Businesses Counting on Technology

[hawkeye]

I'm posting comments in regards to:
Threat or not, businesses preparing for bird flu and other such threads.

I'm glad to see businesses focusing on preps and planning, however they all seem to be counting 100% on technology, (e.g. internet, conference calls..etc.) All communication based technologies are directly tied to electricity.

What if the electricity is out? Suppose you have 20-40% workforce out sick, 20-40% out with no power..I don't see a scenario that allows for a businesses (large buessines/corporations) to survive.

I really feel that governments should focus on insuring that electricity is maintained during such a crisis. Without electricity, anarchy will ensue. (I should make that my signature). With electricty, we have a chance to avoid destroying ourselves.

 

[DB]

Re: Businesses Counting on Technology

I would say 95% of the plans these companies have do not mesh with the reality of the situation.

Take for example any company that provides technology or services.

During a pandemic, who will be buying the technology?
During a pandemic, who will be buying the services?

Do you really need a new cell phone in the middle of the pandemic? Will there be any reps to sell the phone? Will there be any supply chain to get the phone from the distribution point to you?

The answer is NO, NO, and NO.

These companies have plans, fine. Where the heck are they gonna get the customers?

I could go on for days about this, but you don't want to get super depressed do you?

 

[hawkeye]

Re: Businesses Counting on Technology

I'm already super depressed.

We're really looking at the potential for total collapse. That's why I think electricity should be a very high (if not the numbero uno) priority. Without it...everything else fails.

Without electricty, we have to battle both BF and civil collapse.

 

[Goju]

Re: Businesses Counting on Technology

First priority IMHO is OIL - GAS - diesel

None of that and your power plants run out of fuel
Water treatment plants run out of chemicals
No food harvested, processed, delivered.

Disaster of the first kind.

 

[Laidback Al]

Re: Businesses Counting on Technology

I guess I disagree with Goju for the immediate short run....

I'm already super depressed.

We're really looking at the potential for total collapse. That's why I think electricity should be a very high (if not the numbero uno) priority. Without it...everything else fails.

Without electricty, we have to battle both BF and civil collapse.

Maintaining the power grid (both electricity and oil/gas) is very critical, but keeping potable water flowing through the system should be the number one priority. People can live in the dark and they eat cold canned food but they will not be able to survive very long if they don't have water. I believe three days is how long someone can survive without water. You need to keep the powerline crews alive and healthy so they can go out and keep the electricity flowing. Gas pumps won't operate without electricity.

 

[Goju]

Re: Businesses Counting on Technology

I agree - water is critical.

But like I said... no gas... no power - i think the plants have 1-2 months of fuel... how do the workers get to their jobs without gas in their cars and trucks?

No gas - no delivery of water treatment chems so even if water is flowing, it may cause sickness like we have not seen in this country for a long time.

Hate to say it but Oil is most critical

 

[hawkeye]

Re: Businesses Counting on Technology

I see all points...everything is so dependent on the other that they all have to exist at the same time, but it does seem oil is the root. Without oil, there can be no electricity, hopefully oil pumps run off of non-refined oil.

-hawkeye

 

[Laidback Al]

Re: Businesses Counting on Technology

Realistically, there will have to be measured efforts on all fronts, power, water, oil and gas distribution, etc. to keep the economy going. I think it is the responsibility of local disaster planners to determine how to allocate effort and resources to keep the fragile economy (during a pandemic) moving. Unfortunately, it seems that local disaster planning has the fatal flaw of assuming that there are communities with abundant available resources "just outside" the disaster area that can be relied upon to step in and help out.

In the event of a pandemic, resources will be scarce, everywhere. What local communities need for a pandemic is a disaster plan that scales back local services and resource consumption until we get past all of the waves and start back on economic recovery.

 

[Goju]

Re: Businesses Counting on Technology

What is out of our control?

Oil drilling workers in foreign lands
Oil refinery workers
Oil delivery tankers
Oil accepting ports
Oil delivery trucks

No oil = major disaster
We are so dependant on oil for everything.

remember how long it took the oil to start flowing again out of the gulf after Katrina? and that was a local event - and not too much damage to the rigs and refineries. The workers were all present and accounted for after the hurricane past.

 

[GaudiaRay]

Re: Businesses Counting on Technology

My vote is electricity. We have a Strategic Oil Reserve which will fill the US needs for some months, while the oil infrastructure can be figured out. Demand for oil will decline quite dramatically. Oil is not the issue, imo. It's electricity.

I spoke to the DHS person assigned to private/public interface when in Minneapolis. He was concerned not about electricity which, without detail, he thought was covered. He was concerned about water.

I didn't attend the natural resources/utilities break out meetings, so I didn't hear from the folks who're responsible for that area. And I've not looked at the follow on papers as they didn't serve my personal interests. CIDRAP may have the summaries online and published.

Electricity is the greatest concern: While the plants can sustain with very few bodies, we've seen in the NE blackout that failure at any point on the grid can collapse the region. Further, start ups referred to I think as black start up will be monumental, after the grid goes down.

It's my belief from CE prior posts on the topic that until now, disaster planners have not descended on the utility plants and reviewed with those entities what are their extreme condition plans. When that's undertaken and reported by the planners as "in order", I'll breathe a sigh of relief. Until then, I'm prepping for power failure and then water plant failure.

The WHO said, before it became spineless: power, water, transportation and sanitation. Those are the big four. They were then and they are now. Note that health care is NOT listed amongst those four. Those four are the survival minimums for maintenance of civilization

Each requires competent planning and review. My opinion of the 3 day meeting in Minneapolis was that it was barely a beginning. And I have my reservations that much was done subsequently.

 

[AlaskaDenise]

Re: Businesses Counting on Technology

Potable water is number one and electricity is number two. Shortly thereafter comes whatever form of heating is needed for cold areas.

But DB has a very important point---customer demands will be completely different.

As far as conducting business - it occured before computers & credit cards, and it can survive without both today.

.