Businesses are urged to be earthquake-ready

Hours after reports of an earthquake shaking parts of northeastern Illinois on Wednesday, geologist Gary Patterson stood in front of a group of local business leaders proclaiming -- again -- the necessity of emergency contingency planning.

It's a message that Patterson is on a mission to deliver. The venue for his recent commentary was a conference designed for small business owners at the FedEx Institute of Technology, held in conjunction with West Tennessee Earthquake Awareness Week that runs through Friday.

"I urge business owners to become informed and develop a plan," said Patterson, director of education and services at the Center for Earthquake Research and Information at the University of Memphis. "The New Madrid seismic zone that affects us is the most active in the eastern United States. We have some type of activity every other day, so it's good practice to be prepared."

Because the majority of workers here and across the country are employed by small businesses, Patterson said it's incumbent upon those companies to implement emergency response plans. From simple practices that include keeping kits of bottled water, glow lights and face masks on hand to more extensive drills to familiarize employees with disaster training, there are plenty of ways to prepare.

Rick Bowker, president of the Mid-South Association of Contingency Planners and manager of Information Services for Memphis Light Gas and Water Division, reminded participants that in times of severe outages -- such as "Hurricane Elvis" in 2003 -- restoring power to most small businesses would not be top priority. In such scenarios, owners should be prepared to conduct business offsite.

"You need to have in place some kind of policy so that you can keep in touch with all your employees and account for them first," Bowker said. "Then you need to be able to communicate with your customers. Make sure all your data is backed up at a separate location and that you'll be able to access it."

Established six years ago, MSACP is the local arm of the International Association of Contingency Planners and works to promote public awareness of disaster and emergency preparedness.

Mid-South Association of Contingency Planners

Founded: 2004

President: Rick Bowker

Members: 70

Meetings: Second Wednesday of each month, from 2 to 4:30 p.m. at rotating locations

Dues: $80 annually

Information: msacp.org

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