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 Despite the tumultuous year of 2005 (tsunamis, hurricanes, war, terrorist threats and pandemic flu warnings), approximately 85 percent of Americans do not anticipate their own town or city being impacted by a disaster or emergency in 2006, according to a survey sponsored by MessageOne. The survey of 1,127 Americans was conducted in December 2005, by Opinion Research Corp., an independent research company.
Even in the hurricane–ravaged south, where the possibility of disaster rated highest, 57 percent of survey respondents thought their home towns were safe, while only 43 percent anticipated some impact in their region in 2006. Other regions of the US, (West, Midwest, and the Northeast), averaged only 10 percent of respondents predicting some disaster or emergency in 2006.
According to Satin Mirchadani, CEO of MessageOne, “The results beg the question - are Americans as safe as we think we are, or are we just living with a false sense of security? Our experience working with hundreds of companies after the 2005 hurricanes reinforces the notion that, even if you don’t expect a crisis, it really does pay to be prepared.”
Business continuity preparedness unclear
In another survey question, respondents were asked if they felt their company was prepared in the event of a disaster or emergency. The survey showed Americans were almost evenly split in terms of their feelings of safety in a crisis situation at the workplace or on the job. Fifty two percent said they felt their place of employment was totally prepared or well prepared, while 48 percent said they felt their workplaces were not prepared or not at all prepared for a crisis or emergency.
Communications continuity an important issue
In the case that a disaster or emergency did take place, the survey also showed that people rely heavily on technology to keep in touch with their place of work, colleagues, clients and customers remotely. Cell phones and email were the technologies that ranked highest in what people would rely on most to maintain business remotely - with cell phones at 47 percent and email at 36 percent. Regular landline phones were only chosen by 13 percent and fax and word processing were so low they were statistically not significant.
www.messageone.com
•Date: 3rd Jan 2006• Region: US • Type: Article •Topic: BC general
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