Last Thursday evening several of us participated in a late evening “strategy” session where we discussed concerns and issues in emergency preparedness for the State of Hawaii and its’ citizens.  Out of those insightful discussions came the following points.

We must make citizen preparedness a priority

For the past several years, homeland security investments have been focused primarily on public safety and first responders.  While much of that investment was necessary and appropriate in the past, haven’t we reached a point where we should be shifting our focus from public safety and first responders to the citizens of our communities?  Shouldn’t we be making greater investments that help our citizens become better prepared (“resilient”)?  We thought so.  And not just in Hawaii, but across the United States.

The importance of networking

If history repeats itself, many of those attending our training this past week will return home very excited and anxious to begin using their new-found knowledge.  Unfortunately, reality will catch up to them and distractions will start to pop up threatening future forward movement.  In an effort to channel our interest and energy and use it to continue forward momentum, it was suggested that those in class should continue to meet on a regular (recurring) basis to network and support each other.  In an effort to accomplish this, they have agreed to meet periodically on a conference call to support each other and address strategic ideas to grow and enhance community preparedness.   Working together, they will reinforce their own learning and discover other ways in which to help their communities become better prepared.

National Guard support

On our final day together, we had the great fortune to have Col. Joe Logan join us for lunch.  Col. Logan serves as the Chief of Staff for the Hawaii National Guard at the Joint Forces Headquarters – Hawaii.  During his comments to our class Col. Logan expressed his appreciation for the work each of the students does across the state (islands) in helping citizens prepare for emergencies.  He mentioned that the National Guard was pleased to be a part of the training this week and to play host for us at the wonderful National Guard RTI facility.

A look back

Now that I can look back at this great experience, I’m happy to know I have so many new friends in both Hawaii and Samoa.  The students in our class were so gracious to us.  Throughout the week they were very attentive, they asked great questions, shared terrific experiences, and were always willing to participate.  An instructor’s ideal class.

This week I also learned.  During our “teach backs” (student presentations) I learned several new instructional techniques from my students that proved to be very effective ways of demonstrating to a class.  I thank my students for sharing their insights and knowledge.

I was surprised to learn that Hawaii has 11 of the world’s 13 climate zones within the state (islands).  Yes, it does snow in the higher elevations of Hawaii!  I also learned that there is only 1 firefighter/EMT for every 450 people, there is only 1 police officer for every 430 people, and there is only 1 ambulance for every 12,000 people.  Additionally, here in the continental United States, we can leverage “mutual aid” where when a community’s first responders are overwhelmed, they can call for help from a nearby community.  But when you live on an island and the nearest help is hours away by boat or airplane, then what?  Given the numerous and variety of risks the islands face, these figures strongly support why the citizens of Hawaii must take personal preparedness seriously.

As we closed our class down we (instructors) were each presented with parting gifts.  I was given a bag of Alaea Sea salts.  Alaea salt is an unrefined Hawaiian sea salt.  The salt is expensive and hard to find outside the Hawaiian islands.  It gets its pinkish-brown color from Hawaiian clay, called ‘alaea, which is rich in iron oxide.  Customarily, Alaea sea salt was used by Hawaiians to cleanse, purify and bless tools, canoes, homes and temples.  Alaea is also used in several traditional Hawaiian dishes such as Kalua Pig (delicious!), Hawaiian Jerky and Poke.

Finally, I’ll leave you with pictures from our CERT training In Hawaii.

Mahalo!

Bank of America webinar

I started out the day by delivering a webinar to a group of 100+ Bank of America associates who work within the company’s business continuity program.  The webinar I conducted was titled “Business Continuity and Preparedness through Social Media”.  I was very pleased to have the opportunity to present to this group again.  I think it was almost a year ago when I last spoke to them about emergency communications.

Hawaii CERT

Following the webinar, the rest of my day was spent wrapping up the third and final day of our Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) “Train-the-Trainer class.  At the end of the day, 36 more people are now qualified to teach the CERT curriculum.  Congratulations to all.  Tomorrow, we start a two-day CERT Program Manager class.

Hawaii State Civil Defense

The classes we are teaching this week are being sponsored by the Hawaii State Civil Defense office.

Until arriving here in Hawaii, I thought all state agencies across the U.S. had pretty much changed their names (many years ago) from “Civil Defense” to “Emergency Management”.  I was pleasantly surprised to see that Hawaii maintained the “Civil Defense” name that the emergency management field traces its roots to.  Today, we might consider this being “retro”.

There are eight major islands that make up four counties and no two counties are alike.  The Hawaiian language uses short vowels like the word Aloha and there are 8 consonants.   Roads with English names are older and all newer roads have Hawaiian names.  While there are Route numbers, most people in Hawaii don’t use the Route numbers.

Kauai County the smallest county has two islands (Niihau a privately owned island and Kauai made famous in movies from Blue Hawaii, Jurassic Park and Blue Thunder) impacted by Hurricanes Iwa (1982) and Iniki (1992).

The City & County of Honolulu (island of Oahu where I’m at this week) is where 80% of the island’s 1.3 million people live and home to Iolani Palace which was home to the last two reigning Hawaiian monarchs.  Oahu is famous also for its 20 foot surf on the north shore and home to a number of surfing competitions during the winter months.

Maui County is made up of four islands including Kahoolawe which is not inhabited after years of being used for naval target practice.  Molokai was made famous in the James Michener novel as the home to the colony for survivors of Hansen’s disease (leprosy) which today continues to be governed by the Dept. of Health. Lanai is owned by Rupert Murdoch and Maui is home to Haleakala which occasionally has snow.  Can you believe snow in Hawaii???

Hazards

Hawaii County, or the island of Hawaii, has 11 of the 13 climate zones including the hazards that come with each zone. The island is large enough to fit all of the other seven islands and is home to Kilauea, which is an active volcano that dumps about 40 truckloads of lava per day into the ocean making Hawaii the only state that is growing.  The Hawaii County Civil Defense Agency deals with blizzard, sleet, hail hazards along with the earthquakes, lava and the gasses from the volcano.

As a matter of fact state’s top five hazards include:

•             Hurricane

•             Flash Flood

•             Tsunami – In Hawaii, a tsunami watch will be issued immediately by Pacific Tsunami Warning Center for quakes 7.9 or greater or if tsunami ETA is less than 6 hours.  Additionally, a tsunami warning will be issued whenever a tsunami wave has been confirmed by PTWC or is 3 hours or less from arrival. Respective Civil Defense.  In Missouri, while February is Earthquake Awareness Month, herein Hawaii, April is Tsunami Awareness Month in Hawaii.

•             Earthquake – coming from Missouri and the New Madrid Earthquake Zone, I was interested in learning that thousands of earthquakes occur in Hawaii each year.  They are usually linked to volcanic activity.  The largest earthquake in Hawaii history caused 77 deaths of which 46 deaths were due to tsunami and 31 were due to landslide.

•             Volcano – I was hoping to see a volcano while I was here, but just didn’t have the time.  So, for now, Kilauea is Hawai`i’s youngest volcano and one of the world’s most active. Over 90 percent of Kilauea’s surface is covered by lava less than 1,100 years old. In historical time, all of Kilauea’s eruptions have occurred either in or near its summit caldera, or along the east or southwest rift zones. For the foreseeable future, we can assume that active vents will be limited to these areas.

Mauna Loa (means “Long Mountain”) is the largest volcano on our planet, rising gradually to more than 4 km above sea level.   Its long submarine flanks descend to the sea floor an additional 5 km, and the sea floor in turn is depressed by Mauna Loa’s great mass another 8 km. This makes the volcano’s summit about 17 km (56,000 ft) above its base! The enormous volcano covers half of the Island of Hawai`i and by itself amounts to about 85 percent of all the other Hawaiian Islands combined.

Mauna Loa is among Earth’s most active volcanoes, having erupted 33 times since its first well-documented historical eruption in 1843. Its most recent eruption was in 1984. Mauna Loa is certain to erupt again, and we carefully monitor the volcano for signs of unrest.

Well, I hope you found this informative.  Until tomorrow, be safe and take care.

When you see the view of the local mountains that greets us each morning here on base, it’s no wonder people love to come to Hawaii.  Here’s a few pictures of what lies very near to where we are staying.  Each day the clouds seem to always hang right around the tops of the mountains.  As the sun shines through the clouds and on to the green foliage it makes it appear almost iridescent green!  It really is a view that is awesome.

Well yesterday was another very busy day in class.  As is typically true, we covered a lot of information in an effort to prepare our students to teach the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) curriculum.  The day was spent working on both instructor development skills and reviewing the basic training material.  Hands-on activities included students delivering (instructing) a limited topic of choice in the CERT curriculum.

Continuing on in the exploration of the Polynesian culture, one of our students (“Bill”) took the time to write the following and asked that I share it with you.  I think what Bill wrote reflects the sense of “resiliency” that we strive for in emergency management today.  I hope you find it as interesting as I did when I first read it.

The Hawaiian Islands are the most isolated large population in the world.  Hawaii is 2500 miles away from the nearest landfall or civilization.  As such, if you live in Hawaii, you can’t simply go over to the next state or country for support.  That is life now, and that was definitely life in the past.

In ancient times (up to the 1800’s), Hawaii needed to be totally self-sustainable for its food, water, construction material, infrastructure, industry, etc.  When Capt. Cook landed on the Kona Coast in 1787, it was estimated that approximately 350,00 lived on the Kona Coast alone.  It is estimated that the population of Hawaii then rivaled that of Hawaii now.  The irony of this is Hawaii now, imports some 95 +/- of (its) consumer, construction, infrastructure, food, fuel, etc. but with the same size population Hawaii sustained its population of 1,000,000+ for hundreds of years with absolutely no input/import from abroad!  How did they do this?  How did Hawaii feed its large population?

There existed, riveted into the day-to-day business at hand, a resource management system called
“aha ‘puaha” (ah-hah-poo-ah-hah).  The easiest way to explain how this system functioned (works) is; visualize a pizza pie cut into wedges.  Now, overlay that shape and slices over an island and that is basically how Hawaiian islands were divided.  The uniqueness of this land division model was that it maximized local resources and aligned them with the communities (caretakers, stewards at large).

This system worked very well.  As a matter of fact, with a population well over 1,000,000 natives, there was so much food at times that excess surplus would be unintentionally generated and would constantly spoil and end up wasted.

In the 1700’s, established on Hawaii Island was “Parker Ranch”.  Parker Ranch, up into the 1990’s, was the biggest/largest private cattle ranch in the entire U.S. – larger than any private cattle ranch found in Texas, Oklahoma, and beyond.

In the 1800’s, there was so much food in Hawaii that when the California Gold Rush of 1848-1849 occurred, their population grew by over 500% in two years,  out stripping California’s ability to feed its surging population.  As that being the situation at hand, California turned to Hawaii to help feed “the cornucopia of the world”; California.

A Honolulu newspaper ran an article at that time expressing the Honolulu Chamber of Commerce’s relief that now Hawaii had a way to sell their surplus food rather than have it spoil in the field and orchards.  But, with the overthrow of the nation of Hawaii in 1893 by a group of U.S. businessmen backed by the U.S. military and organized religion, the land was carved up into rectangles, the  “aha ‘puaha”  system was unintentionally destroyed, and now Hawaii imports nearly everything it uses at a high premium as importing is a monopolized industry.

Today, and continuing over the next two days, we’ll be teaching the Federal Emergency Management Agency FEMA;  www.fema.gov ) L428 CERT Train-the-Trainer course.  We have 36 interested and eager students with very diverse backgrounds.

We started the class with a brief welcome By Ms. Lorinda Wong-Lau who is the Anti-Terrorism Planner for the State of Hawaii – Civil Defense Division.  In her comments, she encouraged the attendees to learn, network, and look for how this training could be brought to communities and citizens across the state to make the state more resilient.

Additionally, we had the opportunity to have Ms. Rachel Jacky, Director National CERT Program call in to the class and provide some welcoming comments and insight for our students.  Her insightful comments reflected on the collaborative relationship FEMA is building between FEMA and state and local jurisdictions when it comes to citizen preparedness and what a vital role local programs play to the success of community preparedness.

Expectations

I always like to identify student expectations early on in the class and ask the students when they introduce themselves if they would please identify what their expectations are for attending the class.  The three most widely expressed expectations included:

• Sustainment of programs
• Gaining more knowledge
• Developing their Instructor skills

Lunchtime Speaker

During our “working lunch” today we had the pleasure of hearing one of our own students provide an overview of his emergency management programs for the City and County of Honolulu.

Emergency Management Reserve Corps (EMRC) was started as a Volunteer Cadre in July 1941 pre-Pearl  Harbor with the intent of preparing to responding to natural and human-caused disasters.  Today, members of the EMRC serve in various capacities within the Department of Emergency Management (DEM).  Members are “On Call” 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and provide the following functions:

• Assist HPD in warning/evacuation and traffic control operations
• Assist Ocean Safety in beach closures
• Assist NWS as SKYWARN
• Observe and report hazardous conditions
• Assist with damage assessment
• Provide fixed/mobile communications

From an administrative perspective, the EMRC members are considered “employees” while activated.  As such, they are covered under §128-16, Hawaii Revised Statutes (HRS) which in turn provides for both medical coverage via workmen’s compensation and reimbursed Mileage and Meals.

The EMRC has 130 volunteers in six geographical districts.  Functionally, each EMRC geographical district  includes an Operation Support Section, a RACES section, and includes a coordinator & staff.  Team members meet monthly and those meetings include both training & administrative matters.  Examples of functional training that’s provided include: Traffic Control, Damage Assessment, Hazardous Materials Familiarization, Radio-telephone Procedures, First Aid/CPR, Incident Command System (ICS), Weather Spotter Training, and CERT.

Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) is a volunteer cadre that was first formed in 1995 with the expectation of having trained citizens who could respond to natural and human-caused disasters.  Oahu CERT’s, like their counterparts throughout the United States, are community/Business/Neighborhood based teams.  In Oahu, CERT’s are self-activating after catastrophic events.  Their duties include:

• Assist their neighborhoods after a catastrophic event
• Assist NWS as SKYWARN
• Observe and report hazardous conditions to EMRC
• Assist with damage assessment
• Provide fixed/mobile communications

From an administrative perspective, Oahu CERT’s are members of the host organization and are covered under the HRS Good Samaritan Law.  There are approximately 1300 CERT trained community members that make up 12 Community Teams, five hotel teams (remember tourism is big in Hawaii), and two University of Hawaii Campus teams.  Organizationally, Oahu CERT has one CERT Coordinator and a CERT Steering Committee.  Training is supported by 14 volunteer instructors and classes are held approximately 15 times a year.  Challenges that Oahu CERT face (like many other CERT teams) include:

1. Having only one person administer the program (limited resources)
2. Lack of paid instructors
3. Funding is dwindling
4. Community mindset – like other communities throughout the United States, community members may believe, all their needs will be taken care of after a disaster.
5. 10 – 15 Classes held a year – in some cases one might say that’s not enough, in others, one might say that’s too much as we don’t have enough resources to support that many (or more).

Looking forward, the good folks in Oahu are looking strategically at how to reach out to (and include):

• Neighborhood Board Involvement
• Community Disaster Committees
• Boy Scouts of America
• High School JROTC
• Business and other Organizations

Working with Access and Functional Needs populations

As I mentioned in yesterday’s blog, the organizers of this class wanted to create an “EMI-like” experience that builds “esprit de corps’ among the students.  Beyond having us all stay at the RTI, they also arranged to have a working dinner each evening that provided a meal and a guest speaker.  For our first evening together we met and heard Ms. Debbe Jackson from the State of Hawaii Disability & Communication Access Board.  Ms. Jackson spoke to our group about communicating with the Access and Functional Needs populations.

Warm Hawaiian appreciation

The wonderful kukui nut necklace and book "Life in the Pacific of the 1700's"

Well, I want to close my blog today by going back to how we started the day.

As my fellow instructor and I were being introduced at the beginning of class, we were each presented with a Kukui Nut necklace and a book titled “Life in the Pacific of the 1700’s”.

The Kukui tree is the state tree of Hawaii and in the past the oil derived from the Kukui nuts (a.k.a. “candle nut) was harvested and in turn was burned for light.  In Hawaii, the kukui is a symbol of enlightenment, protection and peace.

The book, “Life in the Pacific of the 1700’s” is a wonderful award-winning catalog which shows the exhibits which were collected during Captain Cook’s expeditions to the Pacific.

OK … that’s it for today.  Hope you’ll join me again tomorrow for more.  Until then …

Aloha ahiahi ia oukou

Getting to Hawaii – Saturday

It's a good time to be leaving St. Louis

When I left St. Louis, Missouri early yesterday morning it was dark, very cold (in the teens) and snowing.  It was a great time to leave for sunshine and warmer climates.  I flew my favorite airline, Southwest from St. Louis to Los Angeles with a change of planes in Denver, CO.  I know I’ve said it before, but I have to say it again … I really enjoy flying with Southwest.  Their fares are reasonable, their customer service is outstanding, they have a good frequent flyer program, and they don’t charge for your first two checked bags!  I only wish they flew to Hawaii.

On a related item, in the December 2011 issue of “Fire Chief” magazine  editorial director Janet Wilmoth wrote about how Southwest could be seen as a role-model for fire departments.  In her article she mentions a few strategic initiatives that are as applicable to fire departments as they are to Southwest, including:

• Standardization
• Service, and
• Culture

I ate the "double double" animal style

I had a four-hour layover at LAX in Los Angeles so I took advantage of the opportunity and had lunch with my nephew, Kevin.  While reconnecting with Kevin is great, he made the visit even better by taking me to a place I’ve wanted to try for many years, but never had the chance.  Kevin took me to “In-N-Out Burger” !  What a neat place.  Their menu is very limited to burgers, fries, and drinks.  But since I was with an experienced “guide”, we ordered something that wasn’t on the menu.  A “double-double animal style”.  Two hamburgers with pickles, cheese, lettuce, tomato, grilled onions, and their special sauce (thousand island like).  Man, was it good!  After lunch, Kev dropped me off back at the airport for my final leg of the day’s journey.

From Los Angeles to Honolulu I flew United.  I think I flew many years ago, but not recently.  I was very pleasantly surprised at how nice the five-hour flight was.  The plane was a big 767 and was clean.  The seats were very comfortable.  And the customer service was very good.

Altogether, I spent 20 hours in travel time, of which five were spent on the flight from LA to Honolulu.

Welcome to Hawaii

This week I have the great fortune to work again with a good friend of mine.  Although we haven’t known each other very long, we’ve worked together in Reno (last month) as well as at FEMA’s EMI in Emmitsburg, MD (last October).   Wilson is one of the best instructors I’ve worked with.  As I mentioned in a previous blog, I admire his teaching capabilities.  PLUS, he’s just an all-around good guy!  Anyway, Wilson picked me up at the airport and then took me on a little tour of Oahu.  I actually think we were lost but of course being men, we weren’t about to stop and ask for directions.

For those attending classes this week, the organizers of this great training opportunity wanted to provide an “EMI experience”.  To help create that experience, those from out-of-town are all staying at the new Hawaii National Guard 298th Regiment MFTU (RTI). If you click on the link, take a look at the “Welcome Brief”.

We’re tourists – Sunday

So, today Wilson and I spent the day playing tourists.

Weather was great today.  Mostly sunny, high in the low 80’s, and gentle ENE winds.  There were just a couple of things we knew we had to do while we had the chance.  We wanted to go see Pearl Harbor and also the U.S.S. Missouri

To have the opportunity to see both of these historic sites, it truly reminds us how fortunate we are to live in America.  And when you collectively look at Pearl Harbor along with other attacks like the Murrah bombing in Oklahoma City and of course 9/11, you are reminded about how resilient we Americans really are.

Here’s some pictures from today …

On the way back to the RTI, we had the opportunity to see some of the beaches and the ocean …

And of course, no trip out-of-town is complete until you have visited the local Walmart …

Does your local Walmart have a Hawaiian BBQ?

Well, I hope you will follow me this week and check back daily to see what’s going on in our class and throughout the state of Hawaii with respect to emergency management.   Along with our classroom experiences, I’ll also be briefing you about some of the guest speakers who will be joining us this week as well.  So stay tuned.

Over the years, as business continuity and emergency preparedness planners, we’ve recognized the importance of insurance.  For most, it might have been simply making sure to include someone from Risk Management on the “Disaster Response Team” while for others it may have been contacting out “insurance guy” and make sure you had the “appropriate” coverage’s.  For me, I began talking with insurance professionals a few years ago and realized that insurance should be viewed in a much more strategic light.  Since then, I’ve been encouraging others, both business and personal, to go steps further and find out what resources their insurance provider might bring to their business continuity or emergency preparedness efforts … things such as data on risk and threats … things such as planning tools and inventory forms.  Additionally, we need to thoroughly understand and plan for what will be needed post-incident in order to process or settle our claims as quickly and completely as possible. After the fact is not a good time to learn from our mistakes.

Recently, I found that according to the Rocky Mountain Insurance Information Association a catastrophe, as defined by the insurance industry, is a natural disaster that causes a certain dollar amount, currently set at $25 million in insured damage. I find it interesting their definition is focused on only natural disasters rather than any incident, natural or man-made.  Individual insurance companies may declare a “catastrophe” based on the anticipated loss to their policyholders in the impacted area.

Review Your Insurance Plan Now

Make sure you have sufficient coverage to pay for the indirect costs of the disaster—the disruption to your business—as well as the cost of repair or rebuilding. Most policies do not cover flood or earthquake damage and you may need to buy separate insurance for these incidents. Be sure you understand your policy deductibles and limits.

New additions or improvements should also be reflected in your policy. This includes construction improvement to a property and the addition of new equipment.

For a business, the costs of a disaster can extend beyond the physical damage to the premises, equipment, furniture and other business property. There’s the potential loss of income while the premises are unusable. Your business continuity efforts should include a detailed review of your insurance policies to ensure there are no gaps in coverage. Your policy should include business interruption insurance and extra expense insurance. Even if your basic policy covers expenses and loss of net business income, it may not cover income interruptions due to damage that occurs away from your premises, such as to your key customer or supplier or to your utility company. You can generally buy this additional coverage and add it to your existing policy.

Basic Commercial Insurance to Consider

• Building Coverage provides coverage up to the insured value of the building if it is destroyed or damaged by wind/hail, or another covered cause of loss. This policy does not cover damage caused by a flood or storm surge nor does it cover losses due to earth movement, such as a landslide or earthquake, unless added by endorsement.
• Business Personal Property provides coverage for contents and business inventory damaged or destroyed by wind/hail, or another covered cause of loss.
• Tenants Improvements and Betterments provides coverage for fixtures, alterations, installations, or additions made as part of the building that the insured occupies but does not own, which are acquired and made at the insured’s expense.
• Additional Property Coverage provides for items such as fences, pools or awnings at the insured location. Coverage limits vary by type of additional property.
• Extra Expense provides coverage for the extra expenses incurred, such as temporary relocation or leasing of business equipment, to avoid or minimize the suspension of operations during the time that repairs are being completed to the normal place of business.
• Ordinance or Law provides coverage to rebuild or repair the building in compliance with the most recent local building codes.
• Business Income (also known as Business interruption insurance) provides coverage for lost revenue and normal operating expenses if the place of business becomes uninhabitable after a loss during the time repairs are being made.

Business owners may already have property insurance, but that only pays just for damage repairs. What about the income lost if the company has to close down for a few days, a few weeks or even longer?

Business interruption coverage

Business income coverage, also known as Business interruption insurance, protects the profits that an owner would have earned had there been no problem. The insurance is generally bought as a package with property insurance.  Business interruption insurance provides for two financial loss scenarios: Loss of income due to interruption of operations, and additional expenses incurred as a result of efforts to continue business operations.

Let’s say you are a small manufacturer who requires three months to remodel after a fire. In this situation you might face more expenses than just the loss of profits from being closed that long.

You might also face paying for:

• Lease or mortgage payments and ongoing utilities.
• Relocation to a temporary building.
• Quick replacement of materials from vendors, who may charge higher prices and delivery charges.
• Overtime to keep up with production demands.
• Securing the products and/or services of competitors to help manufacture or supply orders.
• Advertising to confirm the business is still operational.
• Re-compiling business records, financial and legal documents lost as a result of the fire.

Business interruption insurance can also provide paychecks for key salaried employees that an owner does not wish to lose while the business is shut down.

Business interruption premiums and claims

Unless you want to pay through the nose, you will have to shoulder some of the post-disaster costs. An 80/20 policy is typical, and generally provides for lower premiums while paying for 80 percent of the loss. The business owner picks up the tab on the other 20 percent.

One of the most important disaster preparations you can make is to secure your business documents (vital records) offsite so you can get your hands on them quickly should a disaster occur. Financial records are necessary to verify the value of claims made. Indeed, it may be difficult for a new business with no history to establish its actual loss of income, but every business should have business income coverage from Day One.

Even if profits cannot be reimbursed — either because you don’t have any or you cannot prove a history of making money — you are still likely to incur additional expenses while trying to keep your business buoyant.

Disaster insurance can keep your business humming

Developing a Small Business Disaster Recovery Plan

Looking ahead to what’s coming up

I’ve got a real treat for you … and me.  I’m getting ready to head out for another adventure training others to be prepared and I want you to come with me.  Starting February 12 (hey, that’s my sister’s birthday!), I’ll be writing a daily blog that will chronicle where I’m at and some of the terrific people I’ll meet along the way.  So, mark your calendars now, and plan to join me on February 12!

Until then, be safe!

Getting Prepared In a Year

It’s time to move to our third destination on our journey to becoming prepared this year.

When you are at the grocery store, I want you to pick-up the following items:

• One gallon of water (and remember one gallon of water for each pet too)
• A canned meat (i.e. tuna, chicken, ravioli, chili, beef stew, Spam, corned beef, etc.)
• A canned fruit (i.e. peaches, pears, mandarin oranges, applesauce, etc.)
• Sanitary napkins – beyond feminine hygiene, these are excellent first aid supplies
• Video recording media (i.e. DVD or tape)

Things to do:

• Use a video camera to record the contents of your home for insurance purposes
• Store your “insurance video” with a close friend or family member that lives out of town (off-site storage).

Years ago, when I first entered into the business continuity field, I took several classes through the Disaster Recovery Institute International (DRII) whom I later received my certification through.  In one of those early classes, I remember the instructor talking about the emotional and psychological effects that we experience as a result of being in a disaster.  And I remember him saying that while our employers would very much like to think the first thing we will be thinking about is workplace and operational recovery, in reality “work” is very low in our thoughts and priorities.  Once the “dust settles” and we pick ourselves up, we make sure we are OK.  Then, we check those immediately around us.  After that, we think about our families.  Somewhere in the hierarchy, our “faith” or our “spirituality” is very high – maybe like fourth or fifth in our priorities.  In reality, work is quite low.  And as I continued to grow in both my faith and as a business continuity professional, this idea of how important our faith is in a disaster has always stayed with me.

On February 2, 2012, I’ll be conducting a workshop on business continuity for places of worship.  The workshop is part of a day-long faith-based conference being conducted by the Heartland Center at Saint Louis University here in St. Louis.  I want to share some insight with you that I will also be sharing in the workshop that day.

The information that was shared back in the DRII course was later supported in a Caravan ORC poll that was conducted in October, 2001.  In that poll, they found that :

• 59% of disaster victims preferred to receive support from a clergy or religious counselor compared to 45% seeking a physician and 40% seeking a mental health professional.

Furthermore, I found in a publication titled “Light Our Way – A Guide for Spiritual Care in Times of Disaster for Disaster Response Volunteers, First Responders, and Disaster Planners”, that statistics confirm:

• 96% of Americans profess to believe in God
• over 90% pray
• nearly 70% are members of churches, synagogues or mosques, and
• over 40% will have attended a house of worship in any given week.

Now, in most free countries of the world communities are quite diverse.  That diversity applies to our cultural beliefs as well as our faith or spiritual beliefs.  Wait a minute … faith? … spiritual?  Are they the same or are they different?

In the Merriam Webster Online Dictionary, “faith” is defined as belief and trust in and loyalty to God, or belief in the traditional doctrines of a religion.  Having a firm belief in something for which there is no proof.  Complete trust.

Spirituality is a broader concept than religion or faith tradition.  Many people choose to adhere to a religion or faith tradition which provides a source of belonging, meaning, and identity.  Spirituality is broader because every person has a sense of spirituality, whether or not she is ‘religious’.  There may well be as many definitions of Spirituality as people on the globe, however there are some common elements including the struggle for meaning, and the relationship of the Human Spirit to transcendence and hope.  The bottom line is that our “spirituality” is a complex and intricately personal experience.

So, how do disasters affect our spirituality?  Quite simply, when we are faced with any loss, but especially sudden and profound loss such as in disaster, one’s sense of meaning and purpose—indeed everything one may have thought about how the world works—is turned upside down.  And, this sense of disruption can pervade an entire community.  As planners, we must consider these implications as we look to supporting our employees as well as asking our employees to support us.

Let me leave you with this story about the Maltese Cross

Often, when you see a firefighter in uniform, one of the patches on his/her sleeve is that of the Maltese Cross.  This history lesson shoes how religion/faith/spirituality played a role in emergency response.

When a courageous band of crusaders known as the Knights of St. John, fought the Saracens for possession of the holy land, they encountered a new weapon unknown to European warriors. It was a simple, but a horrible device of war; it wrought excruciating pain and agonizing death upon the brave fighters for the cross. The Saracen’s weapon was fire.

As the crusaders advanced on the walls of the city, they were struck by glass bombs containing naphtha. When they became saturated with the highly flammable liquid, the Saracens hurled a flaming torch into their midst. Hundreds of the knights were burned alive; others risked their lives to save their brothers-in-arms from dying painful, fiery deaths.

Thus, these men became our first firefighter and the first of a long list of courageous firefighters. Their heroic efforts were recognized by fellow crusaders who awarded each here a badge of honor – a cross similar to the one firefighter’s wear today. Since the Knights of St. John lived for close to four centuries on a little island in the Mediterranean Sea named Malta, the cross came to be known as the Maltese Cross.

The Maltese Cross is a symbol of protection. It means that the firefighter who wears this cross is willing to lay down his life for you just as the crusaders sacrificed their lives for their fellow-man so many years ago. The Maltese Cross is a firefighter’s badge of honor, signifying that he works in courage – a ladder rung away from death.

UPDATED January 20, 2012 – I just ran across this Wall Street Journal article that touches on several things I’ve recently written about … business continuity (keeping the ski industry running), spirituality, and the Native American culture.  I hope you enjoy reading this article as much as I did.

Ski Resorts Call On Higher Authorities to Save Season After a Native American Ceremony, Vail Gets Blanketed; ‘Pray to Ullr’

Getting Prepared In a Year

Picking up where we left of on my first blog of the New Year, I’m including a series of simple actionable items each of us can perform to become better prepared for emergencies or disasters.  The following continues our second point on our Preparedness Roadmap!

When you are at the hardware store, pick-up the following items and add them to your preparedness kit:

• Crescent wrench
• Heavy rope
• Duct tape
• Two flashlights with batteries
• “bungee” cords

Also, here’s a couple of things to do around the house:

• Check your house for hazards (electrical, fire, water, chemical, etc) -if you aren’t sure what to do, drop a comment to this blog.
• Locate your gas meter and water shut-offs and attach a crescent wrench near them (to shut-off the utilities in a disaster)

I’m very proud and appreciative for the opportunity that I had this week.  People often asked me what I like about the teaching I do.  In hind-sight, I think there are two elements of this past week that are great examples of what I love about teaching.

The students

My co-instructor

I can’t say enough positive things about my co-instructor.  The only other time I had the pleasure of working with him was back in October 2011.  Back then, I quickly realized he was one of those special people who can very quickly warm-up to a classroom of students.  He is an excellent communicator that is very comfortable in front of an audience.  Once he has the students interest, he’s able to keep it.  I think his professional, yet caring, attitude and sense of humor plays a large role in being able to establish that connection.  In the end, I feel watching him work this week helped me to improve my own teaching skills.

Well, it’s been a long week this week.  I’m returning to a regular schedule and so, my next post will be on January 15, 2012.  I hope you will come back.

Until then, best wishes.

Today, we finished off our last day of the CERT Program Manager class. Before we actually started working in the material, we had a couple of surprises. First, Ms. Betsy Hableton joined us. Betsy is the Program Director for the Washoe County Medical Reserve Corps (MRC). Becky took time to explain the MRC initiative in Washoe County . The Washoe County Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) trains both medical and non-medical volunteers to help support local, state and federal disaster response efforts during emergencies and natural disasters. Our volunteers provide added volunteer staffing and crucial medical resources during disasters. She encouraged our CERT Program Managers to consider and participate in the MRC’s whenever possible. She left materials behind including some “trash and trinkets”.

Later in the morning we were privileged to have the Chairman of the Te-Mok Tribe of Western Shoshone Elko Band Council  join us. The Elko Band served as our hosting organization for this week’s training. Chairman Gerald Temoke told our students how pleased he was to see so many attendees from various tribes participating in the training. He went on to say that preparedness is important to the tribe and that he’ll be working with the Tribe’s District leaders to take an active interest in the continued offering of CERT classes.

Once we were ready to begin class, one of our students offered to sing a tribal song to help begin class. Take a look at part of this very beautiful song …

At the conclusion of class, after we took care of all the administrative things we had in close down, another one of our students offered to say a closing prayer to send us on our way and asking that each of us be protected as we travel home. What a great week! Tomorrow, I write a final post to close out this terrific week. I hope you’ll check back.

We were fortunate to have Valerie Sumner join us today.  Valerie works for the State of Nevada Citizen Corps office.  She was with us to observe our Program Manager class and look for opportunities as to how the state Citizen Corps can better support the needs of the tribal community as they develop and promote CERT and citizen preparedness.

Earlier in the day, we were able to distribute a couple of handouts that were recently developed under the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s “Ready” program.  Under the “ReadyIndian Country” program, the two documents “Is Your Tribe Ready?” and “Prepare For Emergencies In Tribal Nations” were new documents recently produced and made available.  Both documents can be obtained from the Ready.gov website or by calling 1-800-BE-READY.

More tomorrow … Stay tuned.