Recently, our town of 50,000 was hit by a tornado. The tornado started as an EF4 when it first touched down, but it weakened to EF2 before lifting. According to public records, 31 homes were destroyed with another 56 suffering major damage. Three businesses were destroyed and 11 were hit with major damage. Many more homes and businesses had lesser damage. The tornado also ripped through a major university. Numerous buildings had damage, including a research nuclear reactor. Estimates of damage at the university are estimated to be over $28 million. This same tornado had begun its hop-scotch trek nearly 50 miles west of our town.
I know an architect who had previous years records stored in a self-storage unit that was destroyed. He has received phone calls from over 30 miles away telling him of papers that had been found. Many of these had personal information. The tornado jumped over a doctor’s office causing only minor damage to the roof. But what if that office had taken a direct hit? I know that my medical records are stored on paper in that office and they would have been scattered throughout the area.
In our area, everyone knows that tornados are a fact of life. It seems like one nearby community or another is touched by a tornado every year. People living here have accepted the risk of severe weather outbreaks. But, not everyone has done what they can to minimize their exposure to the risk. Disaster planning, whether for business or personal, helps one to address exposure and think through what can be done to minimize the risk.
The following steps can be taken to minimize risk and improve protection in the event of a disaster. The first of these is to create a disaster recovery plan. Numerous resources are available to help with this. THe U.S. Department of Homeland Security has created the www.ready.gov website. It contains checklists and simple forms to help get started thinking about disaster recover. There are books available with more detailed help for creating the disaster recovery plan (DRP). The Institute for Continuity Management provides training and certifications in disaster recovery.
Another step to take is to make sure that there are reliable backups of electronic data and that they are stored off-site. Several technologies are available for creating backups. Tape has been the standard method of creating backups for several years. Several companies are offering secure on-line storage and backup strategies for individuals and small- to mid-sized business. These backups should be tested periodically to verify that they can be successfully used recover the business.
Every business should know and document business processes. This becomes especially important in the event the business must be shut down for a period of time following the disaster. As the business processes are documented, they should also be prioritized as to which ones are absolutely critical to the on-going recovery of the business. A maximum tolerable downtime for each business process will help with this.
- Dan
