Business Vulnerability And Disruption: Data From The 1993 Midwest Floods

Understanding business vulnerability to disasters is important forloss estimation, hazard mitigation, disaster preparedness, andrecovery planning. However, only a very small number of studieshave focused systematically on that topic. This paper presentspreliminary findings from a study of a random sample of 1079businesses in Des Moines/Polk County, Iowa, a community thatexperienced extensive damage and disruption as a result of theMidwest floods of 1993. The study focused on a range of topics,including business dependence on lifeline services, the physicalflood damage businesses experienced, lifeline service disruption,and the impacts that disruption had on businesses. This paperreports findings on the importance of different lifeline servicesfor businesses in different economic sectors and on flood-relatedlifeline service interruptions and their impact on businessoperations.