When the Southern California wildfires in October threatened to close Pat & Oscar's locations throughout the San Diego region, a solid emergency plan kept the chain together.
The fires closed locations in the areas of Carmel Valley and Carmel Mountain Ranch, displaced 40 percent of the chain's management team and 70 percent of the corporate-management team. But they didn't destroy the company's ability to effectively operate and communicate during a time of crisis.
Until about three years ago, there was no solid disaster-recovery plan among the pile of Pat & Oscar's operational manuals.
"It was more of emergency plans for different scenarios," said Brian Horne, marketing director for Pat & Oscar's. "After a few fires and earthquakes, we knew we needed some type of disaster readiness plan in place."
Company executives began to discuss what their disaster-recovery program would look like. Horne said the safety of company personnel came first, but a plan also was needed for moving food from one location to another in accordance with the chain's food-safety procedures.
"From a restaurant standpoint, you have to be prepared to move food from one restaurant to another safely and quickly, and keep the levels of safety you have," he said.
Expect the unexpected
While no one likes to think about the devastation a disaster can create, fires, earthquakes and tornados do happen. According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the number of declared major disasters nearly doubled in the 1990s compared to the previous decade.
To help companies better prepare for a disaster, natural or otherwise, the department has created Ready Business, an initiative that outlines emergency measures business owners and managers can take if an unexpected event occurs. Ready Business recommendations reflect the Emergency Preparedness and Business Continuity Standard developed by the National Fire Protection Association and endorsed by the American National Standards Institute and the Department of Homeland Security.
"The irony of (emergency planning) is you want to be prepared for something, but it's not like you want to practice being prepared for it," said Andrew Hatzis, vice president of operations and training for ADIR Restaurants Inc., master franchisor of Pollo Campero. "You want to be prepared for something, but at the same time, you hope it's never something that happens to you."
And even when you are prepared, things can quickly change.
Pat & Oscar's executives had a plan in place for moving food from one location to another that included the help of their supplier. But when the recent Southern California fires led to the evacuation of the supplier's local warehouse, the company had to re-evaluate and re-strategize that aspect of its emergency procedure.
"That was one piece of the plan we had to tweak going forward," Horne said. "Part of our readiness plan is having back-up options. If we have issues with one supply chain, we have other suppliers we can switch to."
While moving food is important, getting the correct information to corporate and store-level employees plays a more crucial role.
"A lot of people report different information and (companies) end up making decisions based on misinformation," Horne said. "The first piece is to work with local government or city officials to understand how they are structured to distribute information. If people in the organization are directed to specific areas, you can much more effectively distribute information."
Companies need to remember people should always come first.
"At the end of the day, we're a service organization that sells food. With natural disasters of any type, you've got to remember people are still your No. 1 focus," Horne said.
The three R's
When drafting a disaster plan, organizations must realize it is a work in progress that requires constant reading, reviewing and re-establishing routines.
Horne said Pat & Oscar's reviews its disaster-recovery plan at least every six months, and Hatzis recommends a quarterly or biannual review as well.
"The reality is every six months we have to go back to our readiness plan for one reason or another," Horne said. "Everyone knows what they're doing and has time to react. What we've learned with fires and rolling blackouts and other issues is you have to effectively make a decision and communicate that down quickly and correctly. Once we make a decision, everybody has a specific role with what they communicate to restaurants, our team, customers and the supply chain."
Organizations should not have to tear apart their emergency plan every time disaster strikes, but companies should at least have a stable plan foundation along with aspects they can practice.
"You want to be optimistic and hope for the best, but you plan for the worst," Hatzis said. "I think no matter where you are, there's always an opportunity something could happen you're not prepared for."
Click here for more information on Ready Business. 
