Despite flooding, emergency plans lag

Many Calgary businesses continue to operate with incomplete emergency response plans, even after June’s devastating floods, shows a report released Wednesday.

Ipsos Reid said its research found that while 80 per cent of Calgary organizations surveyed had a response plan in place prior to Canada’s largest ever natural disaster, extensive gaps exist around instructions and protocols.

The independent study, commissioned by Calgary-based Rally-Engine, an app-based communications system, included telephone interviews with almost one-third of Calgary-based organizations that have more than 100 employees and were directly affected by the floods.

“During the flood, the focus of company communications was on ensuring the well-being of staff and letting them know the operating status of the business. In most cases, however, the Emergency Response Plans did not include an emergency communication plan or protocol to support this objective,” said Tim Moro, senior vice-president with Ipsos Reid.

Steve Hardy, a director with RallyEngine, said one of the most surprising findings was the disconnect between what people say is important and what they show.

Of the 81 per cent of respondents who rated their emergency response plans as effective, only 19 per cent said they were able to reach employees or communicate well, he said. Only eight per cent of those asked said people clearly knew what to do.

The Ipsos report said the floods and subsequent state of emergency significantly affected large downtown organizations; 90 per cent of organizations asked had at least one employees evacuated from their home. Eighty per cent had at least one employee whose home was flooded.

Adam Legge, president and chief executive of the Calgary Chamber of Commerce, said local businesses learned the importance of having an effective emergency response plan.

“Many small businesses had no formal emergency response plan, which is not a surprise as there are always a lot of competing demands on time when running a small business,” he said.

“When the flood hit, they had to react and do the best they could. Now we are hearing considerable interest from small businesses in developing these plans, and we have been working on connecting small businesses with the experts to help.

Most medium and larger businesses had some form of emergency response plan, Legge said.

“A lot of businesses found that although they had a plan on paper, it may not have covered all the elements they needed to respond to the emergency, continue business, and get back up to full capacity as quickly as possible,” he said.

Richard Truscott, Alberta director for the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, said it’s reasonable to assume the gaps for many smaller firms are even wider.

“But it would certainly be wise for all businesses to use the June floods as a wake-up call and an opportunity to start vigorously road-testing emergency plans on a regular basis, reviewing insurance risks, coverage, and deductibles, and really thinking about how communications and operations can be sustained in different emergency scenarios,” he said.

The report said about four in 10 organizations updated their emergency response plans following the floods, but very few included vital information such as contact lists.