Now We Know
Now we know: the sprawling New Orleans levee system was never built to withstand storms in excess of Category 3 hurricanes.

There has been and will continue to be much critiquing in months to come of the responsiveness and preparedness of various public and private institutions. This needs to happen, and done constructively with positive intent and a view to the future, we will be stronger for it. However, the purpose here is not to critique. The purpose here is to raise our collective awareness to another hard reality: that Katrina breached not just one levee system, but two.

The second levee was the one that we know as "corporate responsibility." We learned that our programs of directed giving, corporate foundations, executive and employee volunteerism, and community involvement were no more built to withstand the likes of Katrina than were the physical levees of New Orleans. Yet, while government and public institutions faltered, private corporations took the lead in disaster relief. Tired and thirsty people gratefully accepted the first bottle of water that was trucked into the beleaguered city by WalMart, while FedEx helped restore communications. Employees at retail establishments salvaged goods and then distributed them to citizens. All this was a far cry from submitting a grant proposal to a corporate foundation to fund a program for the arts; this was in-the-moment, hand-to-hand, life-and-death. Like it or not, Katrina pushed the role of corporate responsibility to center stage, and it will never be the same again.

We Are Different Already
In response to Katrina, companies sent their own trucks driven by their own employees loaded with emergency supplies directly into New Orleans. A mattress store became a makeshift shelter for the homeless. Corporations tracked down employees, helped them relocate, and extended salaries, loans, grants, and guaranteed jobs in alternative locations. Businesses relaxed payment standards, reduced rates, and offered cash advances and low interest rates. Far distant companies internally organized volunteer efforts to support the relocation of relatives of their employees.

By these actions, we are different already. In the aftermath of Katrina, we were not employees or executives; we were neighbors; not agents, but friends. Corporate America became part of the spontaneous rescue team, driving into the storm. The question now is, will employers and employees forget this event and revert back to the old "nice-to-have" version of corporate responsibility? It's probably not even possible, as we shall see.

Not If, But When
There is a strong inclination in human nature to forget past lessons and repeat our mistakes. Disasters will happen again…and not just in Indonesia, Pakistan, or Guatemala, but here in America. Other catastrophic disasters are sitting in the wings, any of which could wreak havoc from sea to shining sea. A few examples:

• The National Hurricane Center predicts that we are in a natural cycle of intense hurricane activity that will last another 10 to 20 years.
• A major earthquake in San Francisco would cause even more massive destruction and loss of life. Damage to the city's bridges would make evacuation virtually impossible and recovery at best a logistical nightmare.
• Lest anyone who lives far from geological hot zones feel smug and safe, consider the threat posed by H5N1, the lethal form of the Asian bird flu virus that so far has killed about 50% of those infected.

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