While serving as the U.S. Army Chief of Engineers and Commanding General of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), our team helped finalize the infrastructure work post-Katrina and the recovery from Hurricane Sandy. The lessons from these major disruptions offer businesses insights regarding resilience, sustainability, and stakeholder collaboration.
Resilience is Essential
Multi-layered resilience is essential for reducing future risk to communities and for businesses. Effective recovery and prevention methods to achieve resilience include engineered solutions such as levees, flood walls, storm surge barriers, and pumping stations. Non-engineered solutions include living shorelines, wetlands restoration, and dunes. Resilience examples apply to the public and private sectors.
Public Sector Case Studies
One of the key resilience projects following Hurricane Katrina was the Inner Harbor Navigation Canal (IHNC) Surge Barrier in New Orleans. Spanning 1.8 miles, it is one of the largest storm-surge barriers in the world. This $1.1 billion project was part of the overall $14.5 billion hurricane and storm damage risk reduction system put into place after Hurricane Katrina. In 2021, Hurricane Ida made landfall in the area as a Category 4 hurricane with 150 mph winds. The IHNC Surge Barrier blocked significant storm surges, saving many lives. With over $100 billion in damages and 1,500 deaths, post-Katrina investments demonstrate the value of resilience preparedness. Similarly, businesses can take proactive steps to build resilience.
Private Sector Case Studies
Businesses will face shocks, and the proper investments will reduce risk. For businesses, multi-layered resilience might include supply chain flexibility and diversified portfolio management. Additional measures include cyber and traditional risk management, and innovative solutions to guard against unknown risks. There is also a risk to an organization’s workforce and the potential loss of talent where health and wellness programs and other incentives can make a positive difference. Risk reduction measures will come at a cost. Businesses must consider how these resilience investments impact the long-term success of the company. The following examples of resilience in the private sector can be instructive for others.
Google and Microsoft Resilience
Google invested $13 billion in resilience by expanding its data centers in multiple states, which helped diversify operations and reduce the risk of disruption. Microsoft has focused on workforce resilience through several factors including a hybrid work model, its digital collaboration tool with Teams, well-being programs, reskilling and continuous learning, and an inclusive leadership culture. While these are global company examples, smaller companies can implement similar programs at smaller scales.
Small Business Resilience
Fearless, a Baltimore-based digital services company, fosters resilience by upskilling its employees while focusing on diversity and aligning its business goals with impact-driven initiatives that engage its employees and the surrounding community. Fearless has achieved a workforce that is 50% diverse and 50% women. Basecamp, a Chicago-based small business software company, built resilience into its workforce by emphasizing employee well-being, reducing work stress, and continuous development. Basecamp’s transparent salaries foster teamwork, with an average employee retention rate of five years.
Lessons From Asheville
Asheville, devastated by the 1916 flood and more recently by Hurricane Helene, highlights the need for inland regions to adopt greater resilience. Though rebuilt after 1916, the Asheville area lacks the resilient infrastructure necessary to support rapid urban growth. Flood insurance is one of several resilience measures often overlooked in inland regions.
Lessons From Flood-Prone Areas
Lessons from the Gulf of Mexico or from Hurricane Sandy can help businesses develop resilient infrastructure. In practical terms, these lessons could include floodproofing buildings as much as possible, backup power generation, flood insurance, supply chain diversification, and evacuation preparedness plans. Stakeholders such as residents and businesses in regions that are not often flooded are surprised at the level of damage and lack of resilience in the communities where they live after experiencing a major flood. Stakeholders must be engaged.
Stakeholder Engagement
Stakeholders must have a voice and be involved in deliberations (e.g., town halls, surveys) on the risks that the city and region choose to accept. Following Hurricane Sandy, where many residents on the northeast coast of the USA were surprised, New York City brought stakeholders together to discuss risk management and priorities for flood mitigation investments. Everyone should understand the risks of living and working in an area to implement the best mitigation plans effectively. All businesses can benefit from resilience lessons.
All businesses can improve their resilience. After Hurricane Sandy, the U.S. Congress allocated $20 million for the USACE to develop a North Atlantic Coast Comprehensive Study (NACCS), which provides a resilience framework that communities, businesses, and stakeholders can use. Several key takeaways from the NACCS are the need for a multi-layered risk reduction framework, stakeholder collaboration, and adaptive management for future risks. While the NACCS was focused on flood risk, the framework could benefit businesses as well. A multi-layered risk reduction framework includes the obvious elements of defense (levees, floodwalls, pumping stations, generators, elevated buildings, etc.) to retreat from areas to allow space for flooding. For businesses, this framework might include a secondary work location or the ability to operate remotely. Adaptive management for business might include supply chain resilience and agile workforce strategies such as remote work to keep businesses in operation. Scenario planning, which includes all stakeholders on a semiannual schedule, could improve community resilience.
Hoboken Could be a Model for Asheville and Other Areas
Regional collaboration on resilience, as seen in Hoboken after Hurricane Sandy, could be a model for Asheville and other areas less prone to disasters but still at high risk. Hoboken, New Jersey’s Resilient Building Design Guidelines provide examples of floodproofing strategies for local businesses. In Hoboken, the public and private sectors worked together to develop a resilience strategy that works best for the community with the available resources. Hoboken offers examples of retrofitting existing structures to increase resilience. Prior to Hurricane Sandy, Hoboken did not have the resilience strategy that it does today. Asheville and similar inland communities could develop a resilience framework by learning from Hoboken.
Businesses should develop a resilience strategy that is continuously reviewed and improved by including stakeholders, determining risks, and prioritizing resilience measures. What steps will your organization take to include the voice of stakeholders, strengthen resilience, and ensure long-term success?
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