How does a Business or Company prepare for a disaster?

I had both worlds.
One cheap boss during a fire evacuation laid off every one. That's when i hired on to a better company.
Another employer was cutting back 500 + people and i was laid off but received pay as though is was still there . got reinstated to fulfill the companies contract for a few months and relaid off , but got paid severance for a year till I reached retirement.
Had over a dozen jobs in my lifetime, not all the same thankfully .too much to learn in life, if you have the opportunity .
Being prepared is a personal responsibility , not a public responsibility .However it is nice when the company you work for does take some initiative to go the extra mile.

 

I just received this from my workers comp company, Pinnacol. They are the largest in CO and I thought this was a good newsletter.

Emergency readiness 101: Are you prepared?
2017 was a dramatic year for the nation. Between Hurricane Harvey, Irma and Maria, which devastated the East, and wildfires that ravaged the West, last year was the costliest year of natural disasters on record. An estimated $306 billion in damages was the result of 16 major catastrophes. With heat waves and torrential flooding becoming the norm, it pays to be prepared for the future.

September is National Preparedness Month, and here at Pinnacol, we’re dedicated to helping you and your team mitigate disasters before they happen. Floods, fires hail and snowstorms are just a few of the natural disasters that are unique to Colorado. But in the event of any type of emergency, a shared vision of emergency preparedness is crucial for saving your team’s lives, and money. Here are a few crucial tips in preparing for natural disasters in the workplace.

Educate the team
Basic knowledge of first aid and CPR can be lifesaving in an emergency. Take the time to arrange a workshop through the Red Cross, in which an expert Red Cross instructor comes to your workplace with all the necessary training tools to teach First Aid, CPR, and AED to your employees. It’s painless, and one of the most effective, preventative steps you can take in emergency preparedness.

Also, educate yourself and your employees about your region’s unique risks. Schedule a morning meeting in which you and your team brainstorm disaster preparedness unique to your region’s historical disasters. Using FEMA’s data visualization page that details Colorado’s 80 natural disasters since 1953, your team can better understand what disasters to prepare for.

Make an emergency preparedness plan
It sounds daunting, but creating an emergency preparedness plan is like having a multitool in your back pocket. It’s always going to be there when you need it. Follow these simple steps and you and your team will be leaps and bounds ahead when disaster strikes.

1. Assign roles

Give each and every one of your employees a duty in the event of a disaster. The most common roles include emergency leaders, rescue and medical duties, and those who remain on-premise even after evacuation. But all workplaces are different, and you and your staff will need to brainstorm how each person contributes to the team’s safety when disaster strikes.

1. Create an evacuation plan

Finding a safe assembly place for the team is of top concern, so make sure you pick a room in your building without windows, and with strong, sturdy walls that is sizeable enough for your entire team to fit in. Now think about how your employees can safely get to that room. Make sure all emergency exits are clearly marked, that all stairwells are easily accessible in case of electrical outages, and that any employees with disabilities are able to safely evacuate, too.

1. Report, react, communicate
   • Be ready to report a disaster in the blink of an eye, whether it’s to superiors or to public authorities.
   • Know how to shut off the building’s gas and water supply in the event of a natural disaster.
   • Have a game plan of storing critical data off-site.
   • If the phone lines are down, have a back-up plan for communicating. Walkie-talkies are a simple but effective solution.

We understand that putting together a preparedness plan can be a challenge,

 

Also in the article above is this: Data Visualization: Disaster Declarations for States and Counties | FEMA.gov
This is a very interesting link. It give a person the info as to what disasters are most likely to happen in their area. Help a prepper know what to prep for.

 

Big hole in that plan.You have all your eggs in one basket 72 hrs of fuel is usually never enough.
1.You need a Nat Gas generator switched in the Lead position.
2. Diesel gen. in the Lag position in the event your Nat.Gas is disrupted.

 

Not my datacenter, I'm just the customer colocating, and if they were going to be out for more than 6 hours we would declare a disaster event and move the entire workload to the DR site in about 4 hours. Then, they could do whatever and the site without the disaster would be primary.

And in 25 years in corporate America I have never seen a datacenter generator that was Nat gas primary. Not saying they don't exist, just saying I've never experienced it.

 

That's how we ran things in the GOM (Gulf of Mexico) A disaster event was a storm entering the Gulf, I have been evacuated by boat or Helicopter more times than I can remember.
The Nat Gas was in Primary lead position, Diesel was in the Lag position.
1/2 the time the Nat Gas gen was still online when we remanned the offshore platforms.
1/2 of the time everything was shut-in down to the waterline.
Perhaps it's time to upgrade the facility thru the oil company's experience?
I realize its not your dog and pony show datacenter,
However we had different stages of preparing for evacuation plans.

 

Make sure the big generator is in good working order and that the 500 gallon diesel reserve it topped off. Not much else that can be done in my situation beyond keeping the freezers running.

 

I was the operations manager and Business Continuity Planner for a large telecom company.

All the backup power gen sets ran on LPG.outside of Anchorage This to reduce odor complaints from neighbors

See the fiber optic Landing Station located in Seward, AK
Google Maps

It now only has 4 farmyard bombs for gas, as originally built it had 16.

I think the City finally had to step in and have some of the tanks removed, you can see the foundations where the other tanks sat.

Complaints (and suits) over the smell from diesel gensets was a constant problem. Adding 'diesel perfume' (yes, it is a thing) helped, but as the upgraded the site, the fuel was changed over to LPG. It is the better choice.

 

@DarkLight this is a complex issue.
Data back up
Back up power and water and cooling or heating

cross training employees because many employees either cant or wont come to work in a disaster.
Supplies for employees who do come into work

Emergency evac procedures and get home help for employees

I did some work for a medium to large family owned business who were very dedicated to employee retention. They had back up plans within back up plans and still could not prepare for everything. They even had Mobil apps with teams to find solutions for employees during emergencies. It was an impressive company in how they thought out how to care for the people who worked for them and their families as well as the disaster plans. They told me this was a series of process they had been working on for over 10 years and they continue to refine it.