Hurricanes/Summer Weather

Summer is not far away - meteorological summer begins June 1 - and neither are the dangers of summer: hurricanes, floods, storm surge, lightning, high temperatures, humidity, water accidents. NOAA expects an active to extremely active hurricane season, and some areas of the country will experience extreme high temperatures and drought. All of these situations can threaten your business and your employees. Make sure you're prepared to prevent as many disasters as possible and to recover in the event disaster strikes. The articles below offer some help in keeping your business operating.

Here are some tips to help you protect against hurricanes. (Item #1)   This flood preparation guide can help you start or finish your plan and enhance your preparations. (Item #2)   You can help yourself and others avoid experiencing heat disorders by following these safety rules. (Item #3)  

Power failures, often the result of stormy weather, can mean data loss - and more. (Item #4)   Lightning is a killer. (Item #5)   If the worst does happen, this brochure can help you in your efforts to get back to normal. (Item #6)  

As always, we look forward to hearing your comments & insights regarding business continuity. If you have a topic you'd like us to cover, email me at [email protected].

Bob Mellinger, President
Attainium Corp

1. Hurricanes - basic business continuity advice

Strohl Systems has issued a list of top ten tips which organizations should consider when planning to protect businesses against hurricanes.
http://www.continuitycentral.com/news0572.htm

2. Flood preparation guide for your business

Floods are one of the most common and widespread of all disasters and are growing in frequency and severity due to the impact of global warming. This information can help improve your preparations and your flood plan.
http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/business/topics/32354.aspx
Business flood checklist:
http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/business/topics/flooding/32358.aspx

3. Beat the Heat - Summer Safety Rules

Heat disorders generally have to do with a reduction or collapse of the body's ability to shed heat by circulatory changes and sweating, or a chemical (salt) imbalance caused by too much sweating. When heat gain exceeds the level the body can remove, or when the body cannot compensate for fluids and salt lost through perspiration, the temperature of the body's inner core begins to rise and heat-related illness may develop.
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/oun/?n=safety-summer-summersafety

4. Power protection basics

The ever-increasing deployment of networks, client/server computing platforms, and distributed computing systems have raised the potential adverse impact caused by sustained power outages. According to a Contingency Planning & Management survey, 45.3 percent of all computing and network equipment or data loss failures reported are attributed directly to power failures or surges.
http://www.continuitycentral.com/feature039.htm

5. Lightning-The Underrated Killer

Because lightning usually claims only one or two victims at a time and does not cause mass destruction of property, it is underrated as a risk. While documented lightning injuries in the United States average about 300 per year, undocumented injuries are likely much higher. Lightning Safety Week: June 20-26, 2010
http://www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov/overview.htm

6. Getting Back to Business

Following disaster, it is anything but business as usual. The faster you can return to some level of normal operations the quicker you can restore income, jobs, and the goods and services your community has come to depend on.
http://disastersafety.org/resource/resmgr/pdfs/gb2b10.pdf