Agency aiding firms in emergency planning

When remnants from Hurricane Irene slammed into New England in late August 2011, The Pastry Gourmet, with locations in Cumberland and North Kingstown, was among businesses that had substantial inventory losses with no refrigeration and no backup plans.
Then, when a storm dropped several inches of snow into the Greater Providence region late last January, the business again got caught up in its after-effects, said Julie Zito, whose family owns the company.
“We [local businesses] all let [employees] out at the same time and it was impossible to travel,” said Zito. “Only public entities knew [the storm was coming]. We weren’t part of this circle of information.”
Zito is one of the forces behind the R.I. Emergency Management Agency’s new program to assist small businesses in emergency preparedness to avoid such nightmares.
Fully funded by a grant from the Federal Economic Development Agency, the program is still in its development stage and being modeled, in part, after a similar program in Louisiana, which is one of only three states, along with New Jersey and Utah, that have such programs.
Zito is working with Alexander Ambrosius. Both are contract employees with the Rhode Island agency. Ambrosius just graduated with a master’s degree in homeland security from Salve Regina University in Newport.
“It surprised me that there haven’t been [programs] nationwide,” Ambrosius said. “[This will be] all the things that emergency management has been doing but never directed toward businesses. We want to see businesses able to sustain.”
Rhode Island’s program is focusing largely on establishing an online business directory – an undertaking with a magnitude that does not escape those involved.
Ideally, every business within the state eventually would be signed on. It would encompass only public-knowledge information and be easily accessible via the Internet.
“It’s the biggest part [of the plan],” Zito said. “We really want to know who the key contacts are. What are the products and goods? There are just so many elements to businesses.” The goal is to use the directory in several ways, including to monitor and reach out to businesses in particularly hard-hit areas during storms and to encourage relationships between businesses to call on each other in cases of emergency.
“When a storm comes and we lose power, it’s the worst thing in the world,” Zito said. “If I had a better idea of getting access to goods, even ice, it would be helpful. It’s definitely a positive for everyone in the state and it’s free.”
Another relationship aspect will be the ability to know when other businesses close due to weather – something, Zito said, may make shutting doors an easier decision.
The messages will be specifically tailored to businesses and not “lumped in” with those to the general public, said Annemarie Beardsworth, EMA spokesperson.
“We know [businesses] have unique needs that are different from household needs,” she said. “It can be a weather-related event or if there is a planned large event, we can alert [on things like that.]
There will be a challenge in getting businesses onboard, if only because they will need to know about the database in order to help create it.
Once the site is up and running, business owners can simply log on and sign up.
To spread the word, the agency is working with local chambers of commerce, the Providence Emergency Management Agency and the Rhode Island Small Business Association.
The program also will run continuing education for businesses, in the form of free workshops, on topics including cybersecurity, continuity planning, mitigation and the National Incident Management System.
One on writing continuity plans was scheduled for June 6 from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. at the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce.
“We want people to think about [these things] ahead of time,” Beardsworth said. •

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