Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery

Prepare Your Business for a Hurricane

Hurricane Laura formed early Tuesday morning, as the storm’s center crossed into the Gulf of Mexico. Laura is expected to make landfall along the Gulf Coast as a Category 3 and strike near the Louisiana-Texas border late Wednesday or early Thursday, according to the National Hurricane Center.

 

Most Houston-area residents are running through their hurricane preparedness checklists. It’s important that your business take precautionary measures and be ready for an impactful event. That means having plans for dealing with high winds, potential flooding, power outages and possible evacuation orders. Hurricane Laura’s long westward trip across the Gulf will give it time to strengthen, which could be detrimental for Houstonians. Here are a few tips to help you prepare, in the event your organization goes into Business Continuity Mode.

 

1.) Ensure your team has a communications plan and check-in protocols

  • Email
  • Chat
  • Text

 

2.) Move all assets to secure locations

  • Off the floor
  • Away from windows

 

3.) Power down all non-essential electronic equipment

  • Confirm you have good backups
  • All systems are backed up, offsite

 

4.) Test restores have been completed successfully

Backup planning is useless if you can’t successfully restore your backups. Spot testing a few files simply isn’t enough.

 

5.) Ensure essential employees and processes are accounted for

  • Payroll
  • AR/AP
  • Service Delivery

 

 

It’s important to actively communicate with your team and provide updates regarding your Business Continuity Plan. Supplying employees with a checklist and other resources is a must, in the event a catastrophe does occur. Mapping everything out helps to alleviate anxieties associated with any potential disaster.

 

Concerned about your business? Your emergency is our emergency. Get more information on business continuity and disaster recovery, before it’s too late.

 

 

Haylee