Group Seeks to Help Businesses Prepare for Disasters

In the wake of an earthquake, tropical storm and floods that disrupted this area, a new nonprofit group wants to work with local business on their emergency plans.

Members of Ready Chesapeake said most businesses have only a vague sense of how they will respond in an emergency, and that their preparedness was put to the test in recent weeks.

“Every business will say they have a disaster plan, but my first question would be, ‘really? Let me look at it,'” said Dave Vogel, a Ready Chesapeake board member and manager with Praxis Engineering. “Most people stick it on a shelf someplace and don’t have it when they need it.”

Vogel spoke Tuesday at a meeting of the at in Gambrills.

He said the new group is looking to help businesses become more resilient in the face of disasters, but will also encourage them to offer resources to help communities recover from emergencies.

Businesses that plan for natural disasters are far more likely to survive them, Vogel said, and their preparedness is key to protecting America’s infrastructure, since much of it is privately owned.

Ready Chesapeake was formed out of a project by 2010 graduates of Leadership Anne Arundel. They studied the issue of emergency preparedness as part of a class project, but incorporated the group last year.

Ready Chesapeake finished its business plan and filed for 501c(3) status in August.  

Vogel said some businesses would not be able to survive being closed for more than two days due to a disaster, and many communities have been ravaged after businesses closed and did not reopen. He pointed to parts of Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina as an example.

“The fabric of the community was torn to pieces because the business community wasn’t there,” he said.

Vogel said Ready Chesapeake will launch its website this week, and is actively looking for board members from the business community.

Ready Chesapeake’s effort comes after the city of Annapolis announced it will take part in a pilot program designed to make the it more resilient in the face of disaster. The city was one of seven selected by the Community and Regional Resilience Institute.