With the river flooding that has been going on in Connecticut the last week and the forecasts for a tough spring, I had originally scheduled this post to discuss emergency preparedness for employers and how employers should deal with employees affected.

Flooding is nothing new in Connecticut before and with more flooding expected, it seemed a good time to revisit the rules for employers to follow during such times and share some resources.  I’ve touched on it in prior posts like this., too

But while Connecticut was sleeping last night, a major earthquake rocked Japan and a devastating tsunami has followed for the Pacific area.  My thoughts and prayers go out to those affected by the disaster.  (If you need to find employees or loved ones, Google has set up a people finder here.)

The scope of that massive disaster makes our troubles (and other employment law issues) seem trivial today by comparison.  It’s just heartbreaking to see the destruction and scope of it. You can see one video from an airport here that is just incredible to watch. 

Frankly, I shutter to think about how Connecticut would cope with a disaster of similar scope and size as that in Japan. A hurricane is the most likely of these types of catastrophic events, but Connecticut hasn’t seen a direct impact in many years.

Connecticut does have an up-to-date emergency preparedness plan, but how many of us truly think about how we would act in such a situation and how our business would ever cope (or recover).  But that’s exactly what is going to be expected of those in Japan.  While larger businesses may have business continuity plans, smaller ones don’t. 

The government’s Ready.gov site has a good feature on such a plan specifically designed for businesses as a start.  For those of us feeling helpless for today’s events, taking a few minutes to dust off a plan may be one small step we can take to do something, anything, to shake that feeling.   (For those wanting to donate to say, the Japanese Red Cross, those websites were down this morning, no doubt by all the web traffic.)

Overall, the dark skies today match our collective moods.  What a sad day.