It is crucial for businesses and organizations to make plans now to prepare for island life in a community without access to bridge nor ferries post-earthquake. In close partnership with the Chamber of Commerce and the Rotary Club , our Business Continuity team is committed to increasing the economic resilience of North Kitsap County communities. The two Leads of this effort are Tom McCloskey and Stefan Goldby.
A strong local economy is critical to the wellbeing and livability of Bainbridge Island. Restoring our economy after a major destructive disaster such as an earthquake will be a major focus of recovery operations but requires action by *you* now, before disaster strikes.
The resilience of our local economy was severely tested during the pandemic. Seemingly overnight, fear of the contagion caused an abrupt loss of access to employees and customers, disruptions in the supply chain, and the resultant shuttering of doors. Few businesses and organizations had a plan to deal with such an emergency. Much of the initial months of confusion for our businesses could have been alleviated with just a bit of preplanning…what is called “business continuity planning”. And our team is here to help you.
While the pandemic did not destroy our business community’s physical structures, a major regional earthquake certainly will. Since we are located on an island dependent upon a bridge and ferry system to connect with the outside our local economy will face significantly more challenges post-earthquake than we did during the pandemic.
Do you want your business or organization to survive such a disaster? Do you want to position yourself to contribute to the community’s recovery operations? Now is the time to engage in business continuity planning that, unlike the concurrent planning engaged in during the pandemic, will give you a running start when – not if – our Island experiences a major destructive earthquake.
Learn more at bainbridgeprepares.org/continuity.
Scott James, Bainbridge Prepares Founder and author of Prepared Neighborhoods, gave this 45-minute talk on the crucial connections between Business Continuity, neighborhood resilience, and personal preparedness to the Seattle chapter of Entrepreneurs Organization (EO), which they opened up to all the EO chapters on the West Coast and Hawaii. A special thanks to EO Seattle for generously allowing us to let us post the recording on our NGO’s site.