Hurricane Irene caused at least $1 billion dollars in damages within New York State alone. The New York City subways were shut down for a day and many areas near waterways were evacuated by local residents. Thousands prepared for the hurricane by boarding up their homes and purchasing emergency kits and supplies. Some citizens chose to stay behind and remain in their homes despite the dangers. At least 46 citizens lost their lives in 13 states due to the hurricane. In many places, reconstruction efforts could take months or even years. The government response to the hurricane was generally well coordinated for government at the federal, state and municipal levels. Many television networks devoted large blocks of time to report the evolving status of the hurricane and the governmental response to the exigency in real time .
FEMA provided very detailed instructions on how to handle the hurricane. FEMA recommends maintaining an emergency supply kit, having a family emergency plan and purchasing flood insurance. Major insurers also offer earthquake insurance and policy riders. The Saffir Simpson Hurricane Scale cites a Level 1 hurricane with winds of 74-95 miles per hour. On a sliding scale, a Level 5 hurricane has winds of 155 MPH with severe damage to virtually everything in its path. 1)
There are lessons to be learned from Hurricane Irene. In 2009, the American Society of Civil Engineers graded American infrastructure a "D" overall with a $2 trillion dollar investment needed in the next 5 years. The most urgent needs are for improvements in drinking water, levees, inland waterways, roads and wastewater. This investment alone would create thousands of new jobs. 2)
In anticipation of a major hurricane, the offshore oil rig senior operations personnel should require the deployment of a Contingency and Disaster Recovery Plan in order to empower the staff the moment critical problems from the hurricane begin to escalate. The Offshore Installation Manager is the ultimate authority on shifts and makes the essential decisions regarding the operation of the offshore oil rig platform. There may be a hierarchy of team leaders to facilitate continuous operations. The Offshore Operations Engineer is the senior technical authority on the platform. Operations coordinators manage crew personnel assignments and backup personnel in an emergency.
At a minimum, the Contingency Plan should provide for decommissioning the oil rig platform based upon a hierarchy of known emergency conditions in the energy industry, as well as predefined criteria of the Department of Energy, Mineral Management Service and relevant coastal authorities. At times, empty oil transporters will be required to store oil recovered/reprocessed from an anticipated oil leak due to the hurricane. Routine oil rig platform shutdowns should be rehearsed so that the operations can be decommissioned in anticipation of emergency hurricane conditions.
Article comments
1 - Glenn Contrarian
You must be a socialist or communist or Nazi, because in the Tea Party world, we all know it's unpatriotic (and base heresy) to spend our Precious Taxpayer Dollars on stupid, silly things like being prepared for major natural disasters and providing completely unnecessary aid to those lazy bums who think that they don't have to go to work just because their homes and places of work have been blown away! Preparedness for disasters and protection of our national infrastructure are Marxist, statist concepts fit only in the eyes of liberal wussies who can't stand on their own two feet.
2 - Dr Joseph S Maresca
First, there was a comment by Glenn Contrarian which didn't see the need for disaster recovery. How can companies recover without a specific recovery plan which empowers staff to act in the event of an emergency.
IT professionals will not certify a data processing operation without a disaster recovery plan to deal with the various scenarios related to an emergency.
Some companies process data twice or even three times in order to protect the record of online traffic in case of a major disruption due to an earthquake, tsunami, hurricane or other horrendous event.
To answer j4859C, weather forecasters track the trajectory of the hurricane and make projections about which areas may need to evacuate to anticipate cataclysmic losses. This can be done through a thorough analysis of non-linearity and the critical path of the hurricane. Fractal geometry may be employed too.
China has lost millions of people due to typhoons, floods and earthquakes. The thing to be learned is to have well rehearsed evacuation scenarios and plans. In addition, critical facilities like nuclear power plants shouldn't be located near earthquake zones or even flood zones. Key facilities must have a Contingency Plan and a Disaster Recovery Plan to limit human and financial losses in an emergency.