DIS-AS-TER (di zas' ter) n. Any happening that causes harm or damage; calamity.

A simple definition is: An event whose timing is unexpected and whose consequences are seriously destructive or simply an unfortunate event.

The key elements are suddenness, unexpectedness and significant destruction. Lastly, sometimes it involves a lack of foresight or planning. Since no one knows when or how an event will occur, we must be ready.

ALL DISASTERS ARE ALIKE

That may be a bit of an overstatement, but it's true that disasters, whatever the source, have some common causes and effects. The causes are either nature related or man made, and the effects are property damage and business interruption.

Essentially, all companies are vulnerable to natural disasters such as storms, hurricanes, tornadoes and extreme temperatures. Several others that can affect your business are man-made disasters; vehicle damage, fire, hazardous material issues, nuclear accidents, vandalism, riots and product tampering. A business may need to prepare for some of these events, or, if it has multiple office locations many of the above and more.

Typically, when a disaster strikes, it is usually unexpected or prepared for. Oftentimes business owners and managers have a preliminary disaster plan in place. Generally in situations when the unexpected happens, valuable time is lost and additional time is needed to recover due to lack of proper planning. With a professional disaster recovery contractor in place prior to the event your business can eliminate the miss-steps commonly made and have your business back up and running much quicker.

This manual provides valuable assistance to the people in your organization who are tasked with preparing and dealing with disaster situations that may never occur. Disasters are something that can be dealt with more efficiently if time and resources are in place prior to the event. This manual covers the basics for fire and water damage

GETTING COMMITMENT

The basic key to beginning or revising a successful disaster recovery plan is to gain the commitment from your organization for disaster recovery planning. Without this commitment and the resources of your organization, your planning efforts cannot succeed. There will be many obstacles in your path. Among the attitudes and issues you must overcome are:

"Recovery plans are too hard and time consuming to set up"

"We won't have a disaster"

"Disasters only happen to large companies"

"We can get by"

The following sections will assist you in preparing to overcome those obstacles and others needed in order for you to be successful in developing a disaster plan.

AWARENESS

You must make people in your organization aware that they are exposing the business and themselves to severe business losses by not doing the disaster planning needed prior to an event. Your mission is to keep your business alive and operating in the event of a severe emergency; you're not going to do it without the cooperation of your co-workers.

You can use the following techniques to create awareness:

• Present your case for disaster planning. Use opportunities like staff meetings, company presentations, in-house seminars, management meetings.
• Sponsor presentations and discussions by experts in disaster recovery. Contact your Statewide Disaster Restoration representative for an appointment.
• Sponsor discussions with others like yourself or your business that have been affected by a disaster.
• Write awareness articles in company newsletters. Describe how disaster recovery is important to maintaining business activity, and how it can save valuable time and money. Improving corporate function and maintaining day to day operations is important to everyone.
• Collect examples of recent disasters and circulate copies of articles, summaries and press clipping throughout the organization. Present case studies and describe what could happen to your business had a similar event taken place.

PREPAREDNESS IN THE NEW MILLENIUM

Preparedness is and has been the hot topic since the mid-90s. Nationwide, there is a growing interest in both public policy and the private sector to put into effect the tools needed to ensure your business survives when disaster strikes.

Public policies are being written to mandate a working plan be in place at all levels of government. Corporations are realizing that a plan must be in place to assure "business as usual" when disaster strikes. With our competitive environment, companies cannot afford to be down for extended periods without loosing valuable contacts and clients.

Our reliance on electronics forces us to be realistic about what can go wrong. A major catastrophic event can cause many companies to suffer long term recovery problems in the absence of a well developed and executed disaster plan.

THEREFORE WE PLAN

In the last few years disaster recovery planning, crisis management, contingency planning, risk analysis and business resumption activities have grown steady and are at an all time high. Every business should now be planning or preparing a plan approved by management, implemented and tested by all key players involved in the recovery process.

Once the top priority of safeguarding human life has been achieved the focus of mitigating the loss or damage becomes the top priority. Resuming normal business operations or as close to normal as possible given the extent of the disaster is also a main focus at this time.

THE ROLE OF STATEWIDE DISASTER RESTORATION

The types of disasters or events can widely vary from a broken pipe to a major structural fire in a high rise. Also of concern can be tornadoes and other acts of nature. As a professional insurance repair general contractor, we offer 24/7 service with typically a one hour response time upon receiving your call. We have our own fleet of water extraction vehicles, drying equipment, odor removal equipment, emergency board up crews and a trained labor pool to assist you in getting your facility back up and running quickly. As a general contractor we have alliances and the ability to manage any type of event that may occur, from electrical concerns, HVAC issues, electronic recovery and restoration, document recovery and drying, electronic media issues and contents cleaning. Our staff has and will schedule all required tradespeople, inspections, paperwork and permit issues. We have scheduled competent trades people in shifts around the clock to expedite your return to your facility.

As a licensed general contractor we are truly a one stop shop for your disaster recovery needs. We have completed projects as small as a sink overflow to major structural floods and fires.

A WORD ABOUT THE INSURANCE INDUSTRY, RESTORATION AND YOUR BUSINESS RECOVERY

Risk managers, controllers, financial officers or the president of your company will act to contact the agent or broker at the time of a loss or event, setting in motion a chain of events. The agent or broker will call a claims center and they will assign your loss to a company representative. In the meantime, at the loss site you will need to move forward with the mitigation and documentation of the loss. Getting photos or video at this time will benefit you greatly.

Most insurance policies read "YOU" the insured, are responsible for the immediate mitigation of the damage pending arrival of the insurance company representative. When they do get to the site they will work with you and your contractor/vendors to develop a scope of services and repairs to address the damage. This scope will take into consideration such things as priority needs, cost to repair or replace and the amount of time required to complete the process.

Final decisions are yours to make. The insurance company will guide you, but cannot make the decisions on your behalf.

In a regional event, you may be on your own for 72 hours or more. The insurance company may need to set up offices and bring in more personal to respond to your needs but you will have important decisions to make in the meantime.