On Tuesday, March 28, 2000, an F-3 tornado hit downtown Ft. Worth, Texas, at 6:18 PM and caused $500 million of damage in the next ten minutes.
For up to thirty days, tenants of the affected buildings were not allowed to access their offices, computer, files and on-site data storage. If this scenario occurred today, would your organization be prepared? Could your organization survive a disruption of business of this magnitude?
In light of the recent anniversary of September 11th, take a moment to assess your preparedness for such a catastrophic event.
When Ft. Worth tenants were allowed to reenter their buildings in 2000, some found entire offices gone, hard files damaged by rain, and computer files unrecoverable. Have you thought about off-site data storage, alternate office locations and transferring operations in a timely manner?
The picture to the right is the Cash America International Building, located near the intersection of 7th and Penn Street, which was extensively damaged by the tornado. You can see completely through the building! In an article published in the Amarillo Globe-News on March 30, 2000, David Koenig quoted Mr. Telzrow, “Most companies have a disaster plan that includes storage of key financial and computer data in another location that is fortified against disaster, and they carry property and business-interruption insurance to cover short-term damage”, Telzrow said.
Is this true of your organization? Get started by reviewing FEMA’s Ready Responder toolkit. Then contact us to work on your plan.