Risk Management Plans for Natural Disasters

As we have seen this year ( 2009) Australia can be a challenging place to run a small business. While we are dealing with the economic downturn's effect on business, some members of the industry also have had to deal with a number of natural disasters this year.

From bushfires and high wind storm damage to flooding rains - the climate can throw all sorts of challenges at us. Some areas of the country are obviously more prone to these events than others, but climate events could happen anywhere at any time.

If you are in one of the areas prone to natural disasters, it is essential that you and your staff have discussed and developed an appropriate risk management plan.

As with any risk management exercise, the first step is to identify the potential hazards. Are you in a bush fire area? Does the area have a history of storm damage or cyclone activity? When heavy rains occur is there a risk of flooding, from either flash floods or inundation?

Once you establish this, then you need to develop a management plan and emergency procedures to deal with the weather effects. The plan needs to take into account a number of issues. Remember weather can be very unpredictable, so it is important to develop plans for the worst case scenario.

Get your staff involved and brain storm how every situation could be handled. What emergency numbers need to be identified - police, SES, electrical company, pump and tank contractors, etc? Who might be needed to move and protect electronic equipment such as consoles and registers?

How do you pull together sufficient man power if you need to move equipment such as fridges, fixtures and stock? How do you access a large vehicle urgently? Have you established a safe location to store the material if you need to evacuate and move it?

The more planning and forethought that goes into the Risk Management Plan for Natural Disasters, the easier it is on the day, the quicker your response times and the less damage and loss you suffer. Pre-planning should also lower your stress levels if an event does happen to your business.

Training all staff on their role in a natural disaster situation is an important part of ensuring that your Risk Management Plan will work when it is needed. A regular review of your plans and actions should be undertaken so that on the day it is needed everyone knows their tasks and there will be less confusion and less damage incurred.

Examples from the Victorian bushfires and the flooding in Northern NSW and North Qld have proven that a well prepared natural disaster response plan reduces damage, ensures people's safety and means that a swift response can be implemented when the weather event arrives.
 

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