I work for a large utility, at a nuclear power plant, in the Business group. One of my recent responsibilities is to coordinate the Business Continuity Planning for our station, with the stated goal of keeping our electrical generation plant on-line to support the Michigan and Indiana areas by keeping the juice flowing and the lights (and much more) on. For us, Business Continuity means planning for Loss of Infrastructure (a.k.a., computer systems), Loss of Building (tornado, fire, earthquake, etc.), and Loss of Workforce (due to pandemic, influenza, etc.).
Our main focus over the past six months has been to address the loss of workforce issue. What is interesting is that we have had three pandemics in the 20th century, making the average about every 30 years. The message is that it is not a matter of "if", it is a matter of "when". The prediction for a H5N1, bird flu pandemic, is 40% loss of workforce, and of those, 3-5% will die; this is serious business folks. My company takes this very seriously, paying for flu shots for all employees and family members, subsidizing flu shots for our contractors, sending a pandemic planning package to all employee homes, and stock piling critical supplies and food at our critical facilities.
Tomorrow, as the leader for the Business Continuity at our nuclear power plant, I am attending the first Steering Committee meeting of the county Continuity Of Operations Planning (COOP). As a provider of a critical service, we are a member of the steering committee.
The University of Minnesota has a great web-site for keeping abreast of pandemic planning, and other national health matters. I encourage you to google and get access to this information.
1 comment:
I also recommend cdc.gov for info, and yes, it IS serious business. If anyone takes the time to read about the 1918 influenza pandemic, you will understand how serious it is. Every company should have a plan in place for dealing with this. As individuals, for the "routine" flu, we should all get the vaccine. Even if we aren't at risk, it can help prevent the spread of the virus to those who ARE at risk.
Beth
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