A risk is a prediction that a certain calamity might occur at a time in the future. Now the degree of said calamity forms the basis of the risk management plan which will be created to minimize its effect.
For this report, the risk we identified is the possible mishandling of donations meant to serve as relief for those people who are caught in the upcoming Hurricane Katrina. We perceive this risk to be a very real one that, if not properly handled and planned for in advance might render aid received locally and internationally useless and thus deprive the New Orleans resident’s basic amenities like food and clothing.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
In such a scenario, physical assets that are vulnerable to the risk are the physical goods that form part of the donations and the subsequent transport vehicles and storage facilities needed to move and store the goods donated. Poor timing of delivery of the physical goods places both them and their transport vehicles at risk of possible destruction through the action of the hurricane itself and the storm and flooding it brings with it. Poor placement of the storage facilities places the goods in danger of being looted or destroyed through flooding.
The goods themselves are of highest priority for physical protection. This is due to the fact that their loss would be of the highest impact to the people affected by Hurricane Katrina. Because of the obvious scarcity of supplies expected during the hurricane’s passing and its aftermath, the threat against this asset is also very high from looters seeking to steal and sell at high prices to even ordinary non-violent citizens scrambling for the supplies and causing their destruction. The vulnerability rating of this asset is only medium since local and the federal governments will expend security staff and assets for its protection.
The following measures could be placed to improve the chances of the donations being made to actually affect their intended function.
First, a list of all the credible and vetted local and national level charities should be made available and easily accessible for all those who intend to send donations. This would reduce the possibility of money being sent to weakly managed charity organizations.
Secondly, the local and federal government should bump the number of military or local security staff and the number of security assets being deployed to protect the relief donations being delivered to the victims of the hurricane. This may include armored trucks among others.
Additionally, the governments should provide equipment and vehicles capable of accessing hard-to-reach regions that could be flooded and could possibly be accessible by a helicopter or powered boats. This is in anticipation of the hurricane possibly becoming more destructive than anticipated and hence the donations distribution becoming less manageable than expected.
Finally, these local and federal security forces should be working in close collusion with the identified charity organizations as explained above. This will ensure that the staff and volunteers working for these organizations offered enough security and accessibility options to perform their duty more effectively.
References
Knox, C. C. (March, 2013). Analyzing after-action reports from Hurricanes Andrew and Katrina: Repeated, modified, and newly created recommendations.
Riebestein, J. L. (August, 2008). Capabilities-based planning: A framework for local planning success?
