Elements of a Disaster Recovery Plan

Building a sound disaster recovery plan should take a number of basic time frames into account. Most elements of a disaster recovery plan fit into three groups, based on an initial burst of rapid life-saving recovery efforts, medium-term infrastructure repair and long-term disaster risk reduction.

Initial Response

• How a society reacts to the initial shock of disaster is important for how it will recover in the long term. During the first few days of a disaster, recovery activities should focus on protection and evacuation. A central rallying point, such as a stadium or town center where people can get organized, will help a great deal. The point of rallying at one location is not necessarily so that people can stay there long-term, but more so to eliminate confusion in evacuating further from a disaster zone, even as far as neighboring cities or states.

Short and Medium-Term Recovery

• Short-term recovery planning focuses around restoring the basic necessities, such as power, water, normal food and supply routes and getting people back into undamaged and structurally safe homes. Restoring school systems should also come as soon as possible, but certainly not before basic life necessities. Restoring public education programs as soon as possible has long-term recovery effects, but it is something that must be done in the weeks and months following a disaster, before the gap in school time becomes too great.

Long-Term Recovery

• The point of long-term recovery planning is to eliminate or mitigate what caused the previous disaster. Long-term planning focuses on structural and land use law changes. For instance, many cities with river flooding problems have a great deal of success in reducing flood losses by simply buying up flood zone property and turning it into parks. By turning flood zone properties into parks and public areas where homes and businesses cannot be built, cities reduce flood damages by preventing people from living in a hazardous area in the first place. People will enjoy the public areas along rivers for recreation, but these zones can be shut down while flood warnings are in effect.

  Other long-term planning assets are the creation of social groups to help disaster victims. Strong social networking through monthly and yearly planning councils greatly assist in disaster recovery by making sure more people can assign a name and a face to disaster victims, which in turn bolsters post-disaster volunteer efforts.