The earthquake in Haiti gives rise to questions about emergency preparedness in general for those traveling to third world countries. Although there is little tourism in Haiti, there is a great deal in the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola. The Caribbean in general is an active seismic area, and travelers to Caribbean islands put themselves at risk from earthquake, tsunami, flooding and severe tropical storms.

The results of the earthquake in Haiti are predictable. There is no communication and the transportation infrastructure is compromised. No one can get calls in or out of Haiti, and even calls to the Dominican Republic are exceedingly slow. Both cell and landline phone services are either out of service or severely compromised. I expect it will soon become hard to find potable water in Port Au Prince. The environment is dusty, hot and humid, with little safe shelter due to the risk of aftershocks and fire.

What should travelers do to prepare for these risks? The first step is to contemplate them: how many people go on a trip with no thought to the safety and security issues that they commonly consider at home? There is a broad range of issues one should consider prior to travel, including medical care, road safety and crime, to name a few. Specific to natural disaster, we advise clients to prepare for a few contingencies:

Loss of communication: people traveling in the third world should travel with satellite phones. They are the only reliable form of communication following a real emergency. Even cities will have overloaded cell and local circuits, but satellite telephone is a means of keeping in touch on the go.

Clean water: water safety in urban areas is a rare but hugely dangerous issue. When supplies of bottled water either dry up or lose their integrity, travelers risk diseases such as widespread dysentery, particularly cholera. It is therefore useful to pack a water treatment kit to insure that you can convert water from whatever source into drinking water and avoid dangerous dehydration. Use a filter rather than IR purification to minimize risks from inorganic substances that may be in the water.

Lighting: in my earlier career as a Secret Service agent, I found no tool as useful as a good flashlight. Its uses are limitless, but include signaling, evacuation and crime prevention. Travelers should get a good LED flashlight with a clip and carry it on their person or in their handbag.

Air safety: N95 masks protect against a wide variety of problems, but in this case can permit the user to breathe more easily in the midst of dust and other contaminants soiling the air. A smoke mask is also a good idea, and both masks can fit easily into a small luggage compartment or pocket.

This equipment takes up little space and may never be used, but when needed these items can prove essential.

The earthquakes in Haiti and Chile, as well as other recent natural disasters, raise questions regarding disaster preparedness for travelers. Much thought is given to man-made disasters such as terrorism, but relatively little to natural and unpredictable catastrophes. It is important for the corporate security manager or other c-level executives to embrace a holistic approach to risk mitigation including natural disasters and their results.

In the recent earthquakes, steps such as redundant communication systems and basic survival supplies could have helped travelers tremendously. Issuing satellite phones, like we do for Insite’s clients travelling to remote and less developed locales, would have helped tremendously in Haiti for example. Similarly, preparing travelers with basic medical supplies and the means of contacting a physician can also be of great help in emergencies where resources are stretched. Our partnership with World Clinic (www.worldclinic.com) provides our clients with a concierge medical solution that is prepared for disasters like the earthquakes of 2010 and other disasters we’ve witnessed over the past few years.

Lastly, where possible, security advisors should consider things such as building safety, construction standards and building codes in recommending hotel choices for travelers, as a variety of emergencies, such as fire, flood or earthquake, may make these judgments very important.  Prior to the Haitian earthquake we would have scoped out the hotels our clients were planning on staying in to ensure the soundness of their construction and would have planned for and provided evacuation planning.

Travel security goes well beyond the hiring of a driver or a physical security presence when traveling overseas; it requires a deeper level of thinking and preparation than can usually be handled in-house. Working with experts in this field can help mitigate problems when they arise thanks to proper planning and the ability to execute in difficult situations.

Has anyone recently dealt with a travel emergency? Be it foreign or domestic? Feel free to post and discuss!

Travel Security: What to Pack to Survive a Natural Disaster

Secure travel plans often consider kidnapping or terrorism. But what about natural events like the recent quakes in Haiti and Chile? Chris Falkenberg has advice on what travelers should pack for the best chance of surviving a disaster

By Joan Goodchild, Senior Editor, CSO

March 02, 2010

Security directors and CSOs are often responsible for devising secure travel plans for the employees in their organization.Preparation often includes education, training, and perhaps even a counter-surveillance program.But what about iodine pills and a satellite phone? If you ask Chris Falkenberg, founder and president of Insite Security, all travel plans should also include certain items that can be invaluable in the event of an unforeseen natural disaster (Also see: 4 Steps Security Can Take to Prevent Kidnapping).

According to Falkenberg, the 8.8 earthquake in Chile, coupled with the 7.0 Haitian quake, has made the issue of travel security more important than ever. Insite, a United States-based security and risk management firm, advises corporations and high-net-worth individuals.

“Much thought is given to man-made disasters such as terrorism, but relatively little to natural and unpredictable catastrophes,” said Falkenberg. “It is important for the corporate security manager or other c-level executives to embrace a holistic approach to risk mitigation including natural disasters and their results.”

Falkenberg spoke with CSO about the variables organizations should consider, and the items they should pack, when traveling, particularly in the developing world or politically unstable regions.

CSO: You think these recent earthquakes have really brought to light the importance of secure travel plans that consider not just man-made security challenges, but natural ones. Why is that?

Falkenberg: I think the issue of travel preparedness is one that has to incorporate a broad area of risks. What usually happens in a security department is a great focus on man-made events; a great focus on terrorism, a great focus on crime. There is much less of a focus on natural disasters. That is probably because in some cases they are easy to avoid and also they are so rare. But it’s very valuable for travelers to think about what happens if they are off the grid for a few days and really have to make it by themselves, staying healthy and getting out and to a place of safety. That is something that both Chile and Haiti underscore: If you’re responsible for travel security and travel safety, it’s important to prepare travelers to be able to fend for themselves for 72 hours. That, in my view, is the story of these earthquakes. It’s not only the bad guy down the hallway or the bad guy with a truck bomb, it’s also fires and earthquakes, and other sorts of bad stuff that can happen.

CSO: So what kind of advice can security folks give travelers? What should they advise them to pack and be prepared?

First is a satellite phone. I think they are very valuable, even in the U.S. In the event of a big U.S. crisis, like a black out, or even some kind of crisis where cell towers are still up, they will be deluged with calls. And in some municipalities, cell phone providers prioritize calls from police and public service, so you might not be able to get a line. We are told to use SMS messaging to get information through, but if a cell tower is down, you’re stuck. A satellite phone is totally independent. And if you don’t want to carry a satellite phone, there are satellite-based beacons that people can carry that are designed for back up use but are applicable to people are in a city as long as they are outside.

The second thing is the issue of pure water. One of the most valuable things we could send to Concepcion (Chile’s largest city impacted by the quake) now is one of a variety of water-treatment mechanisms. All of them are very small and intended for backpackers and hikers and so therefore easy to put in suitcase. There are clean water straws, there is a UV-electric device, there are iodine pills, there are a number of ways in which you can take unsafe water and make it safe. I think that’s really important to consider packing something like that when you are traveling in a developing country.

The next thing is flashlights. I can’t imagine a more valuable security or emergency tool than a flashlight.

And N-95 masks. They would be very useful in Haiti and Chile because it enables you to breathe in dusty environment. A mask would also be helpful if you found yourself somewhere in a flu pandemic and you want to protect yourself form airborne contaminants.

Lastly: A good medical kit. We work closely with a group of emergency doctors who send their clients off with pretty robust medical kits and access to a physician. You may not have access to physician immediately, but if you have a medical kit with prescription medication you are just so far ahead of where you would be otherwise. If you have an injury with tremendous pain, you can take prescription pain medication and hold it together until you can get out to a medical facility.

All of this equipment is not small, but it doesn’t take up a ton of space either and can be very valuable if you get into a situation.

CSO: Have the recent earthquakes in Chile and Haiti had an impact on your clients travel or business continuity plans?

We had a number of clients in Haiti, so after the quake in Port au Prince, we were busy ensuring safe transportation of supplies from the Dominican side to the Haitian side. But so far in Chile, we’ve had nothing. It’s only Monday and that may change, but so far we haven’t heard of any client needs related to what’s going on in Chile.

The tsunami warning created a significant problem because it was such a wide, potentially-affected area that it caused a ripple in a lot of logistics problems for clients as far as landing locations for refueling and other positioning issues. We had to work around that. For instance we had a client who was supposed to land in Hawaii to refuel an aircraft, so that required a whole bunch of re-routing of airplanes from there to Anchorage. Obviously you can’t have airplanes flying into airports that may be subjected to flooding. So you have to think quickly in cooperation with flight planners to move stuff around.

Secure travel plans often consider kidnapping or terrorism. But what about natural events like the recent quakes in Haiti and Chile? Chris Falkenberg has advice on what travelers should pack for the best chance of surviving a disaster

By Joan Goodchild, Senior Editor, CSO

March 02, 2010

Security directors and CSOs are often responsible for devising secure travel plans for the employees in their organization.Preparation often includes education, training, and perhaps even a counter-surveillance program.But what about iodine pills and a satellite phone? If you ask Chris Falkenberg, founder and president of Insite Security, all travel plans should also include certain items that can be invaluable in the event of an unforeseen natural disaster (Also see: 4 Steps Security Can Take to Prevent Kidnapping).

According to Falkenberg, the 8.8 earthquake in Chile, coupled with the 7.0 Haitian quake, has made the issue of travel security more important than ever. Insite, a United States-based security and risk management firm, advises corporations and high-net-worth individuals.

“Much thought is given to man-made disasters such as terrorism, but relatively little to natural and unpredictable catastrophes,” said Falkenberg. “It is important for the corporate security manager or other c-level executives to embrace a holistic approach to risk mitigation including natural disasters and their results.”

Falkenberg spoke with CSO about the variables organizations should consider, and the items they should pack, when traveling, particularly in the developing world or politically unstable regions.

CSO: You think these recent earthquakes have really brought to light the importance of secure travel plans that consider not just man-made security challenges, but natural ones. Why is that?

Falkenberg: I think the issue of travel preparedness is one that has to incorporate a broad area of risks. What usually happens in a security department is a great focus on man-made events; a great focus on terrorism, a great focus on crime. There is much less of a focus on natural disasters. That is probably because in some cases they are easy to avoid and also they are so rare. But it’s very valuable for travelers to think about what happens if they are off the grid for a few days and really have to make it by themselves, staying healthy and getting out and to a place of safety. That is something that both Chile and Haiti underscore: If you’re responsible for travel security and travel safety, it’s important to prepare travelers to be able to fend for themselves for 72 hours. That, in my view, is the story of these earthquakes. It’s not only the bad guy down the hallway or the bad guy with a truck bomb, it’s also fires and earthquakes, and other sorts of bad stuff that can happen.

CSO: So what kind of advice can security folks give travelers? What should they advise them to pack and be prepared?

First is a satellite phone. I think they are very valuable, even in the U.S. In the event of a big U.S. crisis, like a black out, or even some kind of crisis where cell towers are still up, they will be deluged with calls. And in some municipalities, cell phone providers prioritize calls from police and public service, so you might not be able to get a line. We are told to use SMS messaging to get information through, but if a cell tower is down, you’re stuck. A satellite phone is totally independent. And if you don’t want to carry a satellite phone, there are satellite-based beacons that people can carry that are designed for back up use but are applicable to people are in a city as long as they are outside.

The second thing is the issue of pure water. One of the most valuable things we could send to Concepcion (Chile’s largest city impacted by the quake) now is one of a variety of water-treatment mechanisms. All of them are very small and intended for backpackers and hikers and so therefore easy to put in suitcase. There are clean water straws, there is a UV-electric device, there are iodine pills, there are a number of ways in which you can take unsafe water and make it safe. I think that’s really important to consider packing something like that when you are traveling in a developing country.

The next thing is flashlights. I can’t imagine a more valuable security or emergency tool than a flashlight.

And N-95 masks. They would be very useful in Haiti and Chile because it enables you to breathe in dusty environment. A mask would also be helpful if you found yourself somewhere in a flu pandemic and you want to protect yourself form airborne contaminants.

Lastly: A good medical kit. We work closely with a group of emergency doctors who send their clients off with pretty robust medical kits and access to a physician. You may not have access to physician immediately, but if you have a medical kit with prescription medication you are just so far ahead of where you would be otherwise. If you have an injury with tremendous pain, you can take prescription pain medication and hold it together until you can get out to a medical facility.

All of this equipment is not small, but it doesn’t take up a ton of space either and can be very valuable if you get into a situation.

CSO: Have the recent earthquakes in Chile and Haiti had an impact on your clients travel or business continuity plans?

We had a number of clients in Haiti, so after the quake in Port au Prince, we were busy ensuring safe transportation of supplies from the Dominican side to the Haitian side. But so far in Chile, we’ve had nothing. It’s only Monday and that may change, but so far we haven’t heard of any client needs related to what’s going on in Chile.

The tsunami warning created a significant problem because it was such a wide, potentially-affected area that it caused a ripple in a lot of logistics problems for clients as far as landing locations for refueling and other positioning issues. We had to work around that. For instance we had a client who was supposed to land in Hawaii to refuel an aircraft, so that required a whole bunch of re-routing of airplanes from there to Anchorage. Obviously you can’t have airplanes flying into airports that may be subjected to flooding. So you have to think quickly in cooperation with flight planners to move stuff around.

An Executive Plan for Troubled Travel

A security expert offers tips and tactics for surviving a business trip to some of the world’s most dangerous locations.

by J. Jennings Moss Mar 05 2010 Portfolio.com

Exit Strategy

by Christian L. Wright | Published May 2010

When the boss says go, it’s hard to say no—even if it means traveling to some of the less predictable corners of the globe. Christian L. Wright reports on the companies that spring business travelers out of tight spots and how to stay safe when work takes you far from home

When Justin Case (not his real name) and his brother found themselves in the middle of a violent protest high in the Andes in 2007, they called the emergency medical and security service International SOS for help. International SOS staffers immediately advised the brothers to fill the bathtub, in case a fire broke out; put money in their shoes, in case they had to run; and avoid the police station, since it was likely a target of the protesters. Within 48 hours, International SOS had returned the brothers to Lima, shaken but safe. “When I look at pictures of a war zone now,” Justin says, “it reminds me of what it was like.”

Between the narrowly averted military coup in Turkey in 2008, this winter’s sudden cholera outbreak in Mozambique, the earthquakes in Haiti and Chile, and frequent kidnappings from Mexico City to Kathmandu, it can look like a real jungle out there. In fact, the world’s a pretty safe place, with only about three percent of travelers ever falling victim to a crime and far fewer getting caught up in civil strife or natural disaster. Even so, the security industry is growing apace as increasing numbers of companies are sending more employees into remote or unstable places and realizing that it’s good business sense to contract an outside firm to help monitor their workforce overseas.

A range of U.S. security and risk management services consult with both multinational companies and individuals. For example, iJET Intelligent Risk Systems, a full-service security outfit, works primarily with corporations, tracking and supporting upwards of 400,000 business travelers in any given month (the company evacuated 186 clients from Haiti after the January earthquake). On the other hand, half the travelers who hire Clayton Consultants, which specializes in kidnapping, are private individuals. International SOS and Assist America are essentially medical emergency services—think of them as an international 911—sometimes working in concert with risk management experts. And then there are companies like Granite Intelligence, in New York, that offer executive protection—in other words, bodyguards. “It’s not unlike what the secret service does for the president but on a much smaller scale,” says Jeffrey Mueller, co-founder of Granite.

Still, despite the growth in the security industry, a 2007 survey conducted by the U.K.-based firm Control Risks revealed that half of U.S. business travelers polled reported that there was no clear travel security policy at their company and 23 percent said their firm provided no security support at all. Clearly, for business as well as leisure travelers, it’s ultimately up to the individual to be his or her own best risk manager. According to Randy Spivey, CEO and founder of the Center for Personal Protection & Safety, the degree of risk abroad can be summed up by three factors. “Where you’re going, whom you work for, and what you’re doing there. If you’re tied to the coffee industry,” he explains, “in certain parts of Latin America that’s a threat to the drug trade.” In general, one of the biggest threats to the international business traveler is kidnapping—Clayton Consultants handled 40 cases worldwide in 2009—particularly in Latin America, where fully half of all kidnaps-for-ransom take place. Kidnap risk is also higher in oil-rich parts of Africa and the Middle East and in Southeast Asia, where growing economies are attracting more foreigners looking to drum up business. Threats of terrorism are particularly high in Afghanistan, India, Iraq, Pakistan, Sudan, and Yemen. Civil unrest and natural disasters round out the list.

ALL IN THE PREPARATION

You don’t have to hire a security expert to reduce your chances of ending up in a tight spot overseas. In fact, a little preparation can go a long way in minimizing risk and putting you in the best position to respond to the unexpected. “Be a bit obsessive-compulsive” in your planning, advises James Moulton, field security officer for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, who has lived and worked in Haiti and the Niger Delta. Moulton and others recommend that travelers to off-the-beaten-path destinations study up on the history, culture, customs, government, religions, and possible risks (natural as well as man-made) well before departure. For instance, if you’re scheduled to head to a politically unstable country and you learn that you’ll be there during its national elections, you might want to change your travel dates. If your company has no library of dossiers on every place the boss might send you, or hasn’t hired an outside company that does, you can refer to the U.S. State Department alerts and advisories online (state.gov/travel), and you can tailor daily e-mail digests from the Overseas Security Advisory Council (osac.gov) to stay current on regions that are of interest to you. To further understand conditions on the ground, some broad overview maps are available online, such as the Risk Atlas from the magazine Risk Management, and ASI Global’s Kidnap & Ransom Threat Map (www.asiglobalresponse.com/downloads/KR_threat_map.pdf).

In an age when the ability to make a phone call or send an e-mail is taken for granted, it’s easy to overlook the issue of communications on a trip abroad. Big mistake. “Your ability to communicate on a moment’s notice could be the difference between life and death,” says Alex Puig, a director at Travel Security Services, a joint venture between Control Risks and International SOS. The Global Fund’s Moulton agrees. “During a coup or rumors of one, the first thing to go down is the telephone network, at precisely the time you need it most.” The answer? A satellite phone, especially “in volatile environments or remote areas where power and cell phone coverage cannot be guaranteed,” Moulton says.

In most parts of the world, though, even the humble cell phone can be a powerful tool in times of trouble. Text messaging, for instance, is still a viable way to communicate when phones are jammed and you can’t make a call. There’s even a 99-cent app called iWitness, available on iTunes, that works on the iPhone and BlackBerry and sends up to 15 contacts a distress signal, notifying them of your whereabouts when you activate the alarm.

Sometimes a phone call is all that’s needed to get you out of a jam. A few years ago, when a car carrying some American businessmen in a remote part of India hit a rickshaw, an angry crowd of about 300 quickly gathered. Although the car was driven by an Indian, the crowd wanted to lynch the Americans. Luckily, they were able to phone colleagues in the vicinity, who quickly came and ushered them to safety.

THE BEST DEFENSE

CLAYTON CONSULTANTS Analyzes the risk potential for any given trip; offers skills training, including lessons in evasive driving and handling firearms; provides response teams for kidnap-for-ransom, extortion, and wrongful detention. Cost: $1,500-$3,000 per consultant per day.

GRANITE INTELLIGENCE Sends an advance team to secure the destination; coordinates safe transportation; vets hotels; provides bodyguards; conducts counter-surveillance and background checks. Cost: $5,000-$20,000 per day, depending on the destination and number of personnel.

iJET INTELLIGENT RISK SYSTEMS Provides destination reports and safety advice; dispenses real-time alerts to e-mail addresses or phones; monitors airlines safety standards; vets hotels; staffs a 24-hour hotline; arranges emergency evacuations. Cost: $5,000 per year for an organization.

INSITE SECURITY Geared to top executives and high-net-worth individuals; sends an advance team to secure the destination; vets hotels; coordinates safe transportation; conducts counter-­surveillance, emergency evacuations, and kidnap-and-ransom negotiations. Cost: From $6,000 for an individual trip.

TRAVEL SECURITY SERVICES This joint venture between International SOS and Control Risks staffs a 24-hour security and medical hotline and arranges evacuations. Cost: From $435 per year for independent travelers.