By Jeremiah McWilliams
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

St. Louis, MO. — Sometimes it pays to be a little paranoid.

Seeking to help businesses, schools and nonprofits prepare for disasters, the St. Louis Red Cross and Anheuser-Busch Cos. are teaming up to launch a new self-assessment program in the St. Louis area.

St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch is both the major funding source and the first participant in this pilot program, scheduled to be unveiled this morning at a news conference at its St. Louis brewery. The Red Cross hopes to eventually roll out the program nationally.

The "Ready Rating Program" is designed to get companies and workers prepared for nasty stuff: big power outages, heat waves, ice storms, tornadoes and workplace injuries, to name a few.

"Everyone needs to be more prepared -- governments can't do it alone," said Joe White, chief executive of the American Red Cross St. Louis Area Chapter. "The economic consequences of not being prepared are staggering." White cited statistics showing that 40 percent of businesses struck by disasters go out of business within one year.

Dave Peacock, vice president of marketing at A-B's domestic brewing subsidiary, said the company is trying to do more than make big donations after a disaster. Now, the idea is to help businesses make sure they're able to get their operations back up and running after a disaster. At its own offices, Anheuser-Busch wants to get more employees trained for first aid and CPR, he said.

"So far, the response has been really positive" from other firms the Red Cross has approached, said Peacock, who sits on the board of the local Red Cross.

Peacock said Anheuser-Busch funded the program with an initial commitment of $250,000, and the brewer could put up more cash if the program is rolled out nationwide. "We'll have plenty of money to make sure this is done right," he said.

The new program, outlined at website readyrating.redcrossstl.org, walks participants through several steps. These include finding vulnerabilities, tapping an emergency planning team and taking specific actions such as purchasing a weather radio with tone alerts and designating an on-site shelter. The program also urges participants to "ensure that the overall community is ready" by running blood drives or coordinating volunteers, White said. Progress is graded on a 1 to 65 scale.

Participants "can have something tangible to test their preparedness," said White. "This just gives them a measurement tool ... instead of them guessing or wondering if they're prepared. "

Copyright 2008 St. Louis Post-Dispatch