Resilience / Recovery

Business continuity: It is not possible to guard against every risk
Business continuity means more than data back-up systems; businesses need to design their infrastructure with resilience in mind, but at the same time plan for the unexpected — because the unexpected will happen
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Royal Mint issues urgent call for disaster recovery system
Tender comes after critical review warns about inadequate contingency plans
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Midwest floods threaten IT infrastructure
More than 100 blocks in the Cedar Falls’s downtown are underwater and 3,900 homes have been evacuated; companies must cope with the threat of rising water to IT infrastructure
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Assessing landslide risk
Researchers develop new technique for assessing areas most at risk from landslides
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Lower Mississippi River region braces for major flood
Floodwaters are projected to crest at St. Louis at 38 feet on 22 or 23 June, marking the eleventh time since the Civil War that St. Louis has reached that flood stage; during the flood of 1993 waters at St. Louis crested at 49.6 feet
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Continuing communication in disaster-stricken areas
The BBC World Service’s transmission and distribution department offers a four-stage approach to re-establishing and maintaining vital communication in disaster areas
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Flood protection call for utilities
Twelve months after the devastating U.K. floods a government agency says much more must be done to tackle the vulnerability of buildings such as power stations and hospitals to flooding
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The larger the organization, the more prepared it is
Business continuity planning was seen as a priority by 71 percent of U.S. companies, 80 percent of companies had a business continuity plan; as company size increases, so does the likelihood that companies have a continuity plan
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FEMA announces fiscal year 2008 CEDAP application period
FEMA is open to applications from state and local emergency services for funding the purchase of emergency equipment; $16 million in funding will be awarded, and the application period ends at the end of the month
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Insurers are warned to prepare for hurricane season
NOAA updated forecast calls for 12 to 16 named storms between 1 June and 30 November; says Impact Forecasting’s Steven Drews: “insurance and reinsurance buyers must remember that any storm can cause massive destruction”
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Detailed studies of U.S. disaster preparedness offer recommendations
Critical care panel tackles disaster preparation, surge capacity, and health care rationing; some recommendations require largely greater budgets; other pose profound ethical and moral questions
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China lacks earthquake early-warning system
Earthquake alerts are still in their infancy and few nations deploy them; China is one of the many countries which is yet to do so; such systems offer but a few seconds warning of a coming quake, but these few seconds may be enough to save many from death or injury
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The economics of cyber - and infrastructure -- security
New book explores the economics of protecting cyberspace; the book “links our nation’s critical infrastructures across public and private institutions in sectors ranging from food and agriculture, water supply and public health, to energy, transportation and financial services,” says one of the authors
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Doctors develop a list of those allowed to die in a catastrophe
Physicians, government agencies draft a grimly specific list of recommendations for which patients would be treated - and which would not — during a pandemic
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U.S. hospitals could not handle terror attack
Inquiry into the disaster preparedness of hospitals in several major U.S. cities conclude that they are — and will be — incapable to handle even a modest terrorist attack in those cities; one reason for for the lack of hospitals’ capacity: the Bush administration’s cuts in Medicaid reimbursements to hospitals overwhelm emergency rooms with patients suffering from routine problems, leaving no capacity to absorb and treat disaster victims
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