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KEY LESSONS FROM HURRICANE DORIAN:

Brew A Flexible Top Down Storm Response

By Emad Aziz
ABSTRACT
The Province of Nova Scotia has a broad range of responsibilities during a severe weather event like Hurricane Dorian. The storm reached
every part of the province and caused significant, adverse impacts affecting citizens and government services for a considerable time due to
widespread telecommunication and power outages. Fortunately for Nova Scotians, there was no loss of life.
This paper describes the challenges faced by provincial emergency management and business continuity response teams.

A flexible top down approach is the recipe for an effective storm response for any organization. Senior leadership must learn how to
delegate and encourage locally-driven decision-making. Since emergency response and business continuity overlap, response teams must
learn to balance protecting life and property while preserving ongoing business. This can be accomplished through strategic support from
senior leadership, adoption of evolving best practices, competency development through training and realistic exercise scenarios.

Keywords: delegation, hurricane, business continuity, emergency management, telecommunications failure, incident command system,
mental health.

INTRODUCTION

urricanes are a part of Maritime life. In any
given year, Atlantic Canada experiences several
tropical and post tropical storms, though
Hmajor hurricanes, such as Hurricane Dorian,
fortunately are a rare event.

The impacts of Hurricane Dorian affected the resumption
of normal business of the government of Nova Scotia
in the days after the storm, primarily due to widespread
telecommunication and power outages. Fortunately, there
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was no loss of life .
HURRICANE DORIAN QUICK FACTS 2 Figure 1: Hurricane Dorian track.
• Dorian is the fifth Category 5 hurricane in 4 years. Source: Canadian Hurricane Centre.
• Dorian maximum sustained winds reached 185 mph Figure 1 : Trajectoire de l’ouragan Dorian.
(295 km/h), the second highest wind speeds among all Source : Centre canadien de prévision des ouragans.
Atlantic hurricanes recorded to date.
• Dorian went through rapid re-intensification twice. 3 • Major telecommunication outage affecting Atlantic
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• Dorian arrived in Nova Scotia as a post tropical Canada, 2015 .
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storm, with wind speeds up to 155 km/hr (Category 2 • Kejimkujik Park Wildfires, 2016 .
hurricane). • Hurricane Dorian, 2019.
• Hurricane Teddy, 2020.
NOVA SCOTIA & BUSINESS • Hurricane Fiona 2022.
CONTINUITY PREPAREDNESS:
A HISTORICAL BACKGROUND During such incidents, the provincial business continuity
Nova Scotia has experienced several major incidents and emergency management teams have collaborated to
including: restore and recover critical infrastructure, government
• Swiss Air Flight 111 crash off Peggy’s Cove, 1998. 4 programs and services.
• Grounding of 40 aircraft carrying 8000 passengers
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diverted to Halifax following the September 11th 2001 The Nova Scotia Emergency Management Office (NSEMO)
attacks. 5 operates the Provincial Coordination Center (PCC) to
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• Hurricane Juan, 2003 . support the coordination and facilitation of emergency
response and business continuity response. Upon activation,

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