BUSINESSRESOURCE REGISTRY:

Background

• Experiences in responding to disasters in our communities have shown that our success is highly dependent on the level of communication and coordination between public-sector and private-sector entities.
• According to the National Strategy for Homeland Security, "government at the federal, state and local level must actively collaborate and partner with the private sector, which controls 85 percent of America's infrastructure."
• The problem is that private-sector resources that could be used in disaster situations are typically not visible to public partners in an efficient way.
• The need of the business resource registry is at a local level during the immediate response and based on the following assumptions:
  • All disasters begin locally and emergency managers utilize local resources.
  • As disasters grow, so does the need for additional resources. At a local level the speed of response will be dependent on the ability of organized local resources.
  • As disasters become larger, public resources may become stressed.

Objective and Purpose of the Business Resource Registry

• To create a directory of private-sector services and products that could be made available voluntary or on a paid-basis to the state or local emergency management during a disaster in order to support the response and recovery of the impacted community.
• The Business Resource Registry's ultimate goal is to support "continuity of community" and insure a viable and sustainable future for our region.

Steps to enter resources:

1. Register - Organization completes a Business Resource Registry Form.

2. Exercise - Organizations may have the opportunity to participate in exercises to validate the logistics of the response for improvement purposes.

3. Maintain - It is important for organizations to maintain the data in the registry.

4. Respond - During a disaster, the Business Resource Registry will be available to the Emergency Management Agency and Safeguard Iowa Partnership Emergency Operations Center Liaison(s).