Contingency Planning

ORNL Resilience Plan to Help Tennessee, Mississippi, South Carolina

October 9, 2007

A new Oak Ridge National Laboratory initiative could help avert disasters in Tennessee, Mississippi and South Carolina and also lead to more information about climate change.

The new Community and Regional Resilience Initiative (CARRI) will be implemented in Gulfport, Miss., Memphis, and Charleston, S.C., to increase “resilience” (the ability to prepare for, respond to and quickly recover from natural and man-made disasters) of the three communities.

These “partner communities” will help develop and share essential knowledge, best practices, tools and techniques to strengthen a community’s ability to withstand a major disaster event with minimal downtime to basic government and business services, says CARRI director Warren Edwards.

“We will be seeking insights from the experiences of the Gulfport, Memphis and Charleston communities to construct what we are calling our ‘resiliency toolbox,’ “ Edwards says. “We hope to identify what the partner communities need to be truly resilient; use that information to assess vulnerabilities in other communities and work with them to help them close the gaps."

“A resilient community is prepared to help prevent or minimize the loss or damage to life, property and the environment and more quickly return citizens to work, reopen businesses, and restore essential services needed for a full and swift economic recovery,” he continues.

Edwards says the three cities were approached about becoming the first communities for the project because they are susceptible to both natural and man-made disasters.

“Memphis is particularly vulnerable to earthquakes because of its proximity to the New Madrid fault line,” Edwards says. “And, of course, Gulfport is currently in the process of recovering from Hurricane Katrina with a strong commitment to becoming an even more resilient community in the event of future storms. Charleston has significant hurricane and earthquake threats. Having made great strides in resilience planning, the city has lessons to share.”

CARRI also may provide clues to potential community response to climate change. Tom Wilbanks, ORNL Corporate Fellow and research director for CARRI, says global warming could potentially affect world weather and precipitation patterns. Government leaders are beginning to look at climate change as a national security issue and examining its impacts on ecosystems and economies.