Guest Posting by Sasha Azar, Research Assistant and Master’s Candidate, Georgetown University

A number of researchers, including the Recovery Diva, have stated that recovery (especially long-term recovery) is the least understood and studied aspect of emergency management. More extensive basic and applied research is needed in this area in order to better address the anticipated growth in size and frequency of future disasters.

Although there is a critical need for more data on recovery overall, one particular subset of recovery remains severely underdeveloped. Business recovery is a key element of community recovery efforts, yet very little knowledge based on research is available on the topic. The resources available regarding business recovery are largely sparse, sporadic, and often elementary in nature. On the other hand, a plethora of resources are available regarding business recovery’s sexier sister, business continuity, which is an entirely different concept that focuses mostly on IT. The disconnect that exists between the amounts of information available on the two topics further exemplifies how little is really understood about recovery.

Unlike my earlier posting on this blog on Are You New to Recovery Research, very few, if any, online resources exist that emphasize business recovery. Two good and recent examples are Planning for Post-Disaster Recovery: A Review of the United States Disaster Assistance Framework, a textbook by Gavin Smith,  and Disaster Recovery by Brenda Phillips are good general print resources regarding this topic. In addition to textbooks, a few journals have published articles specific to business recovery. Some of the better articles are listed and described below:

Businesses and Disasters: Empirical Patterns and Unanswered Questions, a study by G. Webb, K. Tierney, and J. Dahlhamer (1999), was one of the first to thoroughly explore the topic of business recovery through qualitative research. The Disaster Research Center (DRC) at the University of Delaware collected data from 5,000 private-sector firms across the country. The study revealed a number of interesting findings, including which factors influence and affect the ability of businesses to recover following major disaster events.

Organizations at Risk: What Happens When Small Businesses and Not-for-Profits Encounter Natural Disasters, a robust report by D. Alesch, J. Holly, E. Mittler, and R. Nagy (2001) published by the Public Entity Risk Institute (PERI), delved into the particular challenges small businesses and not-for-profits face following a disaster. A separate set of recovery obstacles exists for these smaller firms that are altogether not present for larger firms, and this report aimed to expose those obstacles and provide recommendations for improvement based on the results of the analysis.

Building Community Resiliency: Spatial Links between Household and Business Post-Disaster Return, a report by Yu Xiao and Shannon Van Zandt (2011), explored the interdependency of households’ and businesses’ ability to recover following a disaster. The return of households and businesses to a community is mutually dependent, as the reopening of businesses can influence nearby households’ decisions to return to the community just as the return of households to the area will increase the chances that a business will return as well.

Two provide analyses of business recovery actions following a number of major disasters in an effort to better understand private-sector recovery practices and suggest areas for improvement.

Predicting Long-Term Business Recovery from Disaster: A Comparison of the Loma Prieta Earthquake and Hurricane Andrew, also by G. Webb, K. Tierney, and J. Dahlhamer (2002), found that a number of factors, such as the economic sector in which a business operates and the scope of its primary market, can be used to predict future success of business recovery efforts. Predictability is an important function of emergency management, and this report’s findings—though published over a decade ago—still provide useful information for today’s professionals in the field.

New Orleans Business Recovery in the Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, an analysis by J. LeSage, R. Pace, N. Lam, R. Campanella, and X. Liu (2010), considered the decision-making processes used by businesses in the affected area to evaluate whether to reopen, relocate, or close indefinitely and the factors that influenced such decisions. The outcome of the analysis highlighted several important implications for how business recovery analyses should be conducted in the future, and even how government aid programs are likely to be affected by these findings.

The above reports, articles, and analyses provide a good general introduction to the complexities of business recovery, but much more empirical data is needed for professionals in the field to find the information reliable.

ADDENDA:

See also the site for Rothstein Associates – It’s hard to characterize this site: it provides resources for businesses after a disaster and maintains a bookstore with products that cover recovery practices and training for business recovery.

Restore YourEconomy.org; Disaster Preparedness and Economic Recovery
Sponsored by the U.S. Economic Development Agency and the International Economic Development Council

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Thanks to Pierre Picard for his review of this posting. We welcome additional suggestions and comments.

See the details of the initiative and the plan for implementation, from this posting at the HSDL:
Climate Data Initiative: Delivering on Climate Action Plan Commitments

Some details:

The Obama administration plans to release vast quantities of federal data to help communities prepare for mounting risks from global warming.

The newly launched Climate Data Initiative will include a clearinghouse website with data from NOAA, NASA, the U.S. Geological Survey and Defense Department, among other agencies.

According to this White House fact sheet, the site aims to make “federal data about our climate more open, accessible, and useful to citizens, researchers, entrepreneurs, and innovators.”

The early focus will be on coastal flooding and sea-level rise. For example, the data sets released Wednesday include mapping information about hundreds of thousands of roads, bridges, tunnels and canals. Later data will take aim at cutting risks human health, energy infrastructure and the food supply.

The short answer: Do not buy expensive ads that promote yourself and your political objectives.

See this article from the New Republic: The Chris Christie Story Just Got Worse.  An excerpt:

As you may recall, Christie came under criticism during his reelection campaign last summer for having inserted himself and his family into the rousing “Stronger than the Storm” ads encouraging tourists to come back to the Jersey Shore. The ads had been funded by federal Sandy recovery aid, and it seemed eyebrow-raising, at the least, for them to feature beaming pictures of a governor in the middle of a reelection campaign, rather than just your average smiling New Jerseyans. The eyebrows shot up quite a bit further when it emerged that the firm that had gotten the job after proposing to feature Christie in its ads, public relations giant MWW, had bid at a much higher price—$4.7 million versus $2.5 million—than a well-regarded New Jersey ad firm that had proposed ads that did not feature the governor. Making matters even more interesting was that the award had been made by a selection committee led by Christie’s very close longtime aide, Michele Brown, whom Christie appointed to run the New Jersey Economic Development Authority, a $225,000 post.

I recommend you check out this posting by Eric Holdeman who blogs at Disaster-Zone.com See this piece on the various local EM assessment tools available.

This posting is a bit off topic, but every once in a while it is nice to get some positive news about the world.  The discussion of threats, risks, and disasters gets depressing sometimes. Below is part of a review on a new report from the Homeland Security Digital Library. See: The Human Security Project Report, titled “2013 Human Security Report -The Decline in Global Violence: Evidence, Explanation and Contestation,” which analyses Pinker’s data and also independently reviews data on recent global and regional violence. [Pinker’s book is titled The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined.]

Overall, it finds that “Better Angels” has sound research and a firm case in its claim that humanity is less violent now than it has been in recent eras. The Report hopes to aid in the debate with more recent information and research independent of Pinker’s own. It includes an extensive library of charts and graphs analyzing global and regional violence, and finds that since 1989, not only has violence dropped, but that “there has been an upsurge in international efforts to ensure a more secure world.”

If you have not read Pinker’s book, I recommend it.

The company that hosts this blog, Word Press, informed me that this week marks the 4th anniversary of the creation of the name.  Also this week, the number of blog postings will reach 1,000.

If you like the blog, please help by sending in comments, suggestions for postings, flowers, money whatever!! Your comments and suggestions are invited.