The Role of Businesses in Community Recovery

Business play a vital role in supporting community recovery following a disaster and maintaining operations during an extreme event is fundamental to community resilience. Businesses that stay open or reopen quickly provide much needed services and employment, without which communities cannot recover. For businesses that can, providing direct support to their community further deepens those benefits. Community outreach and support generate good press and community goodwill. Equally importantly, without a strong community, community-facing businesses in particular area at risk of failure. For theses businesses, community support will ideally be an element of their business disaster preparedness and continuity planning. This brief is based on a Zurich Flood Resilience Alliance Post Event Review Capability (PERC) study analyzing the 2017 flooding in Houston following Hurricane Harvey. This document has been produced as summary pieces of key lessons learned regarding the role of businesses and businesses preparedness in protecting livelihoods and supporting community recovery following disaster events. The document is edited by the Global Disaster Preparedness Center, the Institute for Social and Environmental Transition-International, and Zurich Foundation.