On April 8, 2014, a tornado touched down in the small southern town of Louisville Mississippi. The EF-4 tornado’s wind and debris field carved a path diagonally through the town of around 5,000 people and claimed the lives of 10 of its inhabitants. Dozens of local businesses, the E911 service, and the county’s only hospital was destroyed during the storm which compounded the delay and confusion for providing medical and emergency service response efforts. Part of my responsibilities included the restoration of E911 communication and ensuring that the emergency first responders were able to communicate with the various emergency services and for the coordination of providing care for the injured and endangered. The initial scene was chaotic, and urgency was required for the restoration of primary systems and communication services to the minimum tolerable level of operation required to meet the needs of the first responder network. When communication was restored, the plan for response and recovery was put into motion, and the systematic restoration of less critical systems and services was completed.

Similarly, the modern enterprise may be faced with a catastrophic event that tests the level of preparedness which stems from thorough and actionable risk analysis and disaster recovery strategy. This strategy will need to discover the threats that are high impact and likely to occur and provide the personnel and resources required for a proper response. Prior to the actual event, IT managers and disaster recovery experts should work to investigate and establish a plan of action that seeks to discover the order and level of response for each of the affected critical business assets and provide the systematic recovery of these systems, processes, and critical services, to help minimize the impact on physical, financial, and human assets within an enterprise.

What is the most common natural threat that faces your business or personal property? In what ways have you prepared to respond when impacted by this threat?