Disaster Preparedness Tips For Businesses

Agility Recovery Solutions, a provider of disaster recovery and business continuity services, issued its top-five disaster preparedness tips every business in hurricane-prone states should take in advance of a storm.

1. Create an employee communication plan.
Create a phone and e-mail tree for all employees and their spouses or closest relatives, including personal e-mail addresses and phone numbers at potential employee evacuation sites. Make sure employees know ahead of time how to exchange or obtain information should standard lines of communication fail.

2. Assess your critical business functions.
Evaluate and document company functions and determine what processes, employees, equipment and materials are critical for your daily operations. Prioritize these functions and determine a process for restoring them.

3. Plan for an alternate location.
Devise a plan for recovery if your office is inaccessible. Where would you go to continue basic operations? Alternate site options include your home, a branch or second location, the site of a similar business or a vendor that provides mobile office recovery.

4. Back up your data and plan to restore your technology.
Make sure to store your data in an off-site, safe and secure location, preferably 50 miles or more from your site. Verify that you are able to retrieve your data. Outline a plan to replace PCs, software, servers, printers and fax machines should your office be affected.

5. Assemble an emergency disaster recovery kit.
An emergency kit should contain items such as fresh water, non-perishable food, flashlights, extra batteries, battery-powered radio, first aid kit and copies of important documents and records.

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