It is hard to imagine that 2011 is coming to a close. 2011 proved to be an incredible year for my organization in terms of developing and utilizing our contingency planning program. We made significant strides when it comes to developing, testing, and exercising continuity plans, and on numerous occasions we were required to activate one component or another of our contingency planning program. Key individuals and teams were activated to respond to long term and widespread power outages, IT outages, and several situations which had the potential to turn into full-scale PR crises. While responding to and recovering from these situations proved tiresome and daunting at times, the general awareness around our contingency planning program increased ten-fold as a result of these response and recovery efforts. Undergoing several contingency plan activations also allowed the organization to determine what worked and what did not work – plans and procedures were adapted as needed and as necessary.
2011 was also a very busy year in terms of historically significant natural disasters. I am sure that several of you were impacted in one way or another by one or more of these events and have many lessons to share with fellow contingency planning practitioners as a result.
I have listed what I would consider to be the top 10 natural disasters of 2011 below. I have considered population impacted, business disruption caused, death and injury toll, total economic impact, as well as overall shock factor, when ranking these events.
1. March Earthquake and Tsunami - Japan
2. Ongoing Famine - Africa
3. February Earthquake – New Zealand
4. October Floods - Thailand
5. April / May Tornadoes – Southern United States
6. January Floods - Australia
7. Hurricane Irene – Eastern United States
8. Volcanic Eruptions and associated Ash Plumes – Iceland and Europe
9. October Earthquake - Turkey
10. Fall Wildfires – Texas, United States
Would you change the ranking of these events, and if so, how? Were you impacted by one of these events, and if so, how did your business fare?
I look forward to hearing from you all.
Regards,
The Continuity Blogger
*Follow me on twitter @continuityblog!
