Preparing for an Active 2010
Hurricane Season

Yesterday, the National Hurricane Center of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced its forecast for the 2010 hurricane season, which is estimated to be active to extremely active, with anywhere from 14 to 23 named storms expected to form in the Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico. Of those named storms, 8 to 14 are projected to become hurricanes, including 3 to 7 major hurricanes, with wind speeds above 111 mph. As you begin to prepare, we wanted to provide you with helpful resources to share with your employees as well as your company’s business continuity, security, communications and human resources departments. Click here to download relevant guides to help your company and employees better prepare and respond to disasters. They include:

• Family Preparedness Guide
• Human Resource Guide on Benefits and Financial Issues
• The Do's and Don'ts of Effective Giving
• Top Ten Myths of Disaster Relief
• Protecting Your Business
• Rebuilding Communities

The Partnership also encourages companies to post FEMA’s Hurricane Awareness Widget on their corporate websites for employees and customers in hurricane-prone states. We also encourage you to visit http://www.fema.gov/privatesector/ for additional preparedness resources from the federal government.

Chile and Haiti Earthquakes

Chile Earthquake – February 27, 2010

On February 27, an earthquake of magnitude 8.8 occurred in central Chile, 56 miles northeast of the city of Concepción. More than 2 million people are estimated to be affected. Business Roundtable member companies quickly mobilized to help expedite on-the-ground relief. Click here to view member company contributions as of March 9, 2010.

Haiti Earthquake – January 12, 2010

Click here to read more about Business Roundtable member companies’ contributions to the Haiti earthquake as of March 3, 2010.

USAID is committed to helping the business community to stay informed and to facilitate any additional support of in-kind donations or cash contributions to the Haiti earthquake relief effort. To contribute, please visit the USAID web site, at http://www.usaid.gov/haiti/.

You can also help immediately by donating to the Red Cross to assist the relief effort. Contribute online here , or donate $10 to be charged to your cell phone bill by texting "HAITI" to "90999."

Best Practices Companies engage in a wide variety of disaster response efforts, from handling a crisis that strikes the organization to helping people thousands of miles away. Learn from their experience. Useful Tools From communicating to employees during a disaster to planning for business continuity, the right resources are essential to help companies prepare for and respond to a disaster. View and download disaster response resources here.