Recovery of a region after disaster is measured by the return to normalization, and that is reliant, in large part, on the business community re-establishing itself.

It’s not always easy after a disaster, and many small businesses never recover. Dun & Bradstreet is well-quipped to use data and analysis to help cities and states develop resilience as demonstrated with its recent economic analysis after Hurricane Matthew.

The firm was approached by Michael Sprayberry, North Carolina’s director of emergency management, to conduct an economic impact analysis after the hurricane hit the region in 2016.

Dun & Bradstreet looked at economic viability before the storm and afterward — to get data on how the storm impacted jobs, sales, loss of businesses and ultimately the state’s GDP. The analysis looked at an impact area before and after with the goal of deriving at the best ways to spend money before a disaster, and where, to facilitate the best recovery.

“We are able to do the custom modelling using data on where to spend money and provide a better insight on what would drive economic growth and help bring back those communities quicker,” said Bill Pastro, Dun & Bradstreet’s Senior Vice President of North American Government Solutions.

Dun & Bradstreet also worked with FEMA on analyzing economic information following hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria in 2017, providing economic baseline information to help FEMA assess the impacts in certain zones.

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