How often do you think about helping communities that have been devastated by disasters?  Many company foundations and community relations staff members think about this topic every day, and even more so now that hurricane season is upon us again. 

Last year, BCLC published a report entitled "On The Brink: Re-Engineering the Nation's Disaster Response Processes" where companies like Office Depot, UPS, Abbott, Fed Ex, Google, State Farm and others wrote about best practices to change the way our country handles disasters.  The major question in the report was what happens to communities after the TV cameras leave and people stop talking about the terrible things that happened?  The answer, all too often, is that communities struggle.  Countless companies across the nation want to change this fact.

This year, BCLC is publishing a new report on the topic of moving away from being reactive to disasters and towards being proactive.  We will issue this report in time for National Preparedness month in September.  But as today is the start of hurricane season, I thought I would review a few resources that BCLC has made available to corporate citizens to prepare for disasters:

- The Office Depot Foundation and BCLC created a unique Help Desk (1-888-MY-BIZ-HELP) to help local businesses that are affected by disasters navigate the recovery process. 

- On June 18, and 19, BCLC is hosting a workshop entitled, "Back to Back Disasters: Recovery on Multiple Fronts." This workshop will help businesses, nonprofits, and government agencies improve their coordination during disasters while participants work through a realistic disaster scenario.

- BCLC created a list of top recommendations and resources for business disaster aid planners.  You can find the list here.

Thankfully, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has forecasted that this year's hurricane season will have near-normal storm activity, and produce fewer storms than were recorded in 2008.  More specifically, NOAA predicts a 70% chance of 9 – 14 named storms, with 4 – 7 of those storms being hurricanes.  One to three of those hurricanes are predicted to have sustained winds above 111 miles per hour. 

But all you need is one extreme event to affect a community.  BCLC and our Disaster Assistance and Recovery Working Group will be prepared.  For more information on what we are doing, please visit our website.