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repairing the electrical panel and enable Hope Landing to people trained in both disciplines would increase the
return to operation on (date) using a portable generator. number of people able to speak and understand a common
“vocabulary” during an event, thereby potentially increasing
In February 2021, Shelly Stevens and her team at Hope the number of people that could act in response roles such
Landing were awarded the Premier of Nova Scotia’s Award as Local Incident Commanders or Emergency Management/
of Excellence for their incident response during Hurricane Business Continuity Coordinators.
Dorian.
Lesson # 3 – EMBED BUSINESS CONTINUITY
KEY LESSONS LEARNED BEST PRACTICES IN ORGANIZATIONAL
Hurricane Dorian presented great lessons and CULTURE
opportunities for significant improvement in planning, When do we invoke business continuity plans?
18
preparedness and response . These observations have Organizational culture and existing practices in some areas,
been summarised from respondents who collaborated with hindered the implementation of the provincial Business
BCMO during the storm response. Continuity Management (BCM) framework, making some
plans less effective.
Lesson # 1 – A BOTTOMS-UP APPROACH
EMPOWERS PEOPLE TO PRODUCE PEAK Respondents also noted a plethora of terms, definitions
PERFORMANCE and interpretations based on related disciplines or
A Top-Down Approach is essentially a centralized decision- specific industry, that have come into common use, often
management approach when almost all decisions are made used variably or interchangeably, the semantics creating
at the top – a recipe for brewing a perfect storm when a confusion and inconsistency.
real hurricane strikes.
The BCM framework is built on plans, processes and people
However, in the Bottoms-Up Approach, local incident held together by education and training which rests on a
response leaders (such as Local Incident Commanders) foundation of organizational policy and recognized business
are delegated the authority and flexibility to take creative continuity best practices.
initiatives in prioritizing and accessing resources according
to the demands of the local situation. The Bottoms-Up The BCM framework should be continually updated to align
Approach works best under rapidly changing dynamics in with lessons learned and emerging trends, and be widely
balancing centralized strategic priorities with local needs. communicated through organizational policy tools, and
evaluated on the criteria of acceptable standards to ensure
The Bottoms-Up Approach also ensures better engagement compliance, consistency and confidence.
from participants in planning sessions, efficient allocation
and utilization of meagre resources and opening Lesson # 4 – ESTABLISH A CREDIBLE
trustworthy channels of communication. INFORMATION SYSTEM INSTEAD OF
OVERRELIANCE ON TELECOMMUNICATIONS
Lesson # 2 – DEFINE AND DIFFERENTIATE During any incident, information is vital for decision
CONTINGENCY PLANNING AND CONTINUITY makers to set priorities and assign resources to the
PLANNING response.
While the Hurricane Dorian response focused on protecting
life and safety, restoring critical infrastructure and the The telecommunications outages presented a variety of
environment, what COVID-19 has taught us is that it is also communications challenges during the storm response.
important to restore some sense of normalcy. People need The two specific impacts were, not being able to reach
to live safely, but businesses also need to survive. key personnel and not being able to verify information
received such as reports or assessments to support
Where emergency management and business continuity decision-makers in a timely manner. Additionally, there
intersect and support each other is often unclear, creating were duplicate requests for information because there
inconsistencies and friction unless the overlap is managed was no central coordination to relay such information
effectively. Contingency planning should not be mistaken for requests.
business continuity planning.
A variety of communication methods were used by
During Hurricane Dorian, BCMO embedded within the those engaged in the response. Communication methods
PCC Planning Section, thereby ensuring provincial business included landline, cellular (phone and text), email,
continuity priorities and resources were concentrated internal software solutions, TMR-2 radio, VHF radio and
on the overall objectives established by the Provincial satellite phones. In the early days of the Dorian response,
Coordination Centre. communication methods were disrupted by power and
telecommunication outages forcing some entities to
Respondents with experience in both business continuity scramble for creative communication solutions, especially
and emergency management observed that having more in the initial 48 hours of the response.

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