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Knowing as we do that the real names of the four seasons in Ventura County, are Earthquake; Fire; Flood; and Mudslide, we too must insure that the impact from any catastrophe be minimized.

When the first jetliner crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center on 9-11, one man, and one man alone, Rick Rescorla, Chief of Security for one of the largest firms in the South Tower, had the foresight to imagine such an attack from the air. He died that day when the towers collapsed but only after he saved the lives of over three thousand people by ordering them to evacuate despite instructions from the Port Authority police to the contrary. Rescorla was a forward thinker, a two-tour veteran of Vietnam who not only understood the minds of terrorists but also grasped how inviting a target the towers were. Because of his guidance every employee of that firm had been drilled on evacuation procedures. When tragedy struck, they knew what to do.

Contrast Rescorla’s vision with the response to last year’s floods and mudslides by key public officials locally. When four of the five roads into the Ojai valley were closed by landslides and the fifth was threatened with immanent collapse, the head of the local hospital put her internal emergency operating plan into effect and then called the city to see what they were going to do to insure adequate food supplies and emergency transport would be available. She was dumbfounded when that city official failed to grasp the potential magnitude of the crisis, citing as he did the fact that the roads were outside the city limits and his jurisdiction.

The response of CalTrans to the same crisis last year also left a lot to be desired. Although their crews did an excellent job of insuring public safety, they completely failed the test of what I call “Public Functionality.” For almost a year CalTrans repeatedly failed to work with local agencies to insure that road closures, temporary routes, signage, the use of one way flag men, traffic reports on their website, and budgeting for repairs properly, actually made sense or worked.

Perhaps because of the frequency of our four seasons of earthquake, fire, flood and mudslide, we are fortunate here in our county to have some of the nation’s best trained and prepared firefighters and police officials. They have proved their worth innumerable times, but what happens if disaster strikes on an unfamiliar scale?

Let’s look at some other potential scenarios and see how they might affect the ability of your business, your community or your family to function or even survive the crisis.

What if a Northridge sized earthquake hits during fire season? Gas lines rupture, power lines snap, key bridges on the 101, 23 or 118 are down and breaks in the California aqueduct limit the flow of water?

How successful would you be getting your business back to work the next day? How do you get your staff to the office? How do you get supplies? Electricity to run your computers and equipment? Food? Water? Heat? Utilities? Where do you turn to for accurate, specific and up to the minute news of danger spots, traffic congestion or open roads?

Or that earthquake hits during flood season when roads are already out?

Or what if a “dirty bomb” goes off in LA and half the San Fernando Valley evacuates to Ventura County? How do we house hundreds of thousands of people on an emergency basis without a total disruption of all economic activity in the region, much less deal with the panic that might ensue?

Or a tsunami does hit the coastal areas wiping out thousands of homes, lives, business and the very roads we’d need to bring relief?

Or a massive mudslide not only destroys La Conchita but also wipes out the 101 for months, severing our only route to the north?

To survive and recover effectively from a Katrina type event – be it a terrorist action or an act of nature – we need to have the imagination and courage to realize any of these could happen. Then we need to be like the Boy Scouts who over a hundred years ago had the foresight to adopt two words as their motto, “Be prepared.”

The trouble is most of us do not have a clue what it means to be prepared for catastrophic events. We are content to leave that to the experts, assuming they’ll take care of us. Katrina should have taught us that only fools still believe that line.

In order to bring attention to what we call the need for, “Integrated Disaster Relief and Recovery Planning” for Ventura County, VCEDA will focus our annual Business Outlook Conference in October on this theme.

Our president, Bill Buratto and I have already begun conversations with local public safety officials, United Way, the media, governmental agencies, many of our key businesses and employers as well as the Center for Asymmetrical Warfare at Naval Base Ventura, in order to get this effort underway.

But planning for disaster involves all of us. We need your help, your input, your ideas. Don’t be a stranger, gives a call or drop us an e-mail at infor@VCEDA.org