In the Event of an Emergency: Ensuring Government is Disaster-Ready

With a rash of recent natural disasters, weird weather patterns, and a few months of Hurricane season to go, we wanted to look at disaster recovery practices - beyond the basics. We all know it is critical to have backups for your backups, but sometimes that's not even enough.

Last year, when the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico were impacted by Hurricanes Irma and Maria, they lost a lot of government data. Although they had backups of their data stored in different locations, all of these locations were on the island. In Puerto Rico, first responders were trying to make a map of shelter locations, hospitals and flood zones. They started with a spreadsheet containing information on 450 shelters and had to correlate that information with other datasets. Once the data was merged, they found they only had complete data for 88 of the 450 shelters. Only half of those 88 shelters could be mapped using Google, leaving the team with an incomplete picture and a lot of manual work to identify and publicize shelter locations.

To collect new data, drones and other airborne craft have become vital to recovery efforts. But, it's not always as simple as just getting them up in the air. Many times government clearance is needed for them to fly. The week after Hurricane Irma struck Florida, the Federal Aviation Administration had to quickly issue a total of 132 airspace authorizations to local, state and federal government agencies and critical infrastructure providers to operate drones in the disaster zone. Similarly, before Project Loon's fleet of balloons could provide Internet connectivity to the Caribbean islands impacted by hurricanes, they needed to get approval to fly over non-U.S. islands in the region.

Fortunately, to aid in the prevention of similar mistakes in the future, there are several events that delve into disaster recovery challenges. Here are just a few of the ones posted on GovEvents:

• 2018 PWX Conference (August 26-29, 2018; Kansas City, MO) -- Designed for professionals at all levels and across the entire spectrum of public works, this event provides a forum for discussing current public works issues--as well as ongoing challenges including emergency management.
• InterDrone (September 5-7, 2018; Las Vegas, NV) -- This event includes a track on public safety with planned discussions of regulations, training on how to prepare for the use of drones in emergency situations, and case studies of drone use in the field.
• DRJ Fall 2018 (September 23-26, 2018; Phoenix, AZ) - Organized by Disaster Recovery Journal this event brings together experts from private industry and government to discuss and share the latest strategies and tactics in business continuity. The theme of "Reimagining Business Resiliency" is designed to focus on managing today's disruptions and being ready for tomorrow's emerging threats.
• 13^th Annual Homeland Security Week (October 22-24, 2018; Hyattsville, MD) -Top homeland security leaders from government, industry, and academia will dive into current challenges and future requirements necessary for numerous government agencies directly or indirectly responsible for U.S. homeland security. Discussions topics include data collaboration and disaster planning.
• Fall 2018 IPSA Symposium (November 14-15, 2018; Alexandria, VA) - This event brings together local and federal first responders and includes many "lessons learned" sessions that help inform disaster preparedness planning.
• DRI 2019 (February 17-20, 2019; Las Vegas, NV) - The Disaster Recovery Institute International (DRI) is a nonprofit that helps organizations around the world prepare for and recover from disasters. Their annual conference is designed for business continuity and resilience professionals with education and networking opportunities.

Are there other events that provide a real-world view on disaster recovery planning and preparation? Let us know in the comments below.