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The headlines say it all …
“Fire guts historic building on 7th Street”“Bugged driver runs SUV into building”“Toxic fumes force evacuation”“Car crashes into Oregon City strip mall”
These local headlines speak volumes for the need to have emergency preparedness plans in our businesses. In June, the Oregon City Chamber with the cooperation of seven agencies and businesses unveiled its Business Emergency Survival Toolkit (BEST).
Click here to download your free MS Word copy so you can do your BEST to be prepared.
Before you decide that it can’t happen to your business, you should know that 50% of businesses never reopen following a major disaster, according to the Institute for Business and Home Safety. While disasters such as 9/11 do occur, they are statistically less common than other emergencies for which businesses must be prepared. More often a local business, even our own Chamber, is at greatest risk for fires, floods, cyber attacks, automobile collisions, death of a key employee, supply shortage, and being cut off from key supplier or customer. “Research conducted by the Ad Council found that more than 85% of small businesses understand that emergency preparedness is important, yet only four in ten businesses have a plan to protect their businesses,” said Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.
Your Chamber and our cooperating partners are making every effort to see that local businesses have a plan in place to mitigate the effects of a disruption. If you are in business you can’t afford to procrastinate — we do not want your business to become a statistic. Any business disruption can result in loss of jobs, revenue, customers, supplies/services. The longer it takes a business to get up and running results in more economic damage to the community. A plan can help get you back to business sooner. It has been shown that a business can be hurt indirectly when disaster strikes customers or an affiliated business, such as a supplier or distributor.
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