Recovery
Plan
Failing to plan is
planning to fail.
A recovery plan needs to be based on physical and technical capabilities of a business. If your physical plan is missing contingencies then your IT may not be covered either.
Contact Lowcountry Computing, we got IT covered.
843-766-9268
Lowcountry Computing, LLC can cover the IT needs of pre and post storm. We are local and have experience and lessons learned from previous hurricanes.
We also have relationships with local remediation specialist that can help in pre-storm prep and post-storm recovery.
How can we help? 843-766-9268
A Hurricane Will Make Land Fall
Your Business Will Be Impacted
Master Contact List digital and hard copy in waterproof container
Each Employee: Full Name, Phone Number, Home Address, Emergency Contact Info
Notice to all Employees: Alternative Contact info, Status Check-In / Updates - text, call, phone tree, app
Vendors: (Insurance, Banking, Power/Utility, Internet, Contactors, Property Manager / Landload)
Role, Name, Contact Info, Policy / Account Numbers, who is listed as a contact in your company
Post-Storm should be distributed to multiple employees, in the event you are not able to access the business
Safety First: Wait for "all clear" before returning to sites. Establish a preset list of condition to open / do not open a location. Photograph all damage and send/save to agreed location. Keep all receipts for expenses related to repairs, contact insurance, have pre-vetted contractors for repairs, board up windows/cover roof to mitigate additional damage. Do not discard damaged items.
Can you help? have answers ready for request for help post-storm.
Extending additional credit to existing customers, suppling community with resources, employees contributing time to help others in need, sharing office space / internet / power. These are all special request during a stress full time. Have a guild pre-set based on your company status and what (if any) help you can extend.
Back to work, can I work from home... Some jobs can be done from home and others cannot. Some employees can work from home and others say they can. Some technology works from home and others does not. Establish how this is going to work both technically and physically before a hurricane has you and your employees in a hard conversation.
Shelter In Place For Hours
What's the Situation? hazardous air quality, police situation, weather conditions, traffic accident blocking building.
Account for all employees, visitors, and contractors by doing a head count. Large offices or public spaces should have an on going idea of who is at a location. Designate one person per gathering area to monitor official updates (text if event requires remain silent) and one person to exchange information with other gathering areas. Close doors and windows, gather in interior room(s). If air quality issue priority positioning based on health issues. Gathering rooms should have emergency supplies available for extended stay (flash lights, water, first aid kit). For events with no direct personal threat consider having small snacks and community games to pass the time.
Lowcountry Computing, LLC can help with the recording of on-site employees, guest, and vendors. Also, we can help with camera monitoring of building in internal rooms, alarms & panic buttons, and access control to lock down an office. We have existing relationships with providers of gun safety, CPR Training, and suppliers for first-aid kits. I also have a few suggestions on what snacks to keep on hand :-)
Traffic At A Standstill
Stay Safe While Stuck in Gridlock
Once you're in a standstill, stay calm and patient—frustration won't make traffic move faster and can lead to risky decisions. Keep your phone untouched unless you're safely parked, as using it while driving is illegal in South Carolina..
No tech solution here, but if you want to swap podcast or audio books, let me know.
- John, EIEIO
ai image of how it feels this side of Ashley Phosphate.
Lowcountry Computing knows a good defense attorney, if you are allegedly breaking the no cell phone law.
Be Prepared for Extended Standstills
Keep entertainment ready to reduce stress—have a planned podcast or audiobook queued up to play when traffic stops, so you can stay engaged without touching your phone while driving. Keep water and snacks on hand to stay comfortable during long delays. A warm Blue Can aluminum-canned water or Datrex Emergency Water plus beef jerky with dry cereal for dessert can be a satisfying meal, if you're stuck for hours. Keep your fuel tank at least half full so you have plenty of range if you're stuck for hours or need to detour. Use your phone only when safely parked to notify your client, office, or family that you're delayed and give them an estimated arrival time. Listen to local traffic radio or check navigation apps when traffic begins moving for updates on the cause of the delay. Keep your seatbelt on and doors locked, especially during nighttime or if the standstill is due to an accident or police incident.
Minimum viable business - Can you run your business without electricity? Can you run it from a laptop? Can you run it from a cell phone?
Running on minimum requires practice and planning. Syncing or exporting contacts including basic client & vendor information can help prevent being stuck in the dark during a service interruption.
Dominion Energy has a service with Smart Meters that will alert you when your business losses power, via text message from 64312. As long as you have provided a cell phone number to under your online account.
Large Enterprise and multi-tenant building need to register to receive the alerts. Contact your land lord for leasing shared space or call 800-251-7234 (Mon-Fri 8am-5pm) for large enterprise.
Santee Cooper's method is enrollment in My Emergency Link (MEL) for all by calling 888-769-7688 or visiting https:\\stormcenter.santeecooper.com.
Lowcountry Computing can setup hours of emergency power, setup alerts from APC when power is out, or connect you with an electrician to setup solar or generator.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/servicesagreement
The same type of wording is in all cloud hosting agreements
On the Cloud is not a Backup
A provider offering 99% up time can still be down 3 days.
Your cloud service provider could be up, but your ability to reach them can be impacted by other services.
Lowcountry Computing can help with secondary Internet service and off line procedures to stay open when your cloud service is unavailable or unreachable.
A business continuity plan should address a range of disruption scenarios, including geopolitical conflict (war or sanctions), technical failures (cyber incidents, infrastructure outages), and workforce advocacy (strikes, labor actions). These events differ in cause but share a common impact: reduced availability of critical goods and services.
Risk Identification / Assessment & Preparedness / Mitigation can be too broad to include in a Response Plan. Some recovery requires adaptation strategy. Identifying critical goods and services and how long you can operate without each of them. Establish secondary relationships to prevent down time.
Need help with risk assessment? We can help with the technology and for the physical side, we know a guy.
Some service interruptions are unavoidable, if you do not know your commercial insurance guy, we can introduce you to ours.