Hurricane Irene presented some very unique challenges to my community, which is the City of New York, the fourth largest city in the world. A city of 8 million people, mostly living at sea level or just above, consisting of miles of floodable subways, a huge bay with significant shipping traffic, and the home to the world’s financial hub. The metro area also has miles of beaches and many residential areas just a short distance from the Atlantic Ocean. People everywhere became aware of the threat many days before it hit and began the process of what could be considered "risk management for extreme situations."
The models used to determine the path of the hurricane provided a kind of
Monte Carlo simulation to work from and the city officials focused their energy on ensuring the protection of the city's population. There was significant planning, lots of risk assessment, and the willingness to make
tough decisions about evacuations and how to manage mass transit.
Most residents of the city followed instructions, prepared their homes as best they could, evacuated when necessary and, when the storm had passed, emerged from their shelter to clean up and get back to life as usual. An interesting point here is that after a major storm like hurricane Irene or the blizzard we experienced this past winter, New Yorkers came together like a cohesive project team to help remove debris, offer assistance to those in need, and in some cases to share their generators to help households cope with the inconveniences of the post storm environment. A combination of well organized communication, early warnings, steady information from the news channels, and a cooperative city population helped minimize the effects of the storm and accelerated the recovery. It seems as if the worst situations bring out the best of New York.
The aftermath of the storm presented many challenges but the value of planning in advance, preparing the resources to meet the conditions the storm would introduce and the effectiveness of the communications process developed by city officials were significant factors in the ability of the city to return to business as usual.
Extreme weather conditions such as Hurricane Irene, the recent earthquake along the east coast, the numerous tornados in the mid-west and the tragedy of the Japan earthquake are all reminders that project management is essential at the local community, business, and government levels of any city or country. There is no question that disaster recovery and business continuity plans are a necessity and the development of these plans is directly related to project management. Unfortunately we can continue to expect and experience serious weather conditions and natural disasters. Project t managers will be needed to provide leadership, direction, and organization of the resources to meet the challenges ahead. On the whole, the leadership of NYC, New Jersey, and all of the states along the east coast demonstrated the importance of planning, communication, and preparation - in other words effective project management.