Fundamentals of Disaster Planning for Sports and Recreation Organizations

There are three fundamentals that your organization should keep in mind when preparing for potential disasters.

1. Plan to save human lives;
2. Plan to protect physical resources; and
3. Plan for Continuity of the sport programs and organization.

When addressing the concern for saving human lives, it is a good idea to list those persons whose lives you are seeking to protect. Sports and recreation programs generally will list athletes, participants, coaches, employees, fans, customers, clients, managers, suppliers, vendors, and any other people that might be on the premises should a disaster strike.

Disaster planning will require addressing evacuation and protection of all potential people involved. It will mean considering the physical condition of the people that you are seeking to protect. Are there people with disabilities, elderly, or very young? How will you communicate evacuation and safety rules and plans to such people? How can these plans be practiced and implemented?

Protecting physical resources means protecting real, personal and intellectual property. Such property might include facilities, equipment, offices, furniture, computers, data, important papers, personal property of employees, motor vehicles, and any other property that could be potentially destroyed in a disaster. Will you be able to protect resources from disaster? Have you addressed whether you have sufficient insurance to replace such resources?

Oftentimes, the focus in a disaster is protection of people and property. However, in disaster planning, the continuity of sports and recreation businesses must be considered. If a facility is destroyed in a disaster, is there another facility that can be used while the facility is being rebuilt? If attendance is likely to be decreased significantly because of a disaster, how can the facility plan for the financial decline? Do you have resources in a separate location that can be used in order to continue operation?

Disaster planning is a complex and ongoing process. Has your organization planned to protect people, property and continuity of business in the event of a disaster?