What can be said when looking at the results of Superstorm Sandy one year later? The evidence is overwhelming that, despite a year, recovery still isn’t completed yet. While that might sound alarming, it’s not surprising when you consider so many other sites destroyed by natural disasters now take years before they can fully recover. Overall, there’s plenty of sobering statistics that show businesses were very much unprepared for Sandy and lost millions of dollars.
Unfortunately, there’s also emerging evidence that businesses still don’t bother to prepare for events like this, despite the lessons learned.
How Much Businesses Lost
A lack of business continuity plans made many businesses in the New Jersey and New York areas completely fall apart after Sandy hit. NBC News reported recently that there was $70 billion in damages, with half of that right in the U.S. regions hit the hardest. Imagine how much of a financial hardship that likely caused many families owning businesses that couldn’t re-open their doors.
Had they received business continuity services, they could have quickly gone to another location to resume their business. They also could have had equipment delivered to them, plus their database information restored through a remote cloud service.
Despite this being known by many people, there’s still a real frustration developing on the lack of preparation for other businesses in the New York area. In fact, it’s downright alarming at the lack of preparation for emerging threats from natural disasters.
What Surveys Are Finding
The above NBC News report indicates that half of 266 surveyed small businesses in the New York City area have no plans for disaster preparation. This isn’t to say some aren’t thinking about it more seriously. Awareness is beginning to happen about the importance of backup power with generators. That’s because the power grids were especially vulnerable in the New York area after Sandy.
Some businesses have even gone as far as installing submarine doors to keep water out. Moves like that give some glimmer of hope in not forgetting to prepare. Even so, some of those plans are merely concentrated on one thing rather than being comprehensive.
The Importance of a Comprehensive Continuity Plan
A business is very complex thing to run, and you’re going to need a comprehensive continuity plan if you want everything to run smoothly after a disaster. It’s why you should think about everything from extracting your data, equipment and relocation if need be. Thinking about those things on your own is essential, because it’s clear the government can’t help everyone immediately, including a year later.
Here at Continuity Centers, we provide a very comprehensive business continuity plan that you’ll be glad to have when the time comes for use. We not only provide instant recovery of your data from our cloud service, but we also provide workgroup recovery systems where we can deliver equipment or have it available for you in another location.
Taking the initiative in a time when natural disasters could be much too common is essential for your business, no matter where you live.
Contact us if you have any questions or comments about our business continuity services. In existence since 1999, Continuity Centers is one of the leaders in helping businesses stay on their feet when the unexpected strikes. Don’t end up being a statistic of financial loss as far too many businesses became after Sandy.