By: Brandon KelloggDeltona, FL (July 13, 2011) –

The West Volusia Regional Chamber Government Affairs Committee and the City of Deltona are sponsoring the Hurricane Preparedness Expo to be held on Tuesday, July 26th, from 5pm – 8pm at Deltona City Hall, 2345 Providence rd., Deltona.

Emergency Management officials from the City of Deltona, Volusia County, State of Florida and Federal Government will be on site to discuss preparedness and safety issues, and after the fact needs.

Additionally, local business leaders from various industries will discuss insurance, roofing, electrical, and plumbing information and more!

The Atlantic hurricane season officially began June 1 and ends November 30. the National Hurricane Center predicts that it will be an above average summer with 12 to 18 named storms, 6 to 10 hurricanes and 3 to 6 major hurricanes, which are Category 3 and above.

The Hurricane Preparedness Expo is FREE and open to the public. For details call:  386-490-4606.

H ere on the high plains, we certainly have our share of weather extremes.

Everything from thunderstorms to tornadoes, blizzards to hailstorms and everything in between are fairly regular visitors to our corner of the world.

Some people just try not to think about these potential natural disasters. Others, however, have made it their life’s work to think about them.

These folks not only think about the possibility of disaster striking, but they work to figure out how to survive such an event, how it would impact an entire community, and what the community can do to prepare so these effects can be overcome.

Last week, as part of the city of Fort Morgan’s development of a disaster mitigation plan, one such expert met with local business leaders to discuss how they can be prepared for disasters and how important it is to have plans to react if the worst comes to pass.

As Greg Moser of the Center for International Policy Research pointed out during this local workshop, the mindset of many people is that bad things will not happen to them — and if bad things do happen, someone will take care of them.

That would be nice if it were true.

The fact is that in a disaster situation it’s very possible that the emergency responders we rely on may not be able to respond. It could take hours and conceivably days, weeks or months to recover from such an event.

The impact on local businesses is one thing many of us probably don’t think about when we consider how we can prepare for disaster. And considering the light turnout for last week’s session, many business owners and managers probably don’t think about it much, either.

Moser said the role private businesses can play in dealing with and recovering from a disaster is crucial. So it’s important to the community as a whole that businesses have plans for how they will survive and continue in the aftermath.

Disasters are not limited to what drops from the sky, of course. Any number of calamities of varying degrees could happen at any time.

A break in the miles-long water pipeline feeding Fort Morgan could deprive the city of potable water for a long period. An explosion or fire could consume any number of buildings. A devastating flood could strand the city.

These are not pleasant things to contemplate, but contemplate them we should — for ourselves, our businesses and each other.

The city is doing the right thing in developing disaster plans, which it is doing for the city government, emergency response agencies and other functions, and also for reaching out to include the business community in the discussion.

Those business people who took the time to attend last week’s workshop should be commended, and we hope more will get involved.

As Moser said, private enterprise is vital to the healing of a community in the wake of disaster. We hope we never have to find that out the hard way.