Historical Bazaar Recovery after the 2003 Bam Earthquake

Abstract

Iranian experiences regarding business continuity indicate that following natural disasters, small business recovery has been faced with a number of challenges. The 2003 Bam Earthquake resulted in huge physical destruction and significant impacts on small businesses. However in the process of post-earthquake business continuity recovery, problems were arisen not only for shopkeepers but citizens. For instance, In the case of Bam, lack of specific organization and having a ready plan for pre-program on business continuity management and also inefficient cooperation between the stockholders and the authorities resulted some disputes and conflicts. Although the allocation of low interest loans to small business (bazaar) recovery resulted in some satisfaction among the stakeholders, in some cases implemented plans were not able to facilitate the economic recovery completely. The present paper examines the main issues of bazaar Business Continuity planning after the 2003 Bam Earthquake. It concludes that an integrated Business Continuity planning with a reconstruction master plan may pave the way of better disaster recovery planning in future disasters in same area.