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Friday, Mar 29, 2024

Floods, Fires, Flu Pandemics: Readiness Is Key to Survival

If disaster were to strike tomorrow, would your business survive? This was the question broached at the Regional Business Preparedness Summit presented by the Valley Industry & Commerce Association on Sept. 11 in Studio City. “Frankly, [disaster] is something that here in California, we’ve heard a lot about,” said Alberto Alvarado, Los Angeles district director of the Small Business Association, headquartered in Glendale, “but from a business standpoint, there’s even less of a sense of how to prepare, how to secure stocks of inventory and networking.” During the summit, which highlighted continuity planning for businesses, steps for developing emergency plans, and national and local response plans for pandemic influenza, Alvarado moderated a panel on the local approach to disaster preparedness in the city and county. “The vision was really the county’s to bring different entities that support small business growth to talk about how important disaster preparedness is,” he said of the summit which was a partnership between SBA, VICA, the L.A. County Public Health Department and the Greater Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce. “You don’t really need to go out and hire expensive consultants,” Alvarado said. “We have a lot of information that’s generic that can be utilized. What we see is major impact from very, very small actions taken both in terms of security and business.” After Hurricane Katrina, Alvarado said that he saw a spike in interest from businesses about how to prepare for disaster. Following the Northridge earthquake, the SBA provided more than $3 billion in disaster relief to affected individuals and businesses. Alvarado said that awareness about disaster “is so common when there’s an earthquake. We’re buying our flashlights. We’re rushing to the store. Our flashlights are charged. We see a positive impact. It’s a sad thing that it takes tragedy to raise awareness. The only thing sadder would be to suffer a tragedy and not to learn from it.” Even when a business is still standing following a natural disaster or other calamity, there can still be problems. For example, cash flow might be interrupted because nearby businesses were leveled and customers won’t take the risk of visiting a disaster zone to patronize the one remaining business. “While these businesses get on their feet, there’s economic injury disaster financing,” Alvarado said. The financing helps businesses who have had their avenues of commerce disrupted by “simply not being able to secure goods and products, the services they need to run their business,” he explained. Whether a disaster is health, weather or terror-related is of little consequence, according to Dr. Brit Oiulfstad, pandemic influenza coordinator for the L.A. County Department of Health. For example, “in preparing for a pandemic, it will make you prepared for other things as well,” she said. “Planning ahead is always a good thing.” Oiulfstad said that the goal of the summit was to problem-solve. “Los Angeles County is incredibly rich and resourceful, but in an event such as a pandemic, we’re not going to be able to get any outside resources,” she said. So that means businesses have to ask themselves, “What are the essentials you don’t want to cut, or how can you mitigate those effects?” It’s also important for businesses to, “know that ahead of time, instead of during an emergency, who you can count on,” Oiulfstad said. The summit, she said, is “a good avenue for businesses to share best practices and experiences and hopefully we can all learn from that. Some businesses have faced disasters. What would they do differently and what would help them mitigate the effects of another disaster?” For its part, Oiulfstad said that the Department of Public Health would lay out what it would do to limit transmission of disease as well as vaccine delivery and communication plans that it would have in place in the event of a pandemic. Certain businesses, such as those who serve large populations of children, must ensure that they are prepared to face disaster. At Stephen Yu, DDS Inc. in Encino, 65 percent of patients are minors, according to administrator Melody Le Blanc. This is one of the reasons she attended the business summit. “One of the things that happened in New Orleans was there were children being airlifted without their parents,” said Le Blanc, whose family members were directly affected by Hurricane Katrina. “We need some kind of identification.” Le Blanc is striving to obtain identifying bands for patients. Medication is also of concern for any business in the medical sector. “That’s the biggest problem, how to do medication,” Le Blanc said. “It’s interesting that most of the medication for our seniors only has a shelf life for so long. Insurance companies don’t allow them to buy big stockpiles.” From Hurricane Katrina, Le Blanc said that officials learned that “instead of three days it has to be seven days to 10 days worth of medication and a two week supply of pills.” A former president of the Encino Chamber of Commerce, Le Blanc is adamant that the smallest of businesses can prepare for calamity. She said the chamber has taken a front seat in emergency preparedness, a matter they will address at the Taste of Encino, to take place Oct. 14. In addition, chamber members have received CPR and first aid training. For her dental practice, Le Blanc has purchased backpacks, first aid items, flashlights, Swiss army knives, whistles and rain ponchos,all from the 99 Cent Store. “We need to start preparing,” she said. “We want our patients to prepare. It’s going to happen. The question is when. An earthquake can touch any of us at any time.”

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