Disaster Prep Wednesday: "The Resilience Dividend"

Importance of disaster preparation lessons even from a PBS book author discussion. Book being discussed is The Resilience Dividend: Being Strong in a World Where Things Go Wrong:

From a review here:

Resilience, as defined by Judith Rodin, the author of the important book “The Resilience Dividend: Being Strong in a World Where Things Go Wrong,” is the capacity of any entity, ranging from an individual, a corporation or a society, to pre-emptively prepare for sudden disruptions that were unpredicted, to recover from them and then to take advantage of new opportunities produced by the disruption for further growth and expansion.

It is the latter part of this equation that the author terms as the “resilience dividend.” Thus, although it is critical for the affected entities to return to “normal functioning” following a major disruption such as a catastrophic terrorist attack, earthquake, hurricane or financial collapse, one of the crucial benefits of the “resilience dividend” is that it enables organizations that are truly resilient to significantly transform themselves in a beneficial manner “even when disruptions are not occurring.”

In other words, knowing that disruptions are inevitable, doesn't it make sense to create for yourself or your business, family, neighborhood, city, state and country "resilience" that goes beyond mitigation?

Mitigation is the effort to reduce loss of life and property by lessening the impact of disasters. Mitigation is taking action now—before the next disaster—to reduce human and financial consequences later (analyzing risk, reducing risk, insuring against risk). Effective mitigation requires that we all understand local risks, address the hard choices and invest in long-term community well-being. Without mitigation actions, we jeopardize our safety, financial security and self-reliance.

UPDATE: More here. UPDATE2: And here.