Wildland fires that destroy entire communities, unprecedented weather events, global pandemics. Many of these events have been described as Black Swan events, Black swan events are those events which have a major impact on society and presumably could not have been predicted. This often leads to the rationalization that these types of events cannot be prepared for. This presentation will look at a number of historical events to determine if they were truly unpredictable. The presentation will then provide strategies to predict the “unpredictable”. Finally, strategies will be reviewed to help chief officers make their organizations and communities more resilient to a variety of disruptions, predictable or not.
Learning Objectives:
The participant will learn how to analyze disasters to determine if they were predictable. This analysis will include both human and technological factors.
The participant will learn how to correlate seemingly unrelated factors that can create a cascading failure.
The participant will develop strategies to better analyze risks in their own community in order to prepare their organization for major disasters.