Disaster Preparedness, Recovery and Business Continuity
--What I Learned from the 1994 Northridge Earthquake
David Kovarik,
Director NUIT Information & Systems
Security/Compliance
Everything I have come to appreciate about disaster preparedness, disaster recovery, and business continuity was realized in a twenty-second window, at 0430 PST, Monday, January 17, 2004, during the Northridge Earthquake, magnitude 6.7 Richter scale.
What did I learn? Let’s start with a definition of “disaster”. I believe these few words summarize the concept: “a grave and untimely misfortune”. The definition can be applied to any number of events: PC hard drive crash (total failure); the Northridge earthquake; complete loss of power at the Evanston Datacenter. Admittedly, these events are markedly different, but they each resulted in some level of adversity.
Disasters typically occur with little notice, emphasizing the need for “disaster preparedness”. The more you prepare for a disaster, the smaller the impact it has on personal and business conditions. In 1986, following the advice of California emergency personnel, I prepared three containers with the recommended supplies (water, canned goods, flashlights and batteries, etc.) and stashed them in different locations within the house. Eight years later, the earthquake occurred; one of the containers was flattened by falling debris, but we still had provisions for several days. The time and money invested in preparation helped offset the immediate adverse impact the earthquake had on our personal well-being.
With immediate needs resolved, we looked to “recover” from the damage caused by the earthquake, restoring conditions to those that existed before the disaster, e.g., ensuring doors and windows were functioning, utilities were in working order, sanitation facilities were operating, etc. After two to three days, in spite of continuous aftershocks, some semblance of normalcy was achieved.
During this time, I was also assisting in the “business continuity” efforts to restore functionality of my employer’s data center and network, ensuring that the business—the largest bank in southern California—continued with as little interruption as possible. ATMs were needed to provide funds for customers, checks needed to be honored, payments needed to be processed, etc. Working remotely and using local transportation, we were able to staff the operations centers and branch locations to provide customer services with minimal interruptions.
OK – I agree it’s unlikely we’ll experience an earthquake (hopefully we’re far enough away from the New Madrid fault line); but snowstorms, tornados, and power outages are fairly common occurrences.
Are you prepared?
Read more about emergency preparedness:
Northwestern University Emergency Preparedness
American Red Cross
Illinois Homeland Security
Department of Homeland Security
Citizen Corps
