What Are Your Lifelines? Speech to Chamber of Commerce

Rich Hildreth’s presentation to the Port Orchard Chamber of Commerce Luncheon – June 12, 2014
(Note: This is written in speech form, breaks are read as pauses, and double breaks are longer pauses)

What Are Your Lifelines?

I come here today with one thought that I hope you will leave with and think about; what are your lifelines?
When a disaster strikes, I want you to not only think about what it might take to get your business back up and running, but also how many other businesses, transportation routes, lifelines does your business depend on to keep functioning.
The reason I want you to think about this is because this is the first step you will take in making your business more disaster resilient.


We have all heard the fact that with major disasters it is not a question of if, but when.
We know that on average an earthquake occurs along the Cascadia Subduction Zone every 300 – 500 years.
The last one occurred 314 years ago.

We know that although Western Washington is not typically considered when we think about Hurricanes; however we have been hit by storms where 15” of rain fell along with winds of over 100 mph.
We know that a severe snow and ice storm is capable of knocking out power for a few days, and many roads may not be passable.
It is not a matter of if, but when a disaster might have an impact on your business.
In December 2007 our state was hit with Hurricane Force Winds, 14” of Snow followed by heavy rains.
75,000 people were without power for more than 1 day, local flooding blocked off many roads and Interstate 5 was under 10’ of water for several days.
Because of this blockage, grocery stores in many areas of Western Washington were running out of certain items simply because they could not get there.
Businesses shut down because they could not get supplies other businesses had problems moving inventory out.
This storm’s economic impact exceeded One Billion Dollars.
Could this type of disaster impact your business?

I ask again what are your lifelines.

What businesses are you reliant upon and how well are they prepared for disasters.
What about your customers that might see you as one of their lifelines?


I do not expect that every business to hire a full time emergency manager to write an emergency plans, but that does not mean you cannot write those plans yourself.
At the County, State and Federal Levels of government, information including easy to follow templates are available that can help you write a basic plan.
Right here, Kitsap County Department of Emergency Management has Model Plans, Templates and guidance how to develop a plan that is relevant to your business.
It might take some time and critical thought to fill it out, but isn’t your business worth it?
In closing, I just want to say that it is in everyone’s best interest that your business prepares and becomes as disaster resilient as possible.
Not just because government needs the revenues that you produce, but also because you are critical to a return to normalcy for the rest of us.
A big portion of why recovery is taking so long in New Orleans has less to do with how much damage was done by Katrina, and more with how many typical lifelines no longer exist.
Without schools, churches and grocery stores, neighborhoods struggle to recover.
Without neighborhoods, the heart and soul of our communities do not exist and workers do not move back.
Without businesses operating in our communities and employing the people who live in those neighborhoods, shop in those grocery stores and send their children to school in those schools everything collapses.
Restoration of businesses is key to the restoration of our communities.  The faster we can get business back in operation, the faster the rest of our communities can recover.  You are one of our lifelines.
I Thank You