Operation Resiliency Response (ORR) Manual: Preparedness for Natural Disasters in Your Community: A Guide for Parks and Recreation Agencies

In the United States public Parks & Recreation (P&R) agencies play a vital role in the physical, economic, social, and emotional health of communities. These agencies may oversee, own, and manage parks, recreation and community facilities, open spaces, trails, conservation areas, and sometimes other community amenities such as libraries, arts centers, median and monuments, fairgrounds, and sometimes even airports or other public assets.

This Operation Resiliency Response (ORR) Manual describes the background, considerations, and steps for how public P&R agencies can prepare for, respond to, and recover from natural disasters, such as hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfires, floods, earthquakes, and other devastating events. The manual came out of over ten years of collaboration from P&R and other allied fields, associations, and educators, along with a national survey of practitioners through ActivEnviro (formerly GP RED) in 2019. Other acute human-made events, such as mass shootings, or long-term events, such as the COVID 19 Pandemic or needed responses to climate change and resiliency, can benefit from similar P&R preparedness, planning, and response.