The heartwarming story of the Chilean Miners rescue this week has provided a much needed distraction and fillip during a rather gloomy economic period and demonstrates the amazing resilience of human beings to resist and recover from significant shocks and traumas.

We won’t know for sure what the long term affects of their ordeal will be on their physical and emotional well-being but we can imagine that there are difficult and challenging times ahead for the group once the media frenzy is over.

I remember for my own part how strange it was returning home after the Gulf War in 2003 after spending a similar amount of time in my own closed environment – aboard a Royal Navy warship for several months – and am keenly aware of the increased number of ex-servicemen and others that suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) caused by warfighting and emergency situations around the world; often in spite of well-managed returns to normality.

We didn’t suffer anything like the traumas that these chilean miners have faced or the constant darkenss and high temperatures – and the food was marginally better due to the “skill” of the Royal Navy chefs(!) but I’m certain all of us have noticed behavioural changes and thoughts returning to some of the more challenging events we experienced.

Whilst there are many positive lessons to be learned from the successful rescue, we must not forget that the accident was a result of poor practice and inadequate safety management.  That these miners got out alive is a blessing and we will all remain grateful to the skillful, tenacious and creatively intelligent leaders and teams that mande the rescue possible – we’ll also probably enjoy the movie when it comes out.

For the miners themselves, it will be important to undergo “de-compression” as a group – which seems to be happening (although one of the group has already returned home).  No-one else quite understands what they have been through except their fellows and they will all need to support each other for several years as they come to terms with their ordeal.

Having recently watch a documentary on the World War 2 bombing of Coventry and seen, now retired, men and women break down in tears as they recalled the traumatic night and went right back into their terrified, childish thoughts and visions over 50 years later we can be assured of several learning points:

• The human spirit is strong and people can survive and live relatively normal lives after a deeply traumatic event
• People affected by significant traumas need aftercare for the rest of their lives – to various degrees
• The more people that share the traumatic event, the bigger the support network and lower the risk of isolation and despair
• People never forget what happened.  The brain stores every emotion, smell, sight and sound for life

We owe it to ourselves, our employees, our communities and business partners to continually improve security,  safety, risk management and emergency plans to minimise damage to people and the environment.

In the warm afterglow of a happy ending and lots of valuable PR for those that helped resolve the crisis let us not forget that similar events often result in mass casulaties and ruined lives.  Prevention is better than cure…

The recent spill of toxic sludge in Hungary has already caused considerable harm to people and the environment but it’s affects will last for years.  The event – which threatens several countries’ water supplies – was reported here by the BBC several days and is still ongoing.

As a case study in civil protection it is likely now to attract considerable attention from those involved in emergency planning and business continuity management.

The first question of course must be how this volume of toxic sludge was allowed to build up in the first place and what measures Hungary has in place for the control of major accident hazards (COMAH).

The second question concerns what measures Hungary has in place to prevent such “dam-burst” incidents in future.  Has Hungary (like UK) carried out a mapping of critical national infrastructure to determine potential vulnerabilities and put plans in place to upgrade or repair legacy structures before they fail – or risk failure?  Could the next incident be a collapsing road bridge?

In terms of the actual emergency response, it seems the country has done relatively well given the scale and complexity of the incident: hazardous materials, boundary issues, criminal investigations, deaths and casualties – as well as international media attention have all been managed adequately and the government has been seen to respond in scale and with speed – unlike the USA in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

Of course being seen to dam the sludge and cart the toxic mud offsite is one thing – actually managing the safe disosal of contaminated soil and materials is an entirely different matter – and unless arrangements have been put in place for such a contingency (or environmental legislation is slack) it will be very difficult to find a suitable storage and processesing facility to render this material safe.

In terms of recovering the community, there is a far greater problem.  Once people have been affected by a disaster like this – and lost a loved one or had a child or family member harmed – they lose all trust in the authorities that are meant to protect them and no amount of platitudes and reassurance can make them want to return to their former homes – at least in the short term.

And what about rebuilding the damaged aluminium plant?  What are the chances of that company getting permission to re-establish operations at the same site?  Slim to none?  If local residents somehow agree to forgive and forget (which is unlikely unless they desperately need the work) the local authorities that have been embarrassed on a global scale may still be reluctant (or at least slow) to grant permission for continued operationof the plant on their patch.  Indeed, the government may wish to consider the safety of all similar operations across their territory – as we have seen with deepwater drilling following the deepwater horizon disaster.

Sadly this latest disaster is one of a series this year and we are likely to see far more until civil protection and business continuity management processes are fully adopted and embedded by all nations.

This short video discusses some of the environmental and strategic consequences of similar crises and illustrates why it is so important for companies and governments to control risks and put tested plans in place for crisis management and disaster recovery.

More detail on the incident can be found here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11481740

With the painful memories of Deepwater Horizon still firmly etched in the minds of many, local companies and emergency responders have been patting themselves complacently on the back and spinning out mutually supportive stories about how well they are all prepared for an oil spill in the solent – particularly in wake (ouch!)  of the recent successful exercise to capture a few dustbin fulls of oranges (simulating oil) in the dockyard on a nice sunny day with a benign sea state in broad daylight.

We are assured that the Solent area is fully prepared for an oil spill; that the risk of it ever happening is insignificant and that we have most of Europe’s stores to handle an oil spill right here.

Herein lies one of the perils of emergency planning and exercising emergency plans.

Often these exercises are developed and executed to passify lobbyists or concerned citizens who in many cases lack the expertise to know whether or not they are being sold a “pig in a poke” and they are hurriedly put together by a handful of over-pressed staff from the emergency services and local authorities with little or no funding and a short, narrow window to carry them out.

The aim is of course to test the multi-agency plans that have been carefully drafted by the emergency planning staff (or someone they used to work with that they hired to draft it) and provide evidence to show their managers that they are doing a marvellous job – and therefore should not be targeted when staff are chopped this year.

Ideally, they’d also like some nice photos and a bit on the 6 O-clock news that they can show at conferences, or to their mates, and they are happy to allow for a bit of helpful PR for the private companies whose products they use and demonstrate – after all, they paid for the biscuits during the 3 months of planning meetings so that’s only fair

I know, I’m being unkind and cynical, but I speak from experience; and having seen TV footage of the latest “Mickey Mouse” SOLSPILL type exercise with a few dozen seasick civilians sunning themselves on a couple of comfy boats whilst someone streamed a soume booms before popping back into the office to do some “proper work” (clearing a load of bureaucratic bumf from their in box) my confidence in Hampshire County Council’s ability to manage a major oilspill incident is not enhanced.

You see, the problem with emergencies is that they don’t happen when the weather is nice and it’s daylight.  They happen when it’s the depths of winter with little daylight and a gale force wind when everyone’s at the office party or on early leave with their pager (if they had one) turned off.  Unless you practice for this sort of scenario you are only kidding yourself that you can do it.

Imagine how much more difficult it is to lay the boom in a heavy sea state with half the crew vomiting overboard or horizontal below and refusing to go on deck whilst the other half struggle with harnesses – finding out that they aren’t the right design and can’t be clipped on and off with cold hands, aren’t long enough, need a short and long tail etc?

What about the performance of the booms themselves?  Can they cope with the heavy sea state or does the oil simply wash underneath?

Can you find the oil at all?  Can it be contained or does the weather simply break it up and disperse it faster than you can find it – depositing it onto the precious shore that the recent exercise purported to protect?

Does the barrier stay connected or do sections part in the stresses and strains of the sea?

Can you deploy the dispersants and detergents effectively?  If the plan is to use helicopters can they still fly in that weather?  What happens if you have a man overboard or a serious injury?  Can they be rescued and taken ashore or treated for hypothermia in time?

Can people communicate on the upper deck in a howling wind wearing hooded foul weather gear?  Can they see what they are doing in the dark?  How long can they stay on deck before their hands or bodies get too cold – do you have a plan for watch changeovers if the incident continues for several days?  How do you keep an accurate narrative of events for the subsequent public inquiry or court case?

If you’ve read this far, you can hopefully see my point.  It does no-one credit to convince and reassure the public and shareholders that everything is under control when the reality is that a robust OILSPILL plan for the Solent shore is a long way off.

With another exercise planned for October the 28th, let’s hope it’s more realistic and challenging that what has gone before.

As Suvarov and Admiral Nelson both knew, if you want to succeed in a crisis, you must train hard if  to fight easy!  Let’s hope local Councillors get the message and provide the correct levels of funding for effective multi-agency training and exercising instead of building more speed bumps and LBGT forums…