Resilient Communities Key to Economic Success

Thursday October 04, 2007

Resilient Communities Key to Economic Success

By: Warren Edwards

      Director, Southeast Regional Research Initiative, Oak Ridge National Laboratory

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, citizens of the Gulf Coast region of the United
States faced the daunting task of putting their lives, their economies and their
communities back together. Homes had to be rebuilt, businesses had to be
reestablished and basic services had to be restored just to get life back close to normal.

As the Gulf Coast slowly rebuilds, it becomes increasingly clear that traditional
approaches to disaster recovery do not fully prepare communities to respond to or
recover from natural or man-made catastrophes and reestablish the fabric of the
community or economy quickly and effectively. Communities that wish to remain
vibrant in the face of natural disasters and in a world of increasing threat of terrorism
must pursue new strategies to become truly resilient.

A resilient community anticipates problems, opportunities and the potential for surprise.
It reduces vulnerabilities. It responds effectively, fairly and legitimately. And it recovers
rapidly, safely and fairly. In addition to the key disaster management services that local
governments provide, a resilient community recognizes that private businesses,
individual citizens and volunteer organizations and associations are critical parts of the
fabric of a community and play significant roles in community resilience.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory through its Southeast Regional Research Initiative has
developed an innovative new program to address this need to help communities
become resilient. The Community and Regional Resilience Initiative (CARRI) is a
regional program with national implications. It seeks to understand how communities
can best prepare for, respond to and, most importantly, recover from natural or man-
made disasters and then translate that understanding into practical processes and
tools that assist communities to move to ever higher levels of resilience achievement.

We believe that community resilience is an economic driver. Communities that
demonstrate resilience attract new business and assure insurers and investors that they
can avoid costs in the event of a catastrophe. Resilient communities have the
understanding of the interdependencies within their region that assists public officials
and private businesses in making informed, effective resource decisions.

 The Unites States is inherently a resilient nation. Building resilient communities and,
thereby, resilient regions will result in an even stronger America - one ready to recover
fully and bounce back quickly from any natural disaster or terrorist attack.

The terrorist attacks in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania and Hurricane Katrina
taught us hard lessons. It's time to help our communities put those lessons to work.

Warren Edwards is the director of the Southeast Regional Research Initiative, a
project of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory that is helping develop and then
share critical paths that any community or region may take to strengthen its
ability to prepare for, respond to, and rapidly recover from significant man-
made or natural disasters with minimal downtime to basic community,
government and business services.

 

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