August 1, 2010

Conference shifts from quake focus to general disaster preparedness

Jan Burnett was puzzled when a firefighter and a transportation official abruptly left a disaster –preparedness conference she attended two years ago.

She didn’t know until that evening that fire had destroyed three Reidland businesses and damaged another despite the efforts of dozens of firefighters.

The Sept. 19, 2008, blaze leveled More Power Diesel, 5080 Reidland Road, and quickly spread to adjoining Paducah Gear and Machine Co. as well as nearby Bradley House for Brides. A concrete block firewall saved Reidland Clothing, connected to Bradley House.

J.T. Carneal, owner of Reidland Clothing and Bradley House, had installed the firewall years earlier. He also had insured the businesses for structural, inventory, profit and rental-income loss.

Carneal merged Bradley House business with Anne’s Bridals at West Paducah, another of his firms, to keep sales flowing. “The lesson is don’t be unprepared for things like this,” he said.

Burnett, office manager for Denton & Keuler law firm, took the dose of reality to heart by shifting business-continuity planning into high gear.

Using a template from the conference, Denton & Keuler held a tabletop exercise and tweaked the plan over the next few months. All 36 employees then acted as troubleshooters, coming up with problems managers hadn’t thought of.

A drill scenario in which three top officials of the firm were absent during a disaster drove home the need for better training and chain of command. Denton & Keuler made several more revisions, the latest just three weeks ago.

“We’ve learned it’s never a product completely finished,” Burnett said. “You need to update as things change.”

	Firefighters spray a blaze that engulfed Bradley House for Brides and two other Reidland businesses Sept. 19, 2008, above. Bradley House owner J.T. Carneal said a firewall saved his adjacent Reidland Clothing store.
	Crews struggle to restore power to Lourdes hospital soon after the January 2009 ice storm, right. Health care providers used emergency generators to treat patients until electrical service resumed.

Conference growth

The first-year conference that Burnett attended drew about 100. Four months later, an ice storm paralyzed much of Kentucky and southern Illinois.

Countless businesses, homes and organizations lacked power for extended periods, and utilities in Kentucky spent at least $250 million rebuilding thousands of miles of power grids as a result of the Jan. 26-27, 2009, ice storm.

Registration for the 2009 conference rose to about 170 with the devastation fresh in people’s minds. People came from Kentucky and several neighboring states.

Organizers of the 2010 conference — set for Aug. 30-31 at First Baptist Church — anticipate an even better turnout with the fee lowered to $25.

Sessions are more diversified and allow people to choose the most applicable training without giving up two days of work, said Glenda Adkisson, executive director of the American Red Cross’ Paducah area chapter.

Conferences have evolved from being earthquake-focused to covering general disaster preparedness, said Jody Johnson, who directs University of Illinois Extension Service work in extreme southern Illinois.

“The challenge is for business owners to take the time to attend,” he said. “If they don’t take the time to invest in this training, what long term effect could it have on the bottom line of their businesses?”

Planning essential

With 5,000 customers, Peel & Holland Financial Group managed to stay open immediately after the ice storm to process an avalanche of insurance claims.

Having no electricity or cell service and spotty landline connections, President Roy Riley drove to Oak Grove to get a cell phone signal. He then called a pre-arranged supplier to deliver a generator to the home office in Benton. Agents used the Internet to call clients.

Those steps were part of a disaster-recovery drilling. But Riley, whose firm helps businesses with disaster preparedness, said too few companies have a plan. Others don’t consider being idled by a fire or extended loss of a computer file server, Riley said.

“People aren’t nearly as patient with you when everybody else is up and running,” he said. “If I’m the only insurance agency in western Kentucky that can’t respond to my clients, guess what they’re going to do: find another insurance agency.”

Most small businesses don’t think they can afford disaster planning, but those who attend workshops understand the need, said Darryl Amstrong of Armstrong and Associates of Kuttawa. He helps clients develop tabletop exercises for training purposes.

“In my experiences, about one out of every two people that attend a basic workshop go back and actually take the time to fill out the templates,” he said.

Worse, businesses don’t evaluate a range of potential problems and don’t do annual exercises to test their plans, Armstrong said.

The Red Cross will provide tools at the conference for businesses to assess how disasters can interrupt critical functions, Adkisson said. “A big part of what we do is getting businesses ready for the unthinkable.”

She will help conduct a “Masters of Disaster” session to help attendees share information with schools, churches civic groups and families.

Other sessions will deal with handling special-needs people during disasters.

As published in the Paducah Sun, August 1, 2010