What Every Small Business Owner Must Do to Prepare for Hurricane Irene

It appears likely that Hurricane Irene may make a direct hit on Long Island over the upcoming weekend. We want you to know that New Millennium is actively monitoring the forecasts and taking several steps to assist our clients, friends, and neighbors in the event of any impact.

Please review the following list of eight recommendations and share it with the appropriate members of your team. We obviously hope that none of us will suffer any impact, personally or professionally, from this storm. One of my favorite sayings is, "Better to have a plan and not need it than need a plan and not have it", so hopefully the simple step of reading this post and taking these recommendations seriously, will help you weather the storm (yes, the pun is intended) without issue.

1. Prepare For a Power Outage:
It is highly likely that you will lose power during this storm. As a result, we are strongly recommending that all non-essential equipment be powered down. All personal computers, printers, copiers, phone systems, scanners, etc. should be powered off and unplugged from the wall outlets for the weekend. If your servers are protected by battery backup power (UPS), however, it is highly likely that you may endure a power outage that will outlast the ability of your battery backups to keep your systems up and running. Due to this fact, we also recommend you consider shutting down your servers as well, to ensure maximum safety. Obviously if you power down your servers, you may lose the ability to send and receive e-mail during this time, so you want to evaluate what the impact of not having e-mail during this time may be. 

2. Remove Backups Off-Site:
If you are not presently using an automated off-site backup, to ensure that your backups are safely outside of your office, you will want to be certain that you have a complete copy of your most recent backup taken off-site Friday evening.

3. Find Out What Your Building Management Office Plans Are:
The loss of power is expected when a hurricane hits. Some building management groups have turned off power on the complete building before the storm hits. If these are their plans, please shut down your equipment in order to avoid abrupt shutdowns. This includes computers, servers, phone systems, fax machines, copiers, UPS's, etc.

4. Remove Equipment from Floor & Move All Equipment Away from Windows:
If your office has a risk of flooding, this can obviously create significant issues with the computer equipment. Please make sure that all equipment is at least 12" off the ground. Make sure to move all equipment at least 6 feet away from windows.

5. Document ALL Emergency & Support Numbers:
It is important to document all emergency and technical support numbers and take them with you off-site. As an example, your Internet Service Provider and telephone line provider. If you do not have access to your office, you will need to contact these providers quickly to make other arrangements. Please make sure you have this documentation on paper since computers may not be accessible. 

6. Take Pictures of Your Offices and Equipment:
Digital pictures can be stored on multiple pieces of equipment and backed up on your server as well. These pictures will be very handy if your office were to be effected by the hurricane.

7. Make Arrangements to Use Other Vehicles of Communication:
If your server and/or internet provider are not up and running, you should be able to communicate through a different vehicle. Please remember that cell phone service should remain up, but may be interrupted. Texting or free e-mail services like Gmail may provide a short term way to communicate should your office lose power for an extended period of time. 

8. Business Continuity Plan (BCP):
While today is not the time, you should periodically dust off your Business Continuity Plan (BCP) plan and see how well it still applies. If possible, go through a test and make sure all of the required personnel and systems are still available and aware of their roles. Your BCP should include how to contact fellow employees and clients in case the office is unavailable, where to meet and what you will need to function as a company. Distribute cellular numbers as well as home numbers to key team members. Assign an out of area contact to be available to receive information from your employees in case of emergency. If you don’t have a BCP, you should. Once we get through this Hurricane, please feel free to contact me to discuss getting a BCP in place for your company so you will always have that plan that we all hope you will never need.

All of us at New Millennium hope you will weather this storm without issue and that your family, friends and co-workers will all remain safe and sound. If you have any questions or concerns about preparing for this weekend, please feel free to call our office at (631) 648-8647 and talk with a member of our team. We will be here throughout, with all hands monitoring the storm and any potential impact.

Frank Bravata is president of New Millennium Technology Services, a Long Island Computer Support firm. Connect with him on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.