About a hundred people, representing businesses and nonprofits, gathered in Rehoboth Beach earlier this week for a seminar on emergency preparedness.
Talks organized by the Delaware Small Business Development Center provided resources to those looking to make their businesses more resilient to situations, such as natural disasters.
Mary Jo De Vries owns the Fairway Village Condos at the Delaware beaches. She was one of several business owners in attendance interested in learning how they can better protect themselves from floods.
“I noticed on the floodplain [map] we have a little stream by us," said De Vries. "And I need to find out when is my house going to become beachfront property.”
Since more than 17 percent of the state sits in a high-risk flood zone, flood insurance has been a featured topic every year.
But Cindy Small, the resiliency program coordinator for the center, says this year they added cybersecurity to the roster.
“[Companies] may have one or two employees or they may have up to 20 employees and often times, they don’t have on-site IT support. And even when they do, they’re more focused on the marketing than on cybercrimes.”
Speakers on that topic included Captain Daniel Meadows of the Delaware State Police and Elayne Starkey, chair of the Delaware Information Security Officer team.
The two-day summit took place at the Chase Center on the Riverfront in Wilmington and the Kings Creek Country Club in Rehoboth Beach.
