NEW YORK—Superstorm Sandy is profoundly reshaping the approachNew York City officials and business executives are taking to stormrisk, and they devoted a day in downtown Manhattan on the eve ofthe Atlantic hurricane season to discuss plans to deal with thatexposure in the future.

“Fortune is the product of hard work and planning,” New YorkStock Exchange Chief Operating Officer Larry Leibowitz toldattendees, “and you can't plan for every eventuality.”

The event, held at the Exchange, was the “Kicking Off HurricanePreparedness Season 2013” sponsored by The Travelers Institute;NYSE Euronext; the Partnership for New York City, and the WhartonSchool.

Leibowitz says planners need to consider every detail inpreparation for a catastrophe, but officials cannot work in avacuum. Private sector and the government need to partner inadvance planning because “when a disaster happens it is just toolate.”

For the city of New York, Seth Pinsky, director, Mayor's SpecialInitiative for Rebuilding & Resiliency, and president of theNew York City Economic Development Corp., says Superstorm Sandy wasan idiosyncratic storm. The storm did not follow the normal path ofmost tropical storms along the East coast and meteorological eventscoalesced in a way that if Sandy arrived one hour earlier or laterNew York would have avoided devastation.

Indeed, Sandy is only the third time since 1878 that the cityhas found itself in the path of the most dangerous winds of astorm, in this case delivering record storm surge. Despite itsrarity, Pinsky says we have to view Sandy as a “harbinger of thetype of event that could happen in the future.” New flood maps willdouble the number of residents within flood zones to more than450,000, along with exposed commercial space expanding from 374million square feet to 589 million.

Because of climate change, the risk to the city goes beyond amajor storm, but can mean adverse impact from increased rainfall,prolonged heat waves and drought along with rising sea levels,making the need to plan for these vulnerabilities urgent, he says.New York is finalizing its re-building plans to protect the citythat Pinsky says will be “ambitious and achievable.” He adds there“is no point in setting your sights for the stars and not be ableof getting off the launching pad.”

Superstorm Sandy continues to be a learning event for the stockexchange, says Joe Mecane, executive vice president and head ofCash Execution for NYSE. The first lesson was personnel–gettingessential people into the building while providing access to theExchange for those working remotely. He says NYSE was lucky enoughto have a few dedicated individuals who remained in the buildingthroughout the crisis, maintaining generators and enabling it toreopen quickly. However, getting people in was a logisticalchallenge involving finding parking for those who could drive in,and arranging bus service for others. Those unable to get into thecity had robust offsite computer capabilities, but widespread poweroutages made it impossible for people to power their devices oraccess systems. One lesson learned—employees now have solar powereddevices and electronics to access Internet hot spots for workingremotely.

Mecane says one failure of many disaster recovery plans wasthe relocation of offices in the event of a catastrophe. Manydiscovered a fatal flaw in their plan. Their remote offices werelocated in the region affected by Sandy, facing the same logisticalissues as the home office.

For city officials, one lesson learned is dealing withevacuations. Assistant commissioner for strategic data, NYC Officeof Emergency Management, Jim McConnell says evacuations not onlyneed to be more extensive, but also have to incorporate more datafrom potential storm impact and typography. He says the city willsoon release plans detailing evacuation zones that allow officialsflexibility when issuing mandatory evacuations. Changes in how theweather service issues its warnings, including a new category forstorm surge, will allow city officials to create a “finer line”when issuing evacuation orders.

Concerning the rebuilding process, Commissioner of NYCDepartment of Small Business Services, Robert Walsh, says thegreatest challenge is helping small business resume operating.Financial resources are available, but communication and red taperemain major obstacles. He says the sections of the city to bounceback quickly were those with strong community businessorganizations.

Joan Woodward, president of Travelers Institute, says thatstudies show that after a catastrophe 40 percent of businessesnever reopen, making it more crucial to get the message out tobusinesses that help is available.

Turning to consumers, Howard Kunreuther, co-director of theWharton Risk Management and Decision Processes Center, says beforedisaster strikes, many individuals do not purchase insuranceprotection because they do not believe it will happen to them. Thechallenge is getting people to think about protecting themselvesbefore an event and continue that protection afterward.

“We are all very myopic,” he says. “It is very hard to getpeople to invest in protection before catastrophe strikes.”