AWWA WSC61406

The City of Raleigh has been the recipient of a number of hurricanes and other severe weather events, resulting in significant experience with response to disaster events. Like all communities in the United States, awareness of potential man-made disasters heightened considerably in Raleigh following the events of September 11, 2001. This paper focuses primarily on two of the initiatives undertaken by the City of Raleigh, in general, and the City of Raleigh Public Utilities Department (CORPUD), in particular, to better prepare for all types of emergency events. The first subject is the development of special provisions to address employee concerns in disasters. The second is the development of a Business Continuity Plan to ensure the continuance of governance in the City in the event of a number of types of serious disaster events. This paper presents greater detail on these efforts and related topics in the following sections: Raleigh Disaster Experiences; Procedures to Address Employee Concerns; Development of the Business Continuity Plan; Other Disaster Preparedness Efforts by the City of Raleigh; Additional Things That Water Utilities Still Need to do for Security and Disaster Preparedness; and, Closing Comments.