Are we really prepared? Resiliency-in-a-box can help real estate property managers and owners

Hurricane Earl put another scare into us. So did the Times Square bomber and the terrorist plotters whose intent was to commit mayhem at a variety of locations in New York. The unpredictable nature of emergencies makes it highly prudent to plan for how the real estate management firm or commercial property owner will respond to and recover from a critical incident, a real emergency, natural or man-made. Emergency management organizations such as FEMA and the American Red Cross recommend planning for contingencies in advance and, among other best practices, to keep and maintain "GO KITS," the essential personal kits of survival and support items for the individual. I recently came across a membership based organization called, American Resiliency who expands this practice, the implementation of GO KITS on a larger scale specifically for real estate property managers and property owners. According to American Resiliency, they offer Professional Continuity Services, a level of cost effective convenience for the corporation's emergency preparedness. They provide emergency preparedness related goods and services to both the corporate executive and the real estate industry corporation itself. This professional and business continuity service eliminates many associated logistical issues, and provides solutions that far exceed anything available to the public today. It should be noted that two important disaster recovery or resiliency principles are "recovery point" and "recovery time." "Recovery point" deals with your corporation's ability to restore business related information, enabling you to continue to conduct business, while "recovery time" deals with the amount of time it takes you to get to that point. One of the signature services is corporate resiliency in a container which has the corporations or the real estate executive's critical documentation and information, such as phone contact information of employees, families, customers, suppliers, service/maintenance companies, banks, insurance companies; bank account information, bank draft provisions and insurance claim forms. These secure containers are stored at any one of a number of undisclosed secure facilities. Since the facilities are regionally diverse, the container and its critical contents are protected from any incident that may affect the corporation. In the event of an emergency incident, the secure container is rushed to the member corporation. During an incident, members may be assisted by the emergency management concierge services where trained customer service professionals assist the real estate management firm through the difficulties of the moment and address important issues such as facilitating insurance claims, maintaining and dispersing critical client records, assuring back-up site operations and emergency lodging. At the corporation's request, larger containers can be available to provide office supplies, emergency cell phones, PCs and copy machines. It is expected that in many cases, membership in the American Resiliency program will be a first step in emergency preparedness for the commercial property owner or manager. They stated that they will provide the opportunity to increase awareness, educate, and promote community service initiatives within the membership base. Since a significant objective of the membership is to increase awareness and promote volunteerism, American Resiliency indicates that a portion of membership fees are donated to the American Red Cross in support of their response efforts. Allan Schwartz is president and CEO of Safeguards International, Inc, Yonkers, N.Y.