Mitigation and Business Impact - Case Study Example

Risk Mitigation and Planning Introduction Mitigation planning is an important process for s as well as communities to identify policies, activities as well as tools to implement mitigation actions. Based on research, mitigation is any sustained action which is taken in order to reduce or eliminate long-term risk to life as well as property from a hazardous event. This paper was done in order to discuss mitigation, prevention, preparedness, response, as well as recovery. It also aims to compare response planning, business continuity, and business impact analysis. In order to support the discussion, further research was done. Mitigation Mitigation, according to Helmuth von Moltke (2004), is a type of long term, pre-disaster planning wherein sustained expenditures on structural as well as non-structural efforts are involved to reduce or eliminate future risks. In practice, mitigation plans and activities are usually medium to long term and since it is an example where thinking ahead pays off in the long run mitigation is the cornerstone of emergency management. It is related concepts of long-term planning such as: 1) reconstruction which means repair or rebuilding; and 2) preparedness which means getting ready or practicing to respond. In addition to that mitigation, based on Molte (2004), “means to lessen the effects or take action toward the building and putting together of certain structures as well as plans in order that the impact of any future disaster will be ameliorated or if possible, eliminated.” To change things for the better and impact can be understood as consequences, is the meaning of amelioration. An emergency manager might do these simple mitigation activities, which includes the following: flood insurance promotion, urging structural redesigning of buildings, raising or moving homes from flood zones or make sure that appropriate building codes, within the certain communities are present. An assessment of the threats that the community is facing is involved in mitigation planning, such as terrorist attack, as well as an assessment of possible targets. However “terrorist mitigation is somewhat controversial phase, wherein it implies special plans and to supplement an all-hazards approach is needed in practices for terrorism” (Bullock et al., 2005). In addition to that, mitigation planning is an on going process, and to ensure proper preparedness continual reassessments is necessary. Some experts argued that there is a post-disaster mitigation. Moreover a pre-disaster mitigation ought to be called prevention. According to Alexander (2002), the usual division of mitigation is divided into to categories such as structural and non-structural which is intended to denote the importance of integral planning in mitigation; that is the kind of planning which efficiently balances a combination of engineering solutions like for example moving homes, with political solutions for instance changing the zoning abatements for a community. Prevention Identification of hazards, the assessment of threats to life as well as property and taking of measures to reduce potential loss of life and property damage are included in prevention and it is sometimes known as disaster mitigation. To increase the knowledge of how to deal with disaster situations, mitigation measures range from community awareness, campaigns, land use planning and design decisions to stop development which may cause danger in the event of disaster, for instance to capital works such as levee bank construction in order to reduce the impacts of flooding. All mitigation measures are important since they can not only reduce the cost of disaster to the community but they can also help save lives as well. At all levels, disaster managers are responsible for using risk management process in order to identify prevention as well as mitigation options (“Prevention and Preparedness,” 2004) Preparedness According to Bullock et al. (2005, p.279) within the field of emergency management, preparedness “is a state of readiness to respond to a disaster, crisis, or any other type of emergency situation which includes activities, programs, and systems, that exist before an emergency which are used in order to support as well as enhance response to an emergency or disaster.” To the overall emergency management cycle, preparedness is important because it provides readiness and testing of all actions and plans before actual application occurs in response to a real event or disaster. Between preparedness and mitigation, there is a close connection. Emergency managers often argue whether a specific action should be considered as mitigation or preparedness. Preparedness is more of planning for best response, while mitigation on the other hand includes all actions that attempts to prevent the need for disaster response or to minimize the scope of the needed response. Organizing evacuation drills for buildings in case of fires or other threats is one of the examples of preparedness for natural hazards. This can be done by providing first response training to employees so that in small emergencies, they can assist each other as well as their neighbors. Moreover, a family disaster plan which covers topics such as designation of a location where family members should meet if they get separated during an event should be prepared. Due to the unique consequences they inflict and relatively limited experience of emergency management professionals in dealing with them, preparedness against biological and chemical attacks and accidents poses a distinct challenge. However, throughout the United States, this unique challenge is being addressed by a lot of local, state, federal, private, as well as non-profit agencies (Bullock et al., 2005 p. 283). Preparedness is not like mitigation activities, which aims at preventing a disaster from occurring; preparedness can take a lot of forms which includes construction of shelters, installation of warning devices, creation of back-up life-line services such as power water, and sewage, and rehearsing evacuation plan. For sitting out the event or evacuating there are two measures which can help the individual to prepare. A disaster supplies kit may be prepared for evacuation and a stockpile of supplies may be created for sheltering purposes. Authorities, often advocate the preparation of a survival kit which is commonly known as a 72-hour kit, which may include food, medicine, flashlights, candles as well as money (“72 Hour Kit,” 2006). General or Long Term Preparedness In the areas of prediction, forecasting as well as warning against disaster events it encompasses marshalling of resources. Education and training initiatives and planning to evacuate vulnerable populations from threatened areas, is involve in this and it is often taken placed against a background of attempts to increase public and political awareness of potential disaster and to earn support for an increased funding of mitigation efforts (Moltke, 2004) . Short-term Preparedness This means to prepare for certain disasters once they begin to occur and to prepare as much as possible for a known disaster. The best preparations we can do are to get ready, plan, organize, set up, and practice some drill or test. Proper planning, resource allocation, training as well as simulated disaster response exercises are needed in order to prepare. To conduct exercises is important to ensure that skills, equipment, and other resources can be effectively coordinated when an emergency occurs. In addition to that, exercises also provide a good opportunity to identify organizational and departmental shortcomings and corrective action before an actual event takes place (Moltke, 2004). Response “Response is an immediate reaction or relief that saves lives” (Moltke, 2004). It includes mobilization of the necessary emergency services as well as first responders in the disaster area and this include first wave of core emergency services like for instance the fire fighters, policemen, and ambulance crews which may be supported by secondary emergency services such as specialist rescue teams. Volunteers and non-governmental organizations such as Red Cross branch as well as ambulance may provide immediate practical assistance, from providing first aid to providing tea or coffee. As part of the preparedness phase a well rehearsed emergency plan which was developed will make an efficient coordination of rescue team (Alexander, D., 2002). To achieve optimal output with limited resources, it is essential to have an emergency plan rehearsal. In accordance with appropriate triage of the affected victims medical assets should be used in the response phase. At an early stage, search and rescue efforts should begin (Walker, P., 1991). Recovery “Recovery is the process of repair and restoration” (Moltke, 2004). It starts after the immediate threat to human life has subsided. To restore the affected area to its previous state is the aim of recovery phase. Recovery phase differs from the response phase in its focus. Issues and decisions that must be made after immediate needs were addressed are the concern of recovery. It is concerned with actions in which rebuilding destroyed property, re-employment, as well as repair of other essential infrastructure are involved (Haddow G.D. and J.A. Bullock, 2004). It is recommended that during reconstruction the location and construction material of the property must be considered. War, Famine, as well as severe epidemics are the most extreme home confinement scenarios, which may last for a year or more which implies that recovery will be taken place inside the home. Therefore with this kind of situations, planners for these events usually buy a lot of foods and appropriate storage and preparation equipment. In Recovery efforts, The National Response Plan, in the United States, dictates how the resources, which are provided by the Homeland Security Act of 2002, will be used. The most technical and financial assistance for recovery efforts in U.S. are provided by the Federal government (Haddow G.D. and J.A. Bullock, 2004). Comparison of Response Planning, Business Continuity Planning and Business Impact Analysis Response Planning It is concerned with ensuring that a community has the necessary people, equipment, as well as procedures to effectively respond to emergencies and disasters of varying scale; and whether it is natural or man-made, emergencies are almost always sudden and unpredictable events. Emergencies are knowledge intensive and in order to formulate an effective response, expertise in a range of skills and sciences are required (Haynes, S.R. et al, 2007, p.2). There are essential emergency functions wherein the National Response Plan had mentioned and this includes: “transportation, communications, public works and engineering, firefighting, information and planning, mass care, resource support, health and medical services, search and rescue, hazardous materials, food and energy” (‘United States Department of Homeland Security Press Office, National Response Plan ,’ 2005). A range of sciences and specialist disciplines provide information in each area and the emergency planners must be familiar with it to be able to understand the nature of the events which they prepared as well as the tools and techniques brought to be able to manage their consequences (Haynes, S.R. et al, 2007, p.2). . A principal determinant of how ultimate harm emergencies have caused is how well a community respond to the emergency. Adverse impact on a community of a disaster can be magnified by lack of response, or improper response. A thorough, careful response planning and evaluation is the key to an effective response. An existing response plan can be reviewed by Bullock and Haddow, and they can also assist a community in critically assessing the effectiveness of its response to actual disaster and emergencies (“Qualifications and Services,” 2005). Business Continuity Planning Business Continuity Planning is a process wherein procedures are determined and implemented, to ensure that a business or organization will be able to quickly recover from disasters as well as major disruptions. Its goal is to reduce the impact of disaster outage or interruption to an acceptable level (“Business and Government Continuity Services,” 2007). It is a process which identifies critical functions of an organizations and it develops strategies to minimize the effects of an outage or loss of service provided by these functions. Strategies are most commonly involved are some type of third-party data center or alternate, offsite processing as well as alternate workspace to restore operations to a minimally acceptable level. Disaster recovery planning is synonymous with business continuity planning, and but it is a product of data center. Recovery planning for all critical functions or business units of an organization is implied by business continuity planning. Recovery or continuity of business unit operations is referred by business continuity A comprehensive statement of consistent action taken before, during, as well as after a disaster outage is a business continuity plan which is designed for a worst-case scenario. However, it should be flexible enough to address the more common, localized emergencies, such as power outages, server crashes, and fires. Although in the plan the actions listed contain sufficient detail to implement strategies which is designed to recover critical functions, they are more guides than inflexible dictates. The ability to modify the plan must be incorporated because it is not practical to every plan for every type of contingency, and each disaster has its own set of conditions (Broder, J.F., 2000, p.179). Even if recovery plan is important, it is the planning process that returns the greatest value and this distinction is often missed by planners and end users of continuity plan. Business Impact Analysis To help management as well as business continuity planner in deciding which functions would be critical to continued operation of organization, to identify interdependencies between functions that are important to effective recovery planning, and to be able to present management with financial basis for selecting the most cost-effective recovery strategy, a business impact analysis is used. Based on the results of analysis as well as the recovery priorities that are assigned the outage tolerance s or recovery time objectives are established. How best to allocate recovery resources to these functions will then be understood by the management. Business Impact Analysis as defined by Broder (2000, p.107) is the impact of a disruption over time which assists in the understanding of the amount of risk to assume transfer, or mitigate. By identifying and qualifying a potential lost, a risk analysis and business impact analysis can greatly reduce the cost insurance, thereby allowing the risk manager to avoid over or underinsuring the risk. In business impact analysis, the management is allowed to make timely decisions about future business issues. Moreover it will help the organization avoid a less than speedy recovery. More often, a plan which was based on intuitive analysis are too generalized or miss important details to an effective recovery. Whereas, with a comprehensive analysis independencies as well as outage tolerances that are not obvious even to those with intimate knowledge of the companies operations are often revealed (Broder, 2000). Conclusion Mitigation is any sustained action which is taken in order to reduce or eliminate long-term risk to life as well as property from a hazardous event. To reduce potential loss of life and property we must be always prepared. It is important to identify first the hazards, assess the threats to life as well as property and measures should be taken to reduce potential loss of life and property damage. All mitigation measures are important since they can not only reduce the cost of disaster to the community but they can also help save lives as well. There should be an immediate response, reaction or relief in order to save lives. After the immediate threat of life has subsided there must be a process of repair and restoration of property in order to recover. Response planning ensures that a community has the necessary people, equipment, as well as procedures to effectively respond to emergencies and disasters of varying scale; and whether it is natural or man-made, emergencies are almost always sudden and unpredictable events. Business Continuity Planning important to ensure that a business or organization will be able to quickly recover from disasters as well as major disruptions. Its goal is to reduce the impact of disaster outage or interruption to an acceptable level. Business impact analysis is used in order to help the management as well as business continuity planner in deciding which functions would be critical to continued operation of organization, to identify interdependencies between functions that are important to effective recovery planning, and to be able to present management with financial basis for selecting the most cost-effective recovery strategy. It assists in the understanding of the amount of risk to assume transfer, or mitigate. References Alexander, D. (2002). Principles of Emergency Planning and Management. NY: Oxford University Press. Broder, J.F. (2000). Risk Analysis and the Security Survey. 3rd ed. Elsevier. Bullock, J.A., Haddow, G.D., Coppola, D., Ergin, E., Westerman, L. and Yeletaysi, S. (2005). Introduction to Homeland Security. 2nd ed. Chapter 6. Boston: Elsevier. Business and Government Continuity Services. (2007). Business and Government Continuity Services Inc. Haddow, G.D. and Boullock, J.A. (2004). Introduction to Emergency Management. Amsterdam: Butterworth-Henemann. ISBN 0-7506-7689-2. Haynes, S.R., Schafer, W.A., and Carrol, J.M. (2007) Leveraging and Limiting Practical Drift in Emergency Response Planning. Penn State University: College of Information Sciences and Technology. Moltke, H. (2004), Mitigation and Preparedness. Syllabus for JUS 415 (Homeland Security). updated December 29, 2004. Prevention and Preparednes. (2004). Queensland Government: State Disaster Management Group. Queensland: Department of Emergency Services. Qualifications and Services. (2005). Bullock & Haddow, LLC. “72 Hour Kits.” (2006). Home Security Guru. United States Department of Homeland Security Press Office: National Response Plan (NRP). (2005). Washington DC: U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Walker, P. (1991). International Search and Rescue Teams. A League Discussion Paper. Geneva: League of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. Read More