Joplin business leader speaks at Cape disaster preparedness event

Joplin, Mo.'s business community is bouncing back after the deadliest and most destructive single tornado in the United States in more than 60 years struck the city in May, according to the head of the city's chamber of commerce.

As part of an emergency preparedness seminar attended by about 100 businesses representatives at Cape Girardeau's Drury Lodge on Wednesday, Joplin Area Chamber of Commerce president Rob O'Brian shared lessons learned by local businesses there.

In the seven months since the tornado, about 400 of the 520 businesses destroyed or damaged are back in operation. About 20 more are rebuilding now and will open before the end of the year.

"We were very concerned we would see a hallowing out, like in Louisiana after Katrina, but we haven't," O'Brian said. "We actually saw very little increase in unemployment."

The tornado left a 10-mile long path of destruction, taking out the city's big box retail area, portions of its industrial park and St. John's Mercy Hospital. It killed 162 people, with the last fatality added to that list just a few weeks ago, after succumbing to injuries sustained in the tornado, O'Brian said.

The hospital quickly set up facilities in tents in the parking lot and now is operating out of modular structures with beds for about 100 patients. Plans are in place to rebuild the 360-bed hospital at a different location in the next few years, said O'Brian.

Within a couple of days of the tornado, the Joplin chamber's staff set out, trudging through the rubble to find its business owners and managers to assess their status.

"It is a unique, not pleasant, experience when you have a community you think you know and every place looks unfamiliar," O'Brian said.

Many businesses were able to reopen within days, others took much longer, such as the town's 188,000-square-foot Walmart store, which reopened this month.

Within the first two weeks, chamber staff contacted 400 businesses in person and within a month had assessed the status of 1,200 local businesses with varying degrees of damage.

"We had several banks where nothing but the vault was standing in a debris field," O'Brian said.

The chamber soon launched a campaign called "Remember, Rebuild, Rejoice" and started the Joplin Area Chamber of Commerce Foundation for Business Recovery Fund to help businesses rebound.

Having a company disaster plan is essential, O'Brian said. He encourages businesses to use resources from FEMA, the Small Business Administration or their business trade associations to develop one.

He also suggested keeping phone numbers for employees, vendors and customers stored in a cellphone, which may be the primary means of communication.

Following the Joplin tornado, O'Brian said, text messages were the only way people in the area could communicate for several days. Social media sites like Facebook also helped put business people in contact with their employees and customers.

"If people could get to Internet access, even if it was on their phone, they could see that information. That's where people were finding each other," he said.

O'Brian also emphasized the importance of backing up and securing company data.

"One of the things that was really frustrating and difficult for our businesses is that they had to back up the old fashioned way. They would keep a back up tape in their office or their car or their house and those things may have all been destroyed. They couldn't get a copy from the CPA or their attorney because their offices were gone too," O'Brian said.

Understanding what is and isn't covered by insurance is also crucial, O'Brian said.

"We had a lot of people who didn't know what they had or didn't have what they thought they had," he said.

Programs from the Small Business Administration may help bridge the gap between insurance coverage and actual recovery costs following a disaster, according to O'Brian. He encouraged people to apply for SBA assistance in those types of situations even if they're not sure they will need it.

SBA programs also helped many employees with their own home and property losses, O'Brian said.

The Business Continuity/Emergency Preparedness Seminar was planned before the May 22 Joplin tornado, said Tracey Glenn, vice president of organization and leadership development at the Cape Girardeau Area Chamber of Commerce.

"I thought it was important for businesses to know this information and I'm pleased to see so many of them here," said Glenn, who organized a similar program statewide when working previously for the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Sessions during the daylong emergency preparedness seminar included workplace violence, structure mitigation, data recovery, FEMA response and working with the media during an emergency.

mmiller@semissourian.com

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