New Lessons from California's Wildfires
By David Gering
Member ACP Los Angeles Chapter
As continuity planning and resilience professionals, it may be easy to become blasé about the many natural disasters that occur with seemingly increasing frequency. However, it would be unwise to assume nothing new may be learned and applied in both our professional and personal lives.
As I write this on Friday, November 16, 2018, authorities are searching for over 600 people missing and feared dead as a result of the Camp Fire in Northern California. More than 20,000 evacuated from a town that was reduced to smoking rubble in hours.
And then there are the Hill and Woolsey Canyon fires in Los Angeles and Ventura Counties. At last estimate, the Woolsey fire charred 98,000 acres, taking three people and over 600 homes, but those numbers are sure to increase.
Regrettably, I have observed the Woolsey fire up close. I work out of my home in Simi Valley, less than three miles from Woolsey Canyon. A week ago, the third time in 11 years, I was packed and ready to drive away from my home in air thick with smoke. Water-dropping helicopters and planes passed a few hundred feet above my house, mounting an aggressive 90-minute air assault on a spot fire a half mile from my home. Those pilots were as heroic as any in the military, providing close air support in poor visibility, shifting 40- to 50-mph winds, over hilly terrain, in a crowded sky.
I had recently updated an evacuation checklist and plan, and refreshed my go bags and emergency supplies.
Yet, an emergency tends to bring certain things into harshly clear focus. Expert commentary during wall-to-wall news coverage, and my experience and observations yielded new lessons worth consideration. Read full article here.
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If you have not yet done so, now is the time to renew your ACP membership for 2019.
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Save the Date!
Be sure to set aside Sunday, February 17, 2019 to join your ACP colleagues and industry professionals for ACP’s 2019 one day conference at the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, NV. We will again be leading into DRI2019 at the same site and providing you with sessions designed to help you as a practitioner and as an industry professional. Plan to join us on February 17, 2019. Details coming soon.
