Emergencies like fire, flood and devastation from natural causes like hurricanes and tornadoes can happen - and have happened - here in Howard County. The goal of the Continuity of Operations Planning (COOP) initiative is to ensure that local businesses have effective plans in place to resume business operations quickly in the event of a business interruption from any emergency.

COOP is a bridge between the emergency event, or incident, and returning to normal business operations. While there is a varied amount of business-related emergency preparedness information available, COOP will provide a concise, highly-localized planning effort to Howard County businesses.  Version 1 of the planning documents were introduced at the March 2008 membership meeting of the Howard County Chamber of Commerce:

Version 2 of  the COOP materials have been modified to include some suggestions about pandemic flu planning and response.

Pandemic Flu Planning

An outbreak of pandemic flu would cause a major impact to business operations. Below is an outline to help business owners:

• Develop a Communication Plan
• Determine Critical Work
• Develop Human Relations Policies
• Develop Good Hygiene and Social Distancing Measures
• Determine Computing Requirement

Pandemic Flu Planning Document: