Businesses

Businesses are an important part of the community in which they reside. Businesses can lessen a disaster's impacts by doing what they can to prepare themselves as well as getting involved more directly with Seattle Project Impact.

In 1999, Seattle Project Impact launched Business Disaster Mitigation, a program which includes a number of resources for all sizes of business, mentoring, short functional workshops and much more. In 2002, Seattle re-launched the program now named Disaster Resistant Business (DRB) Program to incorporate a broader perspective based on business requests following the Nisqually Earthquake and 9/11 tragedies of 2001. The approach is all-hazard.

Contact us if you have questions, want to contribute, or are looking for information at (206) 615-0288.

Hot Topics

Pandemic Flu

Many businesses worry about the effects of a possible pandemic flu. We have put together this list of resourses for them.

Business Emergency Network (BEN)

What is BEN? It is a way for the City to communicate with businesses about ongoing crisis situations. This flyer is an overview (pdf).

Shelter in Place

• Shelter-in-Place (PDF) Easy to use instructions with graphics!
  
• Shelter-in-Place at Your Office Use this model plan to craft a shelter-in-place program for your office building. A plan agreed to ahead of time by all employees will help insure smooth enactment of protective measures if there is a nearby chemical emergency (pdf). It's 14 pages from the National Institute for Chemical Studies (NICS).
  
• Sheltering in Place During a Radiation Emergency (CDC)

Where to Start Preparing Your Business?

What are my businesses hazards? or What is my business vulnerable to?

Business Risk Rating Sheet (xls 772 KB):  Not really sure where to start?  This simple checklist can help you decide what may be a threat to your business. It only takes a minute to fill out (click here to download the Excel worksheet and complete it.)

Disaster Loss Worksheet (xls 1 MB): A helpful Excel worksheet for businesses to calculate potential disaster costs.  It will help identify specific areas of highest financial risk (i.e. inventory replacement) to assist in prioritizing which to mitigate first.  Courtesy of U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA).

Business Survival: for Earthquakes and Other Disasters Video: Here is a video clip (Quick Time) of this 28 minute video.   It's being shown at local events/meetings and you can purchase a copy as a starting place to raise awareness in your organization or to assist the buy-in from management.  This video was created by the Cascadia Region Earthquake Workgroup (CREW), Global Net Productions, and other partners.

What key information do I need as the basis for my disaster plan?

"Open for Business" Toolkit:  The Institute for Business and Home Safety (IBHS) and the Small Business Administration (SBA) have put together this toolkit to help businesses develop disaster plans. You can download a pdf or request a hard copy. The appendices of this disaster planning toolkit contain questions and worksheets that will be the basis for any disaster plan.

How do I write my disaster plan?

Disaster Resistant Businesses (DRB) Toolkit:   Industry experts are designing this toolkit which will help any size business to actually write a  disaster plan giving good/better/best practices, low-cost methods, and simple steps to complete and exercise your plan, train employees, and lessen exposures.

Here's what you can use until the DRB Toolkit is released?

A Disaster Planning Tool for Any Size of Business: Created by one of DRB's business partners, this tool is a step-by-step process to create "Your Business Plan" and is flexible to fit any size and all types of businesses. It is a 'shell plan' that is designed for you to start entering your own information, but some of the terms are for contingency planners. Call if you need any help at (206) 615-0288.  Courtesy of Contingency Planning and Recovery Management (CPARM)

I've written my plan, what should I do next?

Browse our How Do I...? section. It covers a variety of residential, neighborhood, personal and family preparedness.  Many aspects can be applied to businesses - protecting the contents of your business is under nonstructural retrofit.  Structural retrofit is also covered in this section if you run your businesses out of a converted, older home.  Is your family or the family of your employees prepared should you need someone at the office?

U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA): This agency provides pre-disaster loans to small businesses in Project Impact communities (like Seattle).  Here's information on SBA's new Pre-Disaster Mitigation Loan program, soon to be available.

*NOTE: There will be more added here once the DRB Toolkit is completed)

A disaster has happened to me! What do I need to do now?

"Getting Back to Business" A brochure with tips for a small business to recover following a disaster. Courtesy of IBHS

Disaster Assistance: SBA and FEMA provide post-disaster assistance loans to small businesses, homeowners and renters.  If a local disaster gets a Presidential Declaration, federal money is made available for disaster assistance.  No obligations if you call to register, but if you don't register during the filing period, you cannot apply later.  Filing/registering leaves your options open, to make a decision later.

How can you get involved with this Program?

TAKE THE SURVEY HERE. Please give us your comments and thoughts on how to assist you and other business with this program by taking a short survey on how to meet your needs.  By partnering with the Greater Seattle Chamber and a variety of experienced emergency planners from many area companies, Seattle's DRB Program will incorporate comments from the survey to strengthen our efforts.

Why Participating in Project Impact Makes Good Business Sense: Businesses can contribute in a number of ways to their community.  How can you make a difference--whether you are a small business or a large corporation?

Business Continuity (BCP) Info & Web Links:

General Sites

Contingency Planning & Management Has a lot of articles and links, and is based on their magazine. Has their Business Continuity for starters: BCP 101, BCP 201 online, etc.

Disaster Recovery Journal (DRJ) Has a lot of information, articles, and links with a section for those new to disaster recovery.  Their magazines are online, but cost to read.  

Internet Warning and Hoaxes

With the increasing amount of emails, here are three sites to check what you received:

• Centers for Disease Control (CDC) focuses mostly on warnings that may jeopardize bodily health.
  
• Urban Legends and Folklore this site covers all sorts of hoaxes and stories, including computer viruses, many of the write-ups include the text of the emails you may have received.
  
• Snopes.com this site covers all sorts of hoaxes and stories, including computer viruses, many of the write-ups include the text of the emails you may have received.

Hazardous Materials

Tox Town is an interactive guide to commonly encountered toxic substances, your health, and the environment. Tox Town uses color, graphics, sounds and animation to add interest to learning about connections between chemicals, the environment, and the public's health.

Career Development in Business Continuity/Emergency Management

International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM) Web postings for Business Continuity jobs, as well as links to Emergency Management positions across the U.S.

BC Management  Postings for Business Continuity jobs and industry salary surveys for the past few years.

FEMA Federal Emergency Management Agency's main web site

Ready.gov U.S. Department of Homeland Security's web site of 3-basic steps to prepare for terrorism (also information on radiation, biological, chemical, explosions, nuclear). Now includes Ready Business with the basics for planning.

Institute of Business & Home Safety (IBHS) Has great mitigation & preparedness publications to cover all natural hazards.  Most are downloadable for free.

riskVue  This webzine for Risk Management Professionals has a feature article every month covering a variety of relevant topics, with an insurance spin.

SBA (U.S. Small Business Administration).  In addition to information to get your business starting or managing once it's running, SBA provides disaster assistance to businesses, homeowners and renters after a presidentially declared disaster by offering low-interest loans.

Additional Reading/Reference List:

Emergency Management Guide for Business & Industry (pdf - 2.5MB) FEMA publication which gives a step-by-step approach to emergency planning, response and recovery for companies.  Goes into quite a bit of detail, in its 67 pages, of the emergency management planning cycle.

What Businesses Learned from the Nisqually Quake of February 28, 2001  (PDF)  Businesses interviewed for this document ranged from one person businesses to large national companies, from SW Washington to British Columbia -- 250 and 300 businesses were invited to participate.  They were asked, "Tell me about your experiences, e.g., what worked, what didn't work, what broke or fell over, what surprised you, etc. What stories/anecdotes about the quake would you like others to hear?"  Their responses have been organized into categories in this 21pg report funded by CREW.

Nisqually Earthquake Business Impact Scenarios  (PDF)  This 6 page memo summarized SBA assistance as of June 2001, then gave 10 specific scenarios of different businesses impacted by the Nisqually quake, and a list of lessons learned.  

Business Continuity Planning Update  In the wake of the September 11th terrorist attacks, this article describes some of the business difficulties and issues to remember for future events.  This is written by a student of George Washington University, as part of their Institute for Crisis, Disaster, and Risk Management.

Future of Disaster Preparedness in America  This interesting article describes a disaster in a community and the kind of difference that can be made to a community & its businesses by preparing ahead of time.  Written by John Copenhaver, formerly of FEMA.

Business Continuity Related Conferences/Mtgs:

See Seattle Emergency Management's Calendar

Partners' Links:

CPARM: Contingency Planning and Recovery Management is a public/private organization concerned with all phases of private/public emergency management and contingency planning. The businesses which comprise CPARM, and their contribution and partnership with Seattle Project Impact, have been a constant key to our successes.

U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA): This agency provides pre- and post-disaster assistance to small businesses, homeowners and renters.

Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS): An organization which provides resources and materials to prevent disaster losses in your business and/or home.