It’s been a difficult year for hurricanes, with multiple named major hurricanes making landfall in the United States and other countries bordering the Atlantic Ocean.

Despite the difficulties, there are many lessons that can be captured from the hurricane season thus far that companies can use internally to increase their resiliency and ensure that they can weather a future major storm in a better position.

In this episode of the Managing Uncertainty Podcast, Bryghtpath Principal & CEO Bryan Strawser and Senior Consultant Jennifer Otremba share their observations and lessons learned from their decades of major hurricane crisis management experience and working with clients throughout the course of this year’s major hurricanes. Topics discussed include crisis management frameworks, decision making in a crisis, preparedness for employees and companies, and the value in public/private sector partnerships.

Episode Transcript

 

Bryan Strawser:                   Three major hurricanes so far this year.

Jen Otremba:                        So far.

Bryan Strawser:                   Harvey came first, and then Irma, and Maria. It’s the most in a single year that I feel like I’ve had to respond to since 2005 when it was Hurricane Katrina, Rita, and Wilma all within the same 45 day time period.

Jen Otremba:                        And hopefully this will be it.

Bryan Strawser:                   Hopefully this will be it.

Jen Otremba:                        For this year.

Bryan Strawser:                   But there’s still time left-

Jen Otremba:                        There is. There is definitely time left.

Bryan Strawser:                   In the hurricane season. What we wanted to do today is have a little retrospective on what we think are some of the lessons that companies should have learned coming through this hurricane season. Jen and I, as we’ve mentioned, have led the response for multiple major hurricanes. My first was Katrina back in 2005, and many, many, many lessons that I’ve learned in the almost 12 years now since that landfall.

Jen Otremba:                        I think mine was Sandy.

Bryan Strawser:                   Sandy?

Jen Otremba:                        I think so.

Bryan Strawser:                   Sandy was not exactly a small storm.

Jen Otremba:                        No.

Bryan Strawser:                   We start with, as I think we always do, that this discussion always starts with personal preparedness for a company because your employees will be not able to help your company prepare, respond, and recover if they’re dealing with preparedness, response and recovery for their own family. We’ve shared lessons learned about what they should do around personal preparedness, about make a kit and have a plan, exercise the plan, be informed, all the basics that you get from the ready campaign. We’ve done a podcast about it.

Jen Otremba:                        Blog posts.

Bryan Strawser:                   We’ve done a couple blog posts about it.

Jen Otremba:                        Yup, we have.

Bryan Strawser:                   And we’re seeing some of this play out now in Puerto Rico where it’s almost, I think we’re two weeks post landfall of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands and we still have areas that are without power, that don’t have access to clean drinking water, to potable water, and there’s a massive logistics effort being undertaken to try and supply all of those things with a few hiccups along the way.

Jen Otremba:                        Right. To be fair, no matter how much preparation we put in,