Thirty percent of your employees don’t show up for work one day. What would you do? Would you close for business? Try to make it with a skeleton staff? And how would these choices impact your bottom line? Now imagine that those same employees – or more – were unable to get to work for three days or longer.

It’s a scenario that most Georgia business owners don’t think will happen to them, and, hopefully, it won’t. But recent history indicates that we need to prepare. Most of us never imagined that North Georgia roads would look like rivers last September as a 500-year flood swept the state. But that’s exactly what happened.

Georgia is also susceptible to tornadoes, as we saw in March 2008 when one spiraled through downtown Atlanta and caused damage in 15 counties across the state. Ice storms can literally freeze northern portions of state, and Dr. Patrick O’Neal, chief of the Georgia Department of Community Health’s Emergency Preparedness and Response Division, expects one third of Georgians to contract H1N1 flu. My goal is not to cause panic, but to show businesses the importance of preparing for, weather-related emergencies, pandemic, and other unforeseen disasters today.

I believe many business owners approach continuity planning with the best of intentions. But it can fall to the bottom of the list among payroll, sales and day-to-day operations. Ready Georgia, the emergency preparedness campaign from the Georgia Emergency Management Agency, also supported by the Georgia Department of Community Health Division of Public Health, can help. It offers a Ready Your Business guide to assist Georgia companies of any size with disaster planning. The guide can help planners identify key decision makers during a disaster, assess which disasters your organization is most vulnerable to, and determine essential business functions that must be maintained. It also helps organize important communication information, such as customer phone numbers, vendor email addresses and insurance provider contact information, in one location.

Working in conjunction with organizations like The Clean Air Campaign, can help businesses develop a comprehensive crisis plan to see them through a variety of situations. The Clean Air Campaign offers no-cost assistance to start or formalize a worksite telework program and can also help you apply for tax credits that cover the cost.

Business continuity plans that include telework programs can help protect our state’s economy, your business and the future of your employees. It’s time to move emergency preparedness to the top of the list, and get your business Ready.

Charley English is the director of the Georgia Emergency Management Agency and the Office of Homeland Security. He oversees all state governmental actions designed to ensure mitigation and preparedness, appropriate response and timely recovery from natural and man-made hazards which may impact the state of Georgia.