New Lessons on Preparedness

Hurricane Wilma disappeared from national media attention a couple of weeks ago, yet South Florida is still deep in the digging out phase. Power has yet to be restored to more than 100,000 businesses and residences. Fifteen days after the storm, watching the face of someone just receiving power is very uplifting.

Post hurricane debriefings are a staple of company life these past few days with some significant learnings. There is a distinct phase of preparedness that is emerging, seldom considered before.

Most companies in South Florida had some sort of pre-hurricane preparedness plan. It included storm preparations to safeguard lives and property. It is a testament to that preparedness that only ten people died during the storm.

Emerging is a new phase of preparedness where most companies were caught short. Post storm recovery had been limited to taking down shutters and piling up a little debris. Hurricane Wilma taught us the lesson of extended loss of power and staple provisions well beyond a three day period.

Here is a question or two? What was the biggest lesson your company learned? Based on that lesson, what would you recommend in the future? Please post your responses here. -TF

2 thoughts on “New Lessons on Preparedness

  1. Cathy Muth

    We learned that some lower paid employees probably did not have the cash available to stock up their pantries before the storm. Next time we plan to offer cash advances to staff before we send them home to get ready for the storm.

    We learned that 3 days of supplies are not sufficient. On day four some of our people with children were out of food.

    We learned that we need to plan a way to boil water without electricity.

    We learned that generators can ruin major appliances, if not correctly used.

    We learned that generators need lots of gas and that gas may be hard to come by.

    We learned that a storm can still be very strong after crossing Alligator Alley and, in fact, can get stronger as it touches the Atlantic.

    We learned that tall buildings are at more risk than low buildings.

    We learned that even a few working cell phones can make a big difference. In Katrina there were no working cell phones.

    We learned that there is an opportunity for an entrepreneur to bring in refrigerated trucks after a hurricane and sell milk, eggs and butter to the population after the storm.

    Reply

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