It’s a matter of when, not if, the Cascadia subduction zone earthquake will happen. With more than $30 billion in damage expected along the Oregon and Washington Coast, state agencies have pushed for businesses to be prepared.
The result the Oregon Office of Emergency Management’s “Tsunami Safe: Hospitality begins with Safety,” formed to focus on educating hospitality industry business owners and employees to ensure visitors in risk areas will know what to do in the event of a quake.
Some of the same rules for individual preparation still apply for business owners looking to prepare against a disaster — have a plan, know evacuation routes and keep emergency supplies on hand. There are other challenges, however, unique to business owners.
“We encourage businesses to make as many decisions as they can as to what they’re going to do and what their options might be, in advance,” said Shannon MacFarlane, a private industry program manager with the Emergency Management Division of the Washington State Military Department.
The first step to keep businesses prepared may be a counterintuitive one, MacFarlane said - make sure employees are prepared at home.
Employees need time to deal with issues like family safety and other personal issues psychologically before they can take care of their duties as a worker, MacFarlane said,
“The big thing now is just start talking about it, start planning, start making those efforts now that, in the long run, will pay off,” said Karen Parmelee, a geohazards awareness coordinator with the Oregon Office of Emergency Management.
Keeping employees prepared has a further benefit after the disaster, Parmelee said. If every employee along the Oregon coast has an emergency plan, kit and supplies, those people are going to be less dependent on what will inevitably taxed system after a disaster, she said.
Another consideration for business owners should be protecting important documents needed for the operation of their business, Parmelee and MacFarlane said.
Insurance forms, business licenses and any similarly critical documents should have backups, either stored offsite or scanned and uploaded to a cloud-based server, MacFarlane said. Cloud-based servers are particularly useful, she said, because they’re redundant and geographically diverse, meaning the backup is less likely to be destroyed by the same disaster that took the originals.
Having these documents accessible soon after the disaster can help expedite the process of making necessary calls to put the business back together, Parmelee said.
Business owners should examine the risks facing their businesses, Parmelee said. Those hazards are going to differ from one business to another, MacFarlane added, depending on the size, scope and location of the business.
“It’s really about looking at where your locations are and understanding what your situation is,” MacFarlane said.
Businesses in the tsunami inundation zone should have different concerns than businesses that aren’t, Parmelee added. Outside the inundation zone, preparations like retrofitting buildings can help protect against the possible 9.0 magnitude or higher earthquake that could result from a subduction zone quake, she said. Businesses inside the inundation zone can use retrofitting to strengthen their buildings, she said, but owners of businesses in the zone should focus on where they can perform offsite operations.
In making an emergency plan, Parmelee said one of the considerations should be the type of people who frequent the business. Different actions are going to be needed to handle scared visitors who may not know where to go than would be required if the business deals mainly with locals who will be better prepared, she said.