Here at PR News, our mantra is, 'Lessons Learned.' Whatever the storyline - the Sisyphean battle for measurement, a brand revival or a new effort to boost online
communications - we try hard to put into context the best practices that will help readers enhance the value of their PR efforts.
The Category 5 hurricane, which covered 90,000 square miles by federal disaster estimates, has killed hundreds if not thousands of people in Louisiana, Mississippi and
Alabama; and it has left thousands homeless/jobless and scattered throughout the country. Countless businesses (and the courts) in the region have been dislocated (or drowned
out). And most of New Orleans, one America's most beloved and unique cities, has been submerged in a toxic-laced bath that now threatens emergency-response workers who are
sweeping the area for the last voluntary evacuees.
Federal costs of recovery are expected to climb well-past $100 billion, according to the New York Times, while the economic, financial, social and cultural
consequences will last for years. At press time, the full contours of the tragedy - the severe flaws in natural-disaster planning and the bleeding of funds designed to shore up
New Orleans' levees, to cite just two examples - were just starting to come to light. The actions by state and federal authorities, or lack thereof, most likely contributed to the
death toll in the Crescent City, which bore the brunt of the disaster.
For PR pros, dealing with the day-to-day challenge of trying to rehabilitate a company after a fit of corporate chicanery in the C-suite or of assuaging consumer concerns
after launching what turns out to be a faulty product simply can't compare with dealing with the aftermath of what looks to be the worst natural disaster in U.S. history.
"Biblical-like hurricane" isn't in the crisis playbook.
Of course, corporate donations are pouring into the devastated areas while the entertainment and sports industries already have produced several events to benefit Katrina's
victims. But philanthropy should not be confused with the real pains companies and marcom execs must take to establish clear and delineable lines of communication when confronting
a crisis.
As evidenced by the woeful lack of communications among federal, state and local authorities immediately after Katrina hit, centralizing the decision-making process in crisis
planning can be deadly. Aside from instituting more matrix-like plans to respond to crises, PR pros need to create (and maintain) back-up plans for back-up plans and minimize the
red tape. Crisis simulations, which now are conducted maybe once or twice a year, should be run much more frequently. Indeed, if the folks at the tippy-top refuse to so, then the
onus is on communications execs to, once and for all, start thinking about the unthinkable.
Like a Swiss watch, Washington already has started to play politics with Katrina. Despite the sad display, it's important for marcom execs to realize that, if any good is to
come out of such misery, it's figuring out what precisely went wrong in the crisis response rather than expending time and energy on looking for scapegoats. What's more, for PR
managers and directors, enabling top managers to shift blame to subordinates will only complicate the efforts that are needed to get the company back on track following a major
derailment.
The hope here is that Katrina puts an end to what can often be Corporate America's fetish for denial and its failure of imagination. Soon after the world started to learn
about the havoc wreaked throughout the Gulf Coast, it was widely reported that, in 2002, the New Orleans Times-Picayune ran a five-part series on the city structural
deficiencies, concluding a catastrophe was "a matter of when, not if."
However, for all of our recommendations, we may be just whistling in the dark. On the fourth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, the media continue to (frequently) report
that many companies still are ill-prepared for a major crisis that originates outside of their four walls. In Katrina's wake, PR pros could certainly do worse than to try and
change corporate behavior, as it relates to crises, from a reactive mentality to one of preparedness.
Contact: Matthew Schwartz is editor of PR News. He can be reached at 212.621.4875, [email protected].