First there were the snowstorms this winter—dumping up to three feet of snow on areas that weren’t prepared for such amounts. Meanwhile, Florida had a long run of freezing temperatures, ruining some of its citrus and strawberry crops.

Then there was rain. For days, torrents of rain drowned the East coast. Thousands of people were without power as soggy tree roots, loosened by soft, muddy soil toppled onto power lines, homes and cars. What a mess.

If there was ever a time for solid contingency plans, it is now. An earthquake, tornado or hurricane generally come to mind with disaster planning, but sometimes it’s the unexpected flood, snow storm or prolonged winds that can bring down a business or municipality.

I’m reminded of a study done in 2009 by Agility Recovery Solutions that found small to medium sized companies woefully lacking in their contingency planning.

This doesn’t mean, however, that risk managers of large companies should start celebrating.

Yes, it was found that 90 percent of smaller companies with more than 100 employees spend less than a day per month maintaining their contingency plans; and yes, one in five spend no time on their plans.

But while 32 percent of larger companies spend one-to-10 days per month updating their contingency plans, a huge 44 percent spend less than one day per month.

Importantly, the survey found that the same old issues persist. One of the biggest is still getting buy-in from the C-level, regardless of a company’s size. Executives continue their hesitation in acknowledging the importance of contingency planning.

So this is a predicament for risk managers, still trying to get the attention of the C-suite. They know that should a disaster strike, the company or municipality might not be prepared.

This is a tough position to be in, especially since the risk manager most likely will be a target for blame if the organization is not adequately prepared.

What do risk managers need to do to get the attention this issue deserves?

Anyone?

Wow, an outer space conference.

I’ve gotten a few e-mails lately about a meeting coming up in Dubai called World Space Conference 2010, which sounds, well, cool. And it’s taking place in Dubai—which advertises on the Space Risk Forum Web site that it’s 75 degrees there, and sunny.

Think about it, a whole conference devoted to outer space. It’s “2001, A Space Odyssey,” “Star Wars,” “ET” and “Wall-E” combined!

I went to the Web site to check out the conference program—one can dream.

The three-day program opens up with registration, followed by brunch, a welcoming coffee and an introduction speech. Next is the keynote speaker, Ramin Khadem, Ph.D., chairman of the board of the International Space University (ISU) in Strasbourg, France, and chairman of Odyssey Moon. Odyssey Moon, I read on the company’s Web site, was formed to “capitalize on commercial opportunities created by renewed interests in exploring the Moon.”

The organization said it is developing a “commercial lunar robotic transportation service to meet the pent up and growing demand for low cost, frequent access to the Moon supporting science, exploration and commerce.” So that should be an interesting talk.

After that is a two-part panel discussion on technical developments in the space industry, and later a cocktail reception. Nice.

Reading about the Tuesday morning program, however, reality began to set in with a panel discussion on the impact of the economy on the space industry. Even more so with the afternoon agenda, consisting of a panel discussion on the legal and regulatory environment within the space industry. They are to discuss whether the “space insurance product” does what it is supposed to do; improving the flow of underwriting information; claims handling; and future space insurance policy needs.

On Wednesday a panel is to focus on various topics, including satellite servicing, future satellite applications and private commercial space flight.

So there you have it.

While in reality the conference seems a little, well, mundane, I’m reminding myself that this is the case with any industry, space included. There are risk management, safety and training issues, liability issues, and insurance coverage and claims issues.

And while the movies may seem a lot more intriguing when it comes to outer space, the truth is, who wants to see a movie about whether or not an insurance policy will cover the crash of the starship “Enterprise”? While some of us might find this interesting, most would not.

So perhaps my expectations for a space conference were a little too high. After all, we’re not talking about a Star Trek convention here—it’s a conference dealing with a highly regulated industry. And like every other industry it is impacted by the economic recession—although the Dubai location speaks “up-and-coming industry with means” loud and clear.

And hey, at least the weather is nice in Dubai. Come to think of it, I wonder what the weather is like on the moon right now.

It’s the little things that can make or break a career—and it often comes down to risk management, or the lack of it.

Who would have thought that a snow storm could cast such a shadow over the career of Washington , D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty? But when a storm dumps 22 inches on a city—the nation’s capital no less—that is not accustomed to such numbers, a good snow removal plan is critical. It appears, however, that the mayor didn’t adequately check into that aspect of D.C.’s preparedness before the snowfall.

As risk managers know, it’s the simple, most obvious things that are the easiest to overlook. For example, are there enough trucks? Are those trucks equipped to handle 22 inches of show? Are there enough drivers lined up to work around the clock—for days if necessary? Is there enough salt and salting equipment? Are the streets cordoned off so that they all get plowed?

“Well, it was such a heavy snow, why should the mayor be blamed?” you might ask. From media reports, snow plows repeatedly cleared some streets and not others. And at one point, 25 percent of the trucks were broken down, unable to handle the heavy snow. Scads of people still have their cars buried under snow—mountains of it. Yes, it was a record snowstorm, but not the first to ever hit the area and there was time to prepare.

The mayor made an appearance on “The Early Show” on CBS and from what I’ve read seemed to be making light of the situation. He promised the roads would be cleared over the long weekend, but this is little consolation to people who couldn’t get to work, or wherever they needed to go. And once all the streets are plowed, people will still have to dig out their cars from not only the snow piled around them, but also what the snowplows push to the side.

Like many in the “C-suite” in the private sector, perhaps some public sector bosses would also do well to pay attention to the recently aired reality series, “Undercover Boss.” In this show, a company’s leader works undercover in several lower level jobs within their organization to find out what is really going on, how workers are treated, how the public is treated and how they can make their organization stronger.

As for Mayor Fenty, people will forget any number of a candidate’s shortcomings when they vote. But memories like those from this snowstorm—that is still affecting so many on a personal level—will be difficult to overcome on election day.

Updates about the massive Toyota recall are coming out daily, sometimes hourly. There are more recalls and more concerns from drivers—a public relations nightmare of the worst kind. Not only are huge dollar amounts and a company’s reputation at stake, but potentially people’s lives.

Yesterday a statement in the media by Chris Gidez, director of risk management and crisis communications at Hill & Knowlton, a public relations firm, got my attention. He made this point: “Today companies have to be Johnny-on-the spot as soon as something hits,” he said. “We live in a Facebook world and you have to move fast to keep consumers informed.”

I contacted Mr. Gidez for an interview and posted a story on our Web site today at http://property-casualty.com. He made some good observations comparing the two cases.

In today’s world, for example, the Tylenol case, for years seen as the “gold standard” in risk management, might not fare as well. Tylenol waited about a week before recalling product from store shelves. In today’s world of blogs and Internet news sites—which means reporters often are churning out news 24/7—a week is an eternity. Organizations need to have a plan of action in place well in advance, detailing who is a spokesperson and the types of things that need to be said.

He observed that in our digital world, where even deleted e-mails can be resurrected, anything that went on within the Tylenol organization before the recall would have been discovered and most likely leaked.

While it appeared initially that Toyota has done a good job of responding, the auto giant is now coming under fire for not coming forward soon enough with potentially damaging information.

To make things worse, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood caused a stir on Wednesday when he advised that a Toyota car owner “stop driving it. Take it to a Toyota dealer because they believe they have a fix for it.” He later recanted the statement after Toyota shares began to drop, modifying it to, “if you own one of these cars or if you’re in doubt, take it to the dealer and they’re going to fix it.”

In the digital age, Mr. Gidez said, companies need to keep in mind that not only does word travel fast because of technology that didn’t exist years ago, but that details will be leaked, pundits will discuss every aspect of a situation, every crumb of information will be blasted over the Internet and blogs will be written.

We live in the “Google Age,” he said.

While the company will survive, what lies ahead are years of court cases and class action lawsuits and a “new normal,” for Toyota, Mr. Gidez observed.

You never know what you’ll learn from TV. While flipping through the channels recently, I became engrossed in a show about zoo risk management—leave it to me to find a risk management program on Animal Planet.

As you might recall, in 2007 on Christmas Day at closing time in a San Francisco zoo, a teenage boy was killed by a tiger—named Tatiana—who escaped from her enclosure. Another boy and his injured brother tried to get help and were also nearly mauled. This was the first deadly animal escape in American zoo history. The tiger enclosure, a grotto with bushes and a high fence, was considered escape-proof.

Tigers are considered to be one of the most dangerous animals in a zoo. They are endangered, with only 4,000 or so left in the wild, disappearing at a rate of one per day, according to the show. In fact, more Siberian tigers live in zoos than in the wild—only about 250 are left in the wild. These are sad facts, but they show the importance of these animals and their lure to zoo visitors.

Zoos, I learned, as part of their accreditation with the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, are required to perform annual drills—with the goal of always recapturing an animal unless a human life is at stake. The association has a 67-page manual which covers every aspect of zoo keeping and risk management.

As is the case with risk managers in any industry, risk managers of zoos must think of anything that could conceivably go wrong and develop a plan, just in case. They must look not only at the animal enclosures, but at the nature of each type of animal and what it is capable of.

Contingency planning for zoos involves creating a scenario, such as an escaped cheetah, and then responding to that scenario. The response team is equipped with a medical team and anything else that could be needed, such as tranquilization darts, although I learned that these darts are not always as responsive as believed. The darts can take five to 10 minutes to be effective, and sometimes they don’t work at all. The real danger is the unforeseen event and there is always something to be learned from a drill.

In this case the inconceivable did happen. This large, dangerous tiger, perhaps egged-on by the three teens that late afternoon (a partial shoe-print was found on top of the iron fence), jumped the high fence of her enclosure to get at them. She killed one teen and then stalked the other two, who were trying to get help. They called 9-1-1, which responded within minutes. Once on the scene, authorities found that the tiger had the two teens cornered.

Studies of the incident after the fact revealed that the first-rate care tigers receive may have contributed to the situation—again something that would be extremely difficult to recognize and plan for in advance. These large cats eat excellent diets and get a lot of physical exercise, which in effect turns them into athletes.

A large, athletic cat housed in an older zoo exhibit could have been the unforeseen element leading to the tiger’s escape. After the tragedy, according to the program, the tiger exhibit was closed and the outside area completely rebuilt. Among the renovations, foliage along the perimeter was removed, a higher fence was installed and an electrified hot-wire added to the fence.

This situation illustrates, to me, one of the biggest dangers of risk management–looking around the corner for potential risks, rather than going back and examining the situation with fresh eyes.

Risk managers, does this story sound any alarms?

Because I’ve worked as a reporter for the past 20 years or so, I’m used to asking the questions. That’s why it’s been such a switch for me to change hats off the job, where I’ve recently taken up the roles of both public relations rep and the person being interviewed by the press.

I’ve always been interested in the outdoors and more recently in birds and so I became involved with our local Audubon Society chapter. Last year I was elected to chair the publicity committee. Until recently this has consisted mainly of putting together and distributing brochures and flyers to publicize events. It also has meant working with the local newspaper to establish contacts.

But things really started to heat up when I got a call recently from a reporter at the newspaper. It turns out that a half-dozen or so bald eagles had taken up residence in the woods adjacent to a local shopping center and word had reached the newspaper. Since I was established as the Audubon group’s contact, the reporter called me with questions about why these very large birds would choose such a spot, so close to cars and people.

She interviewed someone from our organization, but still had questions. I made some frantic calls and lined up another board member for the reporter to interview. The result was a nice, page-one, above-the-fold article two days later.

That’s when the fun really began. I got a call that a TV news station was doing a story on the eagles and also wanted to interview someone from our organization. No one else was available and I was on vacation that day, so I volunteered.

I’ve had some on-camera TV experience, but it’s been quite a while. So I made a list of the dos and don’ts I could remember and prepared to put them to use again.

In a couple of hours I met the reporter at the site and answered her questions on-camera. The interview went well (and was short, thank goodness) and aired that evening.

It later occurred to me that as interviewer during my day job and as volunteer PR rep and interviewee on my own time, I can offer some tips for anyone preparing for a television interview—some of these points are applicable to print medium as well. Here are my suggestions:

• Find out in advance what the reporter wants to know, or needs to flesh out the story

• Ask yourself possible questions and rehearse the answers

• Try to take an interesting, unique approach if possible

• Think of any other possible related questions that could be asked

• Plan what to wear and keep it simple. No crazy plaids or neon colors

• Since your face is what will be featured, wear a flattering color (but not too bright) near your face, such as a tie or scarf. For example, since I was to be interviewed outdoors and would wear a black coat, I tied a bright tartan scarf around my neck

• Ask where you should be looking during the interview—at the reporter or the camera

• Remind yourself, often, to smile.

Recently I wrote about my sister’s saga when trying to her her home repaired for water-damaged floors and carpets. Because the house was being refinanced, the bank holding the mortgage took the insurer’s check and was wouldn’t release it (see previous blog). When the matter dragged on with no results, my sister became frantic. She contacted her insurance adjuster, Debbie Birkmeyer, who took over.

The adjuster, AKA “Wonder Woman,” obtained the check, placing it in my sister’s hands so work could finally begin.

Because of the extent of the repairs, everything on the bottom floor of the house was put in storage, meaning my sister and her two children had been staying in a hotel. What I didn’t realize, however, is how long they had been out of their house—six weeks in all!

My sister explained that once work finally began, the weekend was approaching, meaning the house wouldn’t be finished until the following week. Here again her adjuster interceded, knowing how desperate the kids were to sleep in their own beds. Ms. Birkmeyer brought in a larger crew that worked around the clock over the weekend. By Monday the work was done. She even arranged for reimbursement for the hotel tab.

And that’s what I call service.

My sister was so overwhelmed by her adjuster’s above-the-call-of-duty performance that she e-mailed a note to Allstate, her property insurer. As a result, it’s been confirmed by an Allstate spokesman, that the California property claims adjuster, Ms. Birkmeyer, was recognized for her outstanding customer service. Way to go!

Relieved to have her family back in their home, my sister summed it up: “It’s not about the money,” she said. “It’s about being safe. After six weeks out of the house, the kids were suffering.”

Great minds think alike. That was my first reaction, reading Maureen Dowd’s column in the esteemed New York Times. Maureen echoed my sentiments on the Tiger Woods debacle, expressed in my NoRiskZone blog on Friday, Dec. 4.

In her column on Sunday titled “The Lady and the Tiger,” Ms. Dowd discussed the public relations failures of Tiger Woods and Desiree Rogers, social secretary for President Obama. Rogers is at the center of a controversy involving alleged White House party crashers, Michaele and Tareq Salahi.

Of Woods and Rogers, she said, “trouble trespassed into their privileged worlds and both responded the same foolish way.”

Ms. Dowd continued, “They presumptuously put themselves beyond authority and, despite all the public relations support on earth, broke the first rule of scandal: Don’t stonewall. Admit your mistake before others piece together the embarrassing facts. Reflexive clampdowns don’t work in an era when privacy is passé and when some media outlets are out there giving cash incentives for true confessions and fake reality.”

You can read Maureen Dowd’s column at this link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/06/opinion/06dowd.html?_r=1&th&emc=th

If there’s a lesson to be learned from Tiger Woods’ recent personal disaster, it’s that things happen that cannot be planned for—and that if something potentially explosive is uncovered, it should not be hidden or kept from the media.

This is exactly what Tiger Woods did after his car crash in the middle of the night. He basically hid in his house for days, refusing to talk to the police, let alone the press. The result was wild speculation, including an online story that his wife had chased him with a golf club and had broken out his car window before the crash.

The topic of dealing with the media during a crisis has been covered by National Underwriter at several conference seminars, including RIMS and PRIMA. The message is to be up-front and honest as soon as a situation is uncovered. Hiding something only leads to wild speculation and eventually can ruin an individual’s or a company’s reputation.

The most commonly asked question I’ve heard is “Why?” Why would someone who has everything risk it all? Of all the public figures, Tiger Woods seemed to have a superb handle on his career, which includes major endorsements and international tournaments. His image has been that of a talented, “squeaky clean” nice guy who kept his cool. Now we discover that like many others, much of that image was a lie. And like others in this predicament, Tiger Woods didn’t seem to realize what he was risking until it was too late.

As with other sports celebrities, politicians, large and small screen-stars and company CEOs, Tiger Woods appeared to believe he was above being caught. He even left a trail of text messages and voice mails as evidence. And now that former girlfriends are coming out of the woodwork, reports are that he is writing checks to shut them up—and to keep his wife around.

Perhaps he could have taken a PR lesson from David Letterman, allegedly being threatened by blackmail for indiscretions with staff members. It might have been easy to just pay the guy off, but Letterman quickly circumvented the issue by addressing it on national television. Within a few weeks the whole thing had pretty much blown over.

As risk managers know, some risks just can’t be anticipated. When a problem is discovered, however, it needs to be dealt with—not swept under the rug in hopes it will go away. It may be years down the road, as was the case with Hugh Grant and Eddie Murphy, but it will surface.

And because not every risk can be assessed, a good risk manager knows to have contingency plans in place for dealing with a disaster—including who will address the media.

Obviously, Tiger Woods did not apply basic risk management precautions to his own company. While he took care of his golf game and made sure his image was up to par, the very foundation of his company was eroding.

There are risks and then there are risks. Imagine having to manage a room full of beetles (yes, insects), in a world-class museum filled with artifacts these beetles could make short work of.

That’s just one of the risks the department of ornithology at the American Museum of Natural History in NYC has to deal with. I was fortunate to be part of a group treated to a behind the scenes tour there recently.

I’ve written about art gallery and museum risks in the past, where valuable or priceless items must be protected from fire, water, mold, theft, you name it. But the risks handled by experts at the American Museum of Natural History encompass these and more.

The museum houses one of the largest collections of bird specimens in the world, including skins and skeletons. “Skins” are the bird’s skin, carefully removed with feathers, beak and feet intact, and stuffed with cotton. Many of the deceased birds are donated by zoos, preserves and private citizens.

The museum’s collection of bird skins goes back to the mid 1800’s and contains some now extinct birds. In fact, I was able to see what an Ivory Billed Woodpecker (possibly not extinct, because of a reported sighting in Louisiana) and a Passenger Pigeon really looked like.

The value of all this is that there are representations of virtually every bird on the planet since the 1800s. What’s more, changes in various species—and environmental changes—can be tracked by comparing the birds’ physical characteristics and location. Scientists and researchers from all over the world apply to do research there.

And as for the risks, there are about a million of them. They are feathered, delicate and very vulnerable to insects as well as temperature and humidity changes. The risk of the stored bird skins being devoured by insects is solved the old fashioned, low-tech way, with mothballs. Opening a drawer containing of skins in the museum’s large storage area provides very strong evidence of the moth balls—grandma’s attic never smelled like this!

One risk was surprising. The bones of many birds are cleaned and kept for research—they show the structure of the bird in ways that the outward feathers and skin can’t. In the old days, we were told, these bones were painstakingly cleaned by hand and then dried. They ended up a light brown color, because not every bit of muscle and fascia could be removed.

Now, there is a “new” way of cleaning these bones. Again, about as low-tech as it gets, but the method works better than anything else—hence, the large room full of beetles. The beetles’ job is to eat any morsel left on the bones, which are cleaned to a pristine white shade.

But because of the obvious risk to the rest of the museum, the beetles have to be contained, using several precautions including a special door. And to make double-sure the insects don’t escape, a thick gel-like substance is applied frequently around the door’s opening.

This visit to the museum brought home the huge variety of risks that have to be dealt with in the many different types of industries, organizations and locations. Risk managers have to look at the most basic risks—the things that could take down a business—and figure out how best to deal with them.

According to Wikipedia:

The Department of Ornithology maintains one of the largest collections of bird specimens in the world. The research collections of the Department number nearly one million specimens; these include skins, skeletons, alcoholic preparations, eggs, nests, and tissue samples for molecular biochemical studies. A large number of type specimens and rare or extinct species are also found in its collections. The specimens represent all continents and oceans and nearly 99 percent of all species. The Department has an ornithology library for research use and maintains laboratories for specimen preparation, skeletal and anatomical analyses and dissections, and a modern molecular laboratory for DNA sequencing.