations business functions and the effects that different disasters may have on those functions. A consortium or reciprocal agreement is an agreement reached ahead of time between two or more organizations that outlines a plan to share facilities and/or resources in times of disaster. A mutual aid agreement with local emergency responders or government will help secure a faster and more accurate response in terms of personnel, equipment, etc. Definitions taken in part from
Poll 1. What are your goals for this roundtable? 2. What does your organizations current disaster plan include (whether or not the parts are labeled like this)?
Source:
Local resources and stakeholders Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT), a project of FEMA. Trains amateur disaster responders Local chapters of the American Red Cross Local volunteers host shelters to provide food, housing, and basic health care after disasters State or county Disaster and Emergency Services departments Local fire departments Your insurance company
For further reading The National Disaster Legal Aid website was built for this purpose: NLADAs E-Library at Search disaster planning or related terms FEMA has a wealth of information on both planning and response/recovery at TechSoup also has a good library of articles and webinar recordings at recoverywww.techsoup.org/disaster-planning-and- recovery The Nonprofit Risk Management Center has a great library, much of which is free, at SlideShare has lots of disaster-related presentations at (search disaster or related terms) From LSNTAPs blog Disaster Planning (5 November 2012) Disaster Response (14 November 2012) Online Data Backup Services (24 December 2012) Lets talk about security (22 February 2013) If you have access to (and interest in) scholarly articles Disaster planning for small- and medium sized nonprofit organizations: Challenges and advantages, by Tamara Klindt in the Journal of Emergency Management Vol. 8, No. 3, May/June 2010 Continuity Planning for Nonprofits, by Nancy Meyer-Emerick and Mehnaaz Momen in Nonprofit Management and Leadership Vol. 14, No. 1, Fall 2003 And many more!
Please take the feedback survey! The Volunteer House in Joplin, MO. Photo by Liz Leman.
Preparation and mitigation are the best strategies for minimizing property damage and loss of life during disasters. This becomes even more important when talking about organizations that are responsible for vulnerable populations within a given community. (Klindt, p. 53)