Hotels need a detailed plan in the event Mother Nature’s wrath wreaks havoc.

Right before the 2008 U.S. Amateur rolled into town on August 18, bringing with it hundreds of guests and thousands of spectators, its host site, the Pinehurst Resort in Pinehurst, NC, turned a collective eye on another possible visitor: Tropical Storm Fay was threatening to sweep in with the threat of wind, rain and untold damage, having already staked a tumultuous claim on the western coast of Florida.

The luxury resort and spa, however, was ready.

“We were watching with deep interest what was happening with the storm in Florida because we were running this major championship,” said Janeen Driscoll, communications manager. “We had to develop our own evacuation plan to make sure the spectators and players were safe.”

The magnitude of the U.S. Amateur required an emergency plan that was worked out between the resort and the U.S. Golf Association, running the tournament at Pinehurst. A specially dedicated committee of between 50 and 75 volunteers hammered out a variety of scenarios, including evacuation routes, the dispatch of buses and other vehicles, and measures taken to assure guests’ safety.

It was, said Driscoll, “a very extensive plan” and one that, thanks to sunny skies for the duration of the tournament, never saw the light of day.

What mattered, however, was that they had a plan to begin with - and that apparently is not the case for a majority of hotels and resorts. A study by Robert J. Kwortnik, assistant professor of services marketing in Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration, found that preparedness for disasters - natural or manmade - was not particularly universal in the industry.

“Many hotel companies have their own emergency plans but I was surprised how many don’t, not beyond a basic plan,” Kwortnik said. Kwortnik undertook his study in the weeks following the August 2003 blackout that cloaked the northeastern U.S.

After surveying general managers at 150 hotels affected by the blackout, he developed an emergency preparedness checklist for hotels, recommending staff training (and cross-training), creating an inventory of emergency supplies, setting up channels for emergency communication and emphasizing creative problem solving.

What surprised Kwortnik most was that, of all the hotels surveyed, “one out of five didn’t have a formal emergency plan or wasn’t sure that one existed. It became clear, some managers said, after that event that they really have got to do more simulations and drills.”

In an era of West Coast wildfires and mudslides, East Coast hurricanes and Midwest ice storms, “we need to get away from the language of the ‘once in a lifetime storm’ because they seem to be happening every five or six years now,” he said. “And the really kind of cool message that came out from the general mangers is how people looked to the hotel for safety and comfort.

“It was almost like a throwback to the local innkeeper, that this is the meeting place where people should go.”

In March 2008, the haven that was the Omni Hotel at CNN Center in Atlanta took a hit when a rare tornado ripped through downtown. The 1,070-room hotel was at 100 percent occupancy when the twister struck, said the Omni’s marketing manager, Kimberly Murdock. By the time it passed through, about 170 rooms in the 470-room South Tower had been damaged, closing the tower completely for about a month while demolition and repair work could be conducted. Its North Tower sustained minor window damage that could be repaired more quickly.

But although twisters are almost unheard of in the city, emergency preparedness drills are commonplace at the Omni, which had, by coincidence, conducted one of its monthly emergency drills the week before the storm. Its crisis team ensured guests’ safety first and, afterward, tended to the assessment of any structural damage.

As for any damage done to visitors’ plans, the hotel made use of its contingency plan which arranges for alternative accommodations for guests and conferences, and is able to transfer and confirm the new reservations. Planning paid off.

At Pinehurst, even without a nationally televised golf event to heighten storm safety concerns, the resort has also had plenty of practice securing its 2,000-acre property, which has three hotels on site.