Disaster Recovery Journal

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The best value. Years of experience. Set Your Course to the industry’s largest conference dedicated to business continuity.

Attendees can choose from more than 40 sessions, workshops and courses at Spring World 2008. In addition, there are hospitalities, receptions, networking breakfasts and lunches, and more.

Sign up now to reserve your spot! Our conferences fill to the maximum. Don’t lose your chance to participate. Highlights of what you can expect at Spring World 2008 include:

The Monday Evening Hospitality is hosted by Forsythe. This festive event allows attendees time for networking, fun and friendships. It is a great opportunity to mingle and relax with other attendees, speakers and exhibitors.

Mock Disaster Exercise
The Mock Disaster Exercise is a popular session that allows attendees to participate in a simulated disaster. This workshop is held on Sunday afternoon and is limited to 200 participants.

Cyber City
Attendees can surf the Internet and check email at the Cyber City. Sponsored by SunGard Availability Services, the Cyber City is open during a variety of hours for the convenience of attendees.

Exhibition Hall
View the latest products and services when you visit the exhibition hall. This event is open during many of the show hours to provide convenient access. Visit often and take advantage of this great networking opportunity.

Welcome Reception
Join attendees, exhibitors and speakers in this fun-filled kick-off reception! The perfect way to start the conference.

Networking Breakfasts and Lunches
Attendees can enjoy delicious meals on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday while networking with peers. It is a great opportunity to meet others in an enjoyable environment.

Conference Follow Up 

A few presentations were not ready in time for both the Conference Book or CDs.  We have provided them here for you.   

General Session 4
Enterprise Risk Management & BC at DOW
David Kepler II, Dow Chemical Company
Download The PDF (1.8MB)  

Technical Session 4
Intermediate/Advanced
Leveraging Maturity Models for Effective IT Risk Management – Case Studies
David Nolan, Fusion Risk Mgmt.
Download The PDF (1.8MB)   

General Session 5
BC vs. DR vs. HA vs. EM vs. RM vs. CM: Is the Difference Only Terminology?
Belinda Wilson, CBCP, Hewlett-Packard
Download The PDF (1.8MB)  

Pictures from this year's Spring World 2008 have been released! To view them, click here!

We are proud to announce the session lineup for Disaster Recovery Journal’s 38th conference, Spring World 2008. Our conference is planned with you in mind! We have arranged speakers and topics that will address the risks and challenges planning professionals face on a daily basis.

Our theme is Global Solutions for Business Continuity Planning. You will find a variety of subjects at Spring World 2008 that address the global front of BC planning.

We have sessions dedicated to budgets, communications, pandemics, human resources, resiliency, risk management, emergency operation centers and much more.

We select our speakers based on their merit and experience - not on the products they could sell. A few of our general session speakers are highlighted on page 3 - but all of our speakers are impressive and each session is equally as important.

At Spring World 2008, we are offering for the first time a general session and a breakout that will offer an indepth look at a global companies’ plans. The first will be presented by the CIO of Dow Chemical and the second by his disaster recovery team. This type of collaborative presentation will provide attendees a view of the business continuity picture from all perspectives. We hope to continue this trend at future conferences.

Our reputation is that of a solid, strong business continuity conference. We deliver what we promise. In addition to our new offerings, we also have kept all the popular events that keep planners attending year after year!

Take a few moments to browse the brochure, select the sessions of interest to you and register on page 17. Don’t miss your opportunity to attend the world’s largest conference dedicated to business continuity.

I look forward to seeing you in Orlando!

A SPECIAL REPORT FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

by Richard L. Arnold, CDRP

At 7:00 P.M. October 18, 1989, I sat down to watch the World Series, as many others did, when suddenly the channel went off the air. Soon thereafter came a message stating that San Francisco just had an earthquake. As time went on, they announced that the quake measured 7.0 on the Richter Scale and the bay bridge had collapsed. They also mentioned an enormous amount of fires that occurred from gas explosions, and contended that this was a disaster of catastrophic proportions. This was "the big one" that everyone has been predicting for a long time. By this time I had a mental vision that San Francisco was about to break off into the ocean. I then decided then to fly to San Jose to see the extent of the destruction firsthand.

I left Wednesday, October 19 for San Jose. With the constant news updates relating the death and destruction that occurred in the afflicted areas, I was somewhat reluctant to go, not knowing to expect. I kept calling the airlines to confirm that the airport was open. One report said the San Jose airport was indeed open but the San Fransciso airport was closed due to cracks in the runway.

After I arrived in San Jose, I started inspecting the airport walls for cracks. I soon discovered that neither the airport nor the houses in that area sustained any significant amount of damage.

Later after touring downtown San Francisco, which sustained limited damage to its business district relative to its overall size, as well as other areas that were supposed to be destroyed beyond recognition, I found nothing to substantiate the magnitude of destruction portrayed by different media.

By the end of my first full day in San Francisco, I discovered that most of the news reports on television were either misleading or else partially inaccurate. For example, it was stated on Tuesday that the Bay Bridge would be fixed by Thursday; on Friday, the real word came out that it might be fixed within one to two months. The press focused primarily on the loss of life and the homeless.

What the press didn�t focus on was the impact that the quake had on businesses. In the following paragraphs I will try to focus on these important issues.

The areas hardest hit were:

• Watsonville 
• Los Gatos
• San Fransisco
• Oakland 
• Santa Cruz

Watonsville lost their main business section due to the collapse of buildings and electricity; Los Gatos suffered approximately eight blocks of buildings with major stuctural damage in their business district; San Fransisco had power outages and window breakages; Oakland had approximately 10 blocks with structural damage: and Santa Cruz had approximately 12 square blocks of buildings with major structural damage, and over 50% of these will be on the demolition list.

The police had roped off the areas surrounding these business districts, and no one was allowed in. The contents of some businesses were functionally intact, but the owners or employees were not allowed to cross the police line. This meant immediate loss of revenue. Imagine walking out of your building at 5:00 one day and not being allowed to return for a week or more. I believe that most of the small to mid-size businesses affected by the quake may have to shut down for good because of the time it woul d take for them to rebuild. Not only will the business be lost, but hundreds of employees, many of whom have just endured private losses, will suddenly find themselves unemployed.

First 72 Hours

Cole Emerson, Senior Management Systems Consultant, SRI International, explained the effects that this disaster had on him and business in general:

"I was in my office with three other associates when the floor and walls began to shake violently. I was standing in the doorway and yelled at everyone to get under a desk. I then realized that I was not in the best of positions myself, so I quickly scrambled under a desk. The irony was that the desk was moving across the floor so rapidly that I had a hard time even staying under it. The walls were actually swaying back and forth and the windows were undulating. It seemed to go on for 15 minutes, but w e found out later it was only 15 seconds."

The utilities were the first to be affected by the quake. Electricity and water were instantly cut off in most of the affected areas. The problem was exacerbated by gas ruptures that further delayed the return of electricity. Revenue losses occurred instantly due to electricity loss, police lines preventing entry into buildings, and absence of employees.

When push comes to shove, employees give precedence to their domestic situation over their business. This will almost inevitably include the person(s) in charge of the disaster recovery plan. If a disaster similar to the California earthquake strikes your company, you may not have your allotted personnel there to pick up the pieces. "The only person who would put his company over is his family is a psychotic one," Emerson said. "I could not get my mind back on my job; I couldn't even begin to get focused on my work until late Thursday night."

What was learned from this disaster is that no matter how comprehensive your disaster recovery plan is and how well it is understood by your employees, your workers will virtually abandon the business until they are certain that their domestic situation is secure. Thus, you should appoint several alternates who can fill in if your critical employees are unavailable. If you have employees in another state or a region that is not affected by the disaster, plan ahead for them to replace your indisposed worke rs in the case of an emergency.

If you are using an alternate site for a backup to your business, include these out-of-town employees in your testing phase; make sure that they can restore the principal components of the company. Also, be prepared to assist your key personnel in the personal realm as much as possible--that is, confirm that their families are safe, help them with housing accomodations if necessary, and help to look after their family for the duration of the disaster. Once you take care of these considerations, the critic al employees can focus on the job as quickly as possible.

The plan itself

Make sure the person(s) who has developed your particular plan has substantial credentials in the disaster recovery field. Ideally, you want them to have experience with real disasters that have addressed broad issues of business operations, data processing, and telecommunications. If the expert has no firsthand experience, make sure he has a sound knowledge and understanding of several past disasters of other companies and their aftermaths. You, too, should be attuned to previous disasters and how they were handled (or mishandled) by other companies. Ultimately, a lack of competency in the plan will almost be as dangerous as none at all, for it will give a false sense of security and the financial life of the organization will be at risk.

Because disaster recovery planning is still a relatively new idea, most plans have yet to reach the stage where they are as good as they could be. "As the certification process continues to evolve and standards become stricter and more defined, you will have higher quality plan. But for now, be shrewd in your decision--when you go to select a consultant or an automated Disaster Recovery plan, remember that the automated plan is only as good as the expert who developed it," said Emerson.

A Corporate Perspective

Tom vonNovak, President of the Northern California chapter of the Association of Contingency Planners (ACP), tells how he was on the 17th floor of his 20 story office building when the quake struck at 5:04. Although the building swayed 1 1/2-2 feet during those fateful 15 seconds, it escaped relatively unscathed. The adjoining building, however, "was immediately condemned...the front of the building was maybe ten feet out into the street and all the bricks and mortar were completely down," vonNovak says. "Within fifteen minutes, the building was cleared and there were thousands of people on the street not knowing what to do."

Due to the immediacy and magnitude of this earthquake, several unanticipated adjustments had to be taken into account in response to the emergency. The sudden loss of communications is a prime example of what happened in California, and what could well happen elsewhere. Even if your company has its network backed up with T1 for its data circuits, it may be that, with the phone lines down, no one can make the essential call that will activate the recovery process.

Another unexpected element could be the extent of the long term losses, particularly for small to medium-size corporations. They may not have the resources to withstand a long outage; a San Francisco newspaper article estimated that in the stricken areas of Northern California, up to 25% of the smaller companies will be forced to close their doors.

Financial Impacts on Bay Area

As of Sunday October 22, 1989, the estimated damages had climbed to over $9 billion. This figure can be roughly broken down into two categories: immediate property damages, estimated at $4.1 billion, and business interruption damages, estimated at $5 billion.

Another important economic factor that cannot be overlooked is the relocation factor. VonNovak explained that this as "a reevaluation of where a company is doing business and how much they're going to lose should that general area become temporarily inoperable." Essentially, this refers to the loss of productivity resulting from the actual shutdown of the facility and the subsequent reduced productivity because employees do not report for work. This may be because employees cannot reach their workplace o r other economic factors. For example, the collapsed bridge was a vital artery linking the East Bay area with downtown San Francisco. Suddenly, approximately 200,000 daily commuters must find an alternate route to travel to work. For now, a ferry will take up the slack: however, this will cost each person $8.00 a day as opposed to a $2.00 toll for the bridge.

What We Can Learn From This Disaster

Both executives and their employees can gain valuable hindsight from the California earthquake. Before a disaster strikes, executives must allocate sufficient funds to ensure the safety not only of their individual employees, but also of the organization itself. Ideally, the disaster recovery planner should have direct contact with senior management, rather than filtering information through corporate channels.

Employees should know exactly where they stand in case of a disaster such as an earthquake. They should be aware of the compensations to which they are entitled in case of a disaster, and be certain that there is a clear understanding as to the exact nature of such compensation.

Company Planning

As you reevualate your plan, keep these questions in mind:

• Is your plan up to date? 
• How often do you test it? 
• Does your plan have alternates to your key employees to the plan? 
• Have you considered all aspect of communications?
• What would happen if an extended outage occurs?
• What exactly do you expect from your test?

Statistics from 3 years ago said that only 5% of all corporations have plans. Today that figure has risen to 43%. That still leaves a considerable number of companies unprepared for the worst. Furthermore, of the 43% with plans, only an estimated 60% have tested them.

If you are without a plan, estimate how long it would take recover without one. The cost for recovery without a plan will increase exponentially versus the cost with one. In addition just having a plan is not enough; it is useless to discover that your plan is insufficient or somehow lacking when it is tested under fire.

Building Codes

It seems that the one common denominator in the damaged areas was that none of them had reinforced masonry. The pictures in this article were from Los Gatos, and Santa Cruz. San Francisco has had building codes in effect for over 10 years now and it seems that it has paid off. The loss of life was minimal due to these strict codes.

If an earthquake of that magnitude hit St. Louis, Missouri, the death toll would be much higher. A major portion of the city is unreinforced masonry. In fact my own chruch is only 9 years old and it is not reinforced at all. I dont think the building codes in St. Louis are as strict with regard to earthquakes, and the state and local governments are not as prepared for earthquakes, as Northern California. I am mentioning St. Louis, because I live here and are familar with the city. St. Louis, is not th e only one with this condition. Memphis, Tennessee is closer to the New Madrid Fault line than we are, and they are in the same shape we are. Many towns in Missouri and Tennessee would fall in the same catagory as St. Louis.

Now that I am back in St. Louis, I am going to use my experiencefrom the Bay area, and safegard the welfare of my family. I plan on purchasing earth quake insurance Monday.

Written by Richard Arnold, Editor-in-Chief, Disaster Recovery Journal

At 5:46 am on January 17, 1995, western Japan was rocked by the most destructive earthquake to hit the region. The devastation was the worst in the port city of Kobe, where the 7.2 magnitude quake toppled roadways, wrecked docks, severed communication lines and kept the city in flames into the next day. The quake has taken the lives of more than 5,250 people. Most died in their homes when the earthquake struck. Almost 30,000 people are reported injured causing a massive strain on area hospitals. More than 400,000 people are homeless, filling makeshift shelters swollen to capacity. The death toll grew steadily as rescue teams moved frantically to try and reach those who were trapped under the rubble. Approximately 88,000 buildings have been reported destroyed.

Hardly a block in this industrial port city of 1.4 million people had a house or building intact. Many streets were reduced to piles of rubble. Kobe is the sixth largest port in the world and the gateway for 12% of Japan's exports. No earthquake had struck any major Japanese urban center with such destruction since the great Kanto earthquake of 1923 which killed 140,000 people in Tokyo and Yokohama. Officials expect more than a thousand aftershocks will hit the region in the near future.

Japan is one of the most geologically unstable places on Earth. It has 40 active volcanoes and as many as 1,500 tremors are recorded annually, most of them being minor. In Japan the earthquake is addressed continuously in architecture and civil defense planning. The majority of buildings that collapsed were those with wooden walls that succumbed when the quake rocked their heavy tile roofs. Steel-frame buildings built after 1981 remained virtually undamaged. This was due to their "ductility," the ability to bend without collapsing. As a result, the pre-1981 buildings were left in ruins while the post-1981 buildings held up relatively well.

Tokyo escaped unscathed. The quake was barely felt in the capital located 280 miles to the east where people, awed by the destruction, gathered around televisions. The shaking lasted for 20 seconds and snapped vital lifelines to Western Japan. The worst damage was along the Hanshin Expressway, a major artery between Osaka and Kobe, which collapsed in five places killing 12 drivers.

Other national highways were damaged in 20 locations. The Shinkansen, or high speed "bullet" trains rails were damaged in 36 places and will be closed for at least three months. Local and commuter trains sustained vast damage. The earthquake shattered Japan's belief that sophisticated engineering would enable its newer buildings and roads to withstand a major quake.

The day after the earthquake hundreds of thousands of Kobe residents packed the roads leaving the ruined city. They traveled on foot, bicycles and packed automobiles. Others were trying in vain to enter the city to search for relatives and friends. The airlines were only slightly delayed after Kansai International Airport built on Osaka Bay was closed temporarily the day of the quake.

The earthquake in Japan, the USA's second largest trading partner, has so far had few aftershocks on the U.S. economy, businesses or consumers. The impact should remain light, except for one troubling issue. With damage estimates approaching $100 billion (several times the damage caused by the earthquake in Los Angeles last year) the Japanese government and Japanese insurers are poised to issue a large number of bonds to help pay for rebuilding. This in turn could boost global interest rates.

While shipping containers continue to pile up on California docks, a search for an alternative port other than Kobe is underway. Kobe is Japan's second largest port with more than 30% of all Japanese trade passing through, with a total dollar value equal to the GNP of Canada. Kobe was also an important relay port for China and Korea. Incoming vessels are now being redirected to Yokohama and Tokyo to deliver their goods. Experts think it will take at least a year to repair the damaged port.

Ironically, only three percent of the 350,000 people left homeless have earthquake insurance. A larger portion have fire insurance, but the policy is useless if the fire was caused by an earthquake. This is because Japanese insurance companies make earthquake insurance one of the most expensive policies to buy as well as having the most stipulations. Many Japanese are now trying to seek policies from foreign insurance companies.

The Japanese economy is recoiling from the earthquake in Kobe, but eventually a spurt from reconstruction should help. This means the earthquake will have no effect on Japan's gross domestic product in 1995. Stock investors are keeping their eyes open for "earthquake plays," stocks of companies that might take part in the enormous rebuilding effort under way in Kobe. However, few companies are anxious to go on record as wishing to capitalize on the devastating quake. The most impressive stock plays are issues of Japanese companies expected to have the largest hand in the rebuilding effort. This includes Japanese construction companies, contracting and reinforcement companies, and companies that make temporary housing.

The Kobe, Japan, Earthquake

By Benny D. Taylor, CDRP, Texas Instruments

When the duty manager of Texas Instruments' Worldwide Command Center in Dallas, TX received notification that the communications to TI's joint venture manufacturing plant were down, he had no idea to what extent he would be involved in recovery operations for Japanese business operations. This notification came within minutes of the Kobe 7.2 earthquake on Tuesday, January 17, 1995.

The Worldwide Command Center duty manager realized that he and the Dallas based Information Systems and Services (IS&S) team would be getting involved in providing disaster recovery operational support to the Kobe/TI Semiconductor, Inc. plant.

Although no TI plant was impacted by the Kobe quake, this joint venture semiconductor plant, located about 30 miles North of Kobe, was affected. The venture, Kobe Texas Instruments (KTI) Semiconductor, Inc., employs about 400 people and is jointly owned by T.I.. and Kobe Steel Ltd. TI owns 25 percent and Kobe Steel Ltd., 75 percent. The plant manufactures the 4 and 16 megabyte dynamic random access memories (DRAM) for Texas Instruments.

By mid-morning on the day of the quake, the KTI plant manager reported that there were no injuries to plant employees, and that the KTI manufacturing facility had incurred no structural damage. Some production equipment shifted during the quake, and the remote computer processing support was interrupted--no estimate as to full impact of damages at the remote computer center were known.

Once the full extent of the damages were know--Tuesday, the 17th about noon (CST), the Dallas based IS&S management team formed a Kobe TI Recovery Team. The team established a command center and a call-me telephone bridge for daily team meetings. From the Dallas Worldwide Command Center and the Kobe TI Recovery Team Command Center, all recovery operations were controlled--all decisions jointly discussed and fully implemented.

The Miho computer center had just completed a major technology upgrade during the Christmas holidays. A spare IBM 3090-600 remained on the Miho computer room floor and it was prepped to host the recovery of the Kobe operating system.

The Dallas team was concurrently coordinating the activity of three individual teams: The Miho site restoration team using the surplus IBM 3090-600 processor, the shipment of Kobe Steel Ltd. computer center tapes and DASD to Miho, and the combined IBM-U.S. and IBM-Japan teams who were sourcing strings of DASD (12 volumes) and an IBM 3725 communications controller.

By Thursday, January 19th, all of the essential components necessary for a successful recovery had been assembled at TI's Miho computer center. As the Miho team concentrated on installing, cabling and testing the computer and communications hardware on the Miho computer room floor, the Dallas IS&S team concentrated on documenting the Kobe system recovery slips. The recovery script was produced in less than 48 hours using the TI Universal Manufacturing computer center disaster recovery plan (DRP) script.

By the end of the third day of the KTI recovery, the Kobe operating system had been loaded on the 3090-600. The required DASD had been received from IBM Japan, as well as a critical IBM 3725 communications controller.

It was on Friday, January 20th, that the KTI plant manager declared that all production equipment and test equipment had been completely re-calibrated and that the plant was awaiting the recovery of the computer systems. This semiconductor plant, like many other TI plants, is fully automated and totally dependent upon its semiconductor manufacturing system for its process control.

On day five the semiconductor manufacturing system was recovered to the point of the last tape backup. Now that the factory was in operation, the recovery team took on the task of recovering the applications to the actual point of the interruption. The significance of this restoration of the applications to the actual point of interruption, permitted the KTI manufacturing process to capture all data points necessary to restart the process without loss of any product in the "work in progress" status saving the TI plant $8million--product that otherwise woudl have been scrapped.

The Shock Heard "Round The World'

By John Nevola, ISSC

It was almost uncanny! It was almost as if mother nature decided to say "happy birthday" to the Northridge Quake with another earth-shattering event in Kobe, Japan. Before you point out that the Northridge Earthquake took place last January 17, 1994 and the Kobe quake took place on the sixteenth of January, 1995, keep in mind that Japan is on the other side of the international dateline and it was a day later than in the States; the seventeenth of January! Beyond the coincidence of dates, however, these two earthquakes had little in common when viewed from the perspective of impact to life, property and to the Japanese and world economies.

It will be known for all time as The Great Southern Hyogo Earthquake, named for the prefecture within whose boundaries the port city of Kobe is situated. In just 20 seconds, this crowded, prosperous and bustling center of industry was transformed into a muddle of death and debris. According to geologists, Northridge released the power of its energy in a vertical thrust while the Kobe event exerted a horizontal force that shifted the fault line nearly five feet.

The city of Kobe is one of the most important centers of industry in Japan. With 10% of the population, a full 20% of the gross domestic product flows through this modern city. The port ( the second largest in Japan and the sixth largest in the world) handles 12% of all worldwide Japanese exports and fully 31% of all exports to the United States. All but 4 of the 239 shipping berths were damaged in the quake and this is expected to put a huge dent in the port's transport capacity; a robust 2.7 million containers shipped each year. Manufactured goods from Mitsubishi, Mazda, Toyota, Hosiden (which manufactures liquid crystal screens for laptops) and many other companies with facilities in the area will have to find another means of shipment for the foreseeable future. That is, of course, after they have recovered their businesses sufficiently enough to resume full production. United States based companies with facilities in Kobe like Proctor & Gamble, Eli Lilly, Caterpillar, Texas Instruments and others also suffered at the hands of this disaster but showed a remarkable resiliency in their ability to react and respond. Why is this disaster unique among the many that have occurred in recent times? What happened in the immediate aftermath of this quake and what lessons are to be learned?

Japan has a unique and closely guarded business tradition that is deeply rooted and widely held. One of the mainstays of that tradition is the belief in, and the commitment to, the value of long term planning. The acceptance of this principle is so widespread and the efforts at planning so thorough and precise that contingency plans are not usually developed. The reliance on the effectiveness of this planning is so complete as to make spontaneous action and flexibility very difficult. Kobe, the people were told, was built with state-of-the-art techniques and construction methods designed to withstand severe earthquakes. They believed a disaster could never happen and they were not only wrong but ill prepared to respond to the emergency.

There was no immediate response when the quake subsided. Four hours passed before the governor of the Hyogo Prefecture asked for help from the Japanese Defense Forces. It took the JDF another 5 hours to respond and a full two days before they arrived in Kobe in force. Japanese Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama all but confessed that a lack of preparedness and bureaucratic bungling significantly delayed recovery efforts. Teams of doctors arrived only to be held at the airport for three days because they did not have the necessary licenses to practice in Japan. It took 2 days to get the necessary permission to have 50,000 blankets shipped in from the United States. Tons of emergency supplies stockpiled on US bases in Japan were delayed for days and then only specific items like tents and plastic sheets were requested. Of the 60 nations that offered assistance to the Japanese government, only 20 offers were accepted.

The lack of a workable contingency plan played havoc with the businesses in the immediate areas, particularly for suppliers of parts and components. The widespread Japanese business practice of kanban , the just-in-time inventory methodology, was particularly vulnerable to this type of disaster. Even those plants not in the immediate vicinity of the quake were affected if their suppliers suffered any loss of production whatsoever. There is little if any slack in the precisely tuned flow of component parts and the slightest disruption of even one supplier, or the transport of the component parts, had an inordinate ripple effect up the line to the main manufacturing plant. The tightly coupled interrelationships between suppliers and producers, intensified by inadequate contingency plans, caused disruptions in the flow of materials and on manufacturing that were more significant than they should have been.

The concept of business recovery planning, particularly as it relates to consulting and alternative recovery facilities services, is not as well practiced in Japan as it is in the States. There are no governmental regulations that govern the ability to resume business in the event of a disaster. Most of the companies in Japan are members of a certain keritsu, a family of businesses with common interests that rely upon one another in times of need. It is not unusual for members of a business family to come to depend upon one another with a reciprocal agreement for data processing recovery support. We have come to learn how inadequate reciprocal agreements truly are and more companies in the States are migrating away from them and availing themselves of the full range of services and equipment the US recovery industry has evolved to. That notwithstanding, the l ack of regulatory pressures along with closely knit corporations in a mutually protective business climate has not been entirely fertile ground for the growth of a commercial business recovery industry. As a result, the mature and widely accepted business recovery industry as we know it in the United States is still emerging in Japan.

There were approximately 1700 computer systems in the Kobe area that were somehow affected by the earthquake. The majority of the efforts at recovery involved repair or replacement of computers and peripheral equipment. Over 650 IBM Japan Customer Service Engineers were dispatched into the Kobe area after the quake. They came from all over the country. They brought sleeping blankets, food and clothing with them so as to be able to stay at the customers' locations overnight. Whatever equipment could no t be repaired was replaced. Many customers relocated to areas outside Kobe where replacement equipment was shipped. There were many heroic efforts and wonderful stories of dedication and commitment to customers and some even were able to resume processing within the week. However, there were too few stories of customers executing a previously prepared and fully tested business recovery plan and resuming business within a prescribed time-line.

There were exceptions but they came mainly from Japan based offices of US companies. Proctor & Gamble moved quickly to resume business operations from Osaka after their 30 story office building in Kobe was damaged. The best example, however, was that of Texas Instruments. This US based company has been involved in business recovery planning at a corporate level for nearly 10 years. Led by Ben D. Taylor, a recognized disaster recovery industry expert and TI's Manager of Contingency and Disaster Recovery Planning, the worldwide electronics manufacturer had worked assiduously to design, develop and refine their recovery plans and scripted restoration instructions to a remarkable level of accuracy and precision.

When the Kobe center went down, they were without equipment and without plan. A stroke of luck provided the equipment (they had recently upgraded and the replaced equipment was still handy and available) and a stroke of genius provided the plan. Since Dallas-based TI has worldwide responsibility for applications and systems software, the Japan based systems were virtually identical to the Dallas systems. Ben's team went to work to fine-tune the fully tested recovery scripts and transmitted them to Japan where they worked to perfection. The systems were recovered and operational in about four days. While a marvelous feat, it was not exactly planned to work this way. What made it work, however, was the skill and expertise of a few dedicated people who had previously refined their recovery scripts on the strength of their commitment to contingency planning and testing. Had there been no recovery scripts or had they not been so rigorously tested and precisely refined, it is highly unlikely that this recovery could have taken place anywhere near the relatively short time it took.

As a matter of fact, many US companies with offices in Japan tried valiantly to assist in the business recovery efforts. All of the major recovery industry providers of service, in turn, tried to assist their US subscribers in their exertions to assist their overseas counterparts. Unfortunately, in too many cases, the monumental efforts of many people were not able to achieve after the fact what a fraction of the effort could have achieved before the fact. If there are any lessons to be learned from this disaster, they are certainly not new ones.

Firstly, the age old bugaboo, it can't happen to me, is still as false and empty as it has always been. Regardless of the precautions taken and the assurances given, a disaster can strike at any place at any time. Too many business executives, in many countries, remain in a state of denial about this unshakable truth. It is far more responsible to plan and prepare for a disaster than to deny its possibility. Kobe was virtually destroyed by a disaster that no one was prepared for because it was never supposed to happen!

Second, planning for recovery from a disaster must be realistic and reflective. This requires an accurate business impact analysis to determine what needs to be recovered and how long a period of time that recovery can consume without adversely impacting a business. In addition, a well-drilled recovery plan is required to ensure that the recovery process can be successfully implemented. The heroic efforts to restore services in the aftermath of the Kobe quake were, for the most part, ad hoc. This was true for both the recoveries of the city's infrastructure as well as for the businesses that were impacted. Without a plan, it is impossible to predict or expect a successful recovery. Why, then, do so many companies still leave the outcome to chance?

The after effects of the Kobe Earthquake will be felt around the world. The manufacturing and shipping delays promises to create shortages of certain products across the globe. The shortages will eventually be made up and the Japanese economy is healthy enough to absorb the cost of rebuilding the torn city. Had this catastrophe befallen Tokyo, however, with 31 million inhabitants and a highly centralized and densely packed corporate leadership structure, the results would have been significantly worse.

The lessons of this catastrophe are already being absorbed by both government and business officials alike. More stringent construction standards are being called for, particularly for the rebuilding of Kobe which remains on a major seismic fault line. Many Japanese companies are reconsidering their business recovery plans and appear more open to considering service providers to deliver this unique and specialized service. US companies with overseas facilities with data processing centers are making arrangements to cover those sites with backup facilities based in the States. This disaster, as so many before it, has turned many nonbelievers into vocal proponents of thorough contingency planning.

The tremor that sent ripples across the Pacific to the far reaches of the globe has now passed into history. But the ripples will remain visible for a long time to come. The follow-on consequences to the world's economy, as well as that of Japan, are yet to be appreciated but will almost surely follow. The consequences to companies will also surely spawn a new wave of consciousness in the area of business recovery planning and testing. Perhaps even those fortunate souls not directly impacted by this event will finally wake up and take notice. After all, in the final analysis, the most we can hope for is that the key decision-makers in government and business around the world will become more insightful from this experience. Then again. .... maybe they won't!

THE QUAKE OF '94

by Richard L. Arnold, CDRP Editor-In-Chief, Disaster Recovery Journal

Monday, January 17, I woke to find that a major earthquake jolted southern California. While watching television, CNN, ABC, CBS, and NBC, the announcers explained. "At 4:31 A.M. PST January 17, 1994, the San Fernando Valley was hit by a huge earthquake." Memories of the San Francisco earthquake haunted my thoughts. I was watching the aerial view of Los Angeles, and saw scenes of the fires burning out of control. Interstate 14 near Reseda, California had buckled. People jumped from windows at a large t hree story apartment complex that is now two stories.

Later this month, Disaster Recovery Journal is planning a personal inspection of the Los Angeles and surrounding areas affected by the earthquake. We will be providing more in depth reporting on the Earthquake of '94 in the second quarter edition of Disaster Recovery Journal. During this personal tour of the area I will be visiting future sights to host the Disaster Recovery Journal's conferences. This year's conference in Palm Springs is sure to have an outstanding turnout. Some 428 attendees have already registered.

QUAKE OF '94

The Quake of '94 rocked the San Fernando Valley and the surrounding area, leaving at least 47 people dead and billions of dollars in property damage. The earthquake was centered in the Northridge area of the San Fernando Valley, about 20 miles north of downtown Los Angeles. The quake measured 6.6 on the Richter Scale, powerful enough to be felt from San Diego, 125 miles to the south, to Las Vegas, 275 miles to the northeast.

The quake was felt for 30 seconds, and several aftershocks followed within minutes, several as strong as a magnitude of 5.0 on the Richter Scale. The quake occurred on a previously unknown fault line 20 miles south of the San Andreas Fault. The earthquake damaged up to 1,000 buildings and knocked out power and water service for thousands of residents.

The most devastation and fatalities occurred at the Northridge Meadows Apartment Complex which housed many students of nearby California State University. The three story stucco complex was cracked in half and the top two floors collapsed onto the bottom floor. City officials claim the 14 deaths in the apartment complex was the largest number of earthquake fatalities at a single site in the city's history.

Seven interstates and three state highways were closed at several points after the quake, threatening to snarl traffic for millions of drivers for months to come. Among the worst hit highways was Interstate 5, the state's major north-south route.

Traffic lights were knocked out in the valley as well as in downtown Los Angeles. By Monday evening, at least 680,000 customers were without power in Los Angeles County, and 200,000 were without water. City officials urged residents to boil drinking water contaminated by broken mains. Telephone service was sporadic as long-distance phone companies routed calls from the region to prevent communication gridlock.

At least 100 fires were reported, many fed by ruptured gas and oil mains. In Sylmar, a community north of Los Angeles, at least 70 homes burned.

While fire damage is covered under most homeowner policies, up to 75 percent do not have earthquake insurance.

FEDERAL AID

President Bill Clinton declared southern California a disaster area, making residents eligible for federal assistance. Low-income residents can qualify for up to $12,200 in disaster grants. Others would be eligible for low-interest loans from the Small Business Administration for temporary housing, rent assistance and disaster crisis counseling.

The President dispatched James Lee Witt, head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, to California. Governor Pete Wilson of California and Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan also declared emergencies. Wilson mobilized more than 1,500 National Guard Troops to help and promised to rush more aid to the area. Riordan instituted a dusk-to-dawn curfew in Los Angeles "to protect life and property."

RED CROSS

Many residents, unsettled by numerous aftershocks, huddled in parking lots, on sidewalks, in area parks or in shelters set up by the American Red Cross.

The Red Cross issued an emergency appeal for blood donors, saying its blood supply had been seriously depleted even before the quake struck.

Area hospitals were inundated with injured residents.

"We've seen heart attacks, dislocated bones, and lacerations," said an emergency room admissions officer at Holy Cross Medical Center in Sylmar. In Los Angeles, Cedars Sinai Medical Center said the emergency room had received many earthquake victims.

At the Granada Hills Community Hospital, a makeshift emergency room was set up in the parking lot. Nurses treated more than 1,000 patients there on Monday.

The quake derailed a 64-car freight train, which leaked sulfuric acid from one of its tankers, between the communities of Chatsworth and Northridge. Hazardous materials crews were cleaning up the spill.

A department store at the Northridge Fashion Center collapsed. Windows were shattered throughout the center and the parking structure turned into a 20-foot high pancake. Searchers spent hours digging through the wreckage of the parking garage before pulling out a street sweeper alive.

FEMA sent 12 search-and-rescue teams and four medical teams to the quake area. The 56 member search teams use dogs, sensitive listening devices and tunneling equipment to look for survivors in collapsed buildings. Eight hours after the quake, rescue workers held little hope that those missing in the rubble of the Northridge Apartment Complex would be found alive.

Long lines formed outside hardware stores as residents tried to buy propane or get plywood to repair damaged homes. Without power, many gasoline stations remained closed, and bank teller machines were not working. California residents also lined up to buy batteries, flashlights and bottled water from area stores, many of which were littered with debris from the earthquake.

Many residents struggled with the quakes' psychological toll.

"I never felt that close to death before," said Encino resident Jason Mernick.

But, geologists warn, this quake was not "the big one" Los Angeles residents have been told to expect.

DECLARED DISASTERS

Businesses throughout the Los Angeles and surrounding areas also suffered due to the earthquake. As of this writing, SunGard has reported 21 alerts. Most alerts were for power outages, very few were reports of structural damages. SunGard anticipates at least five actual disaster declarations.

IBM reported that of the 100 Business Recovery Service customers in the Los Angeles area, only nine customers actually declared. These customers have a total of 15 declarations on a variety of platforms, at multiple recovery centers. To date, Comdisco has not yet reported back to us.

NORTHRIDGE

In Northridge, at least 14 people were crushed to death in a collapse of an apartment building. A 64-car freight train derailed. Bullocks department store at Fashion Center collapsed into a pile of concrete and steel. Two people in Sherman Oaks died when a home slid down a hillside and collapsed. Many of the worst fires occurred in this area.

SYLMAR

In Sylmar more than 70 homes burned, and a power substation was badly damaged. Two people died from quake-related heart attacks at Holy Cross Medical Center. Sylmar Hospital was deluged with more than 250 patients.

INTERSTATE 10

One of the nations busiest highways, Interstate 10, was closed five miles west of downtown Los Angeles. The Santa Monica Freeway was scheduled to receive upgrades to comply with earthquake proof standards next month. In Fairfax and LaCienaga, cars were trapped as sections of connecting ramps fell on the nations busiest highway.

BEVERLY HILLS

On Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills shopping district, broken glass and debris filled the streets.

GRANADA HILLS

Gas leaks caused many explosions and fires. The earthquake reduced many homes to rubble.

HIGHWAY 14/I-5

A motorcycle police officer dies after a 25-foot fall from a collapsed section of Highway 14. Four spans of Highway 14 fell to southbound I-5 and two spans of Highway 14 fell to northbound I-5.

 Richard L. Arnold, CDRP, is Editor-in-Chief of the Disaster Recovery Journal. He would like to thank Janette Ballman, Mike Beckerle and Laura Grisham, for their work on this Special Report..

by Richard L. Arnold, CDRP Editor-In-Chief, Disaster Recovery Journal

The underground flood of Chicago on Monday, April 13, 1992 is proving to be one of the worst business disasters ever. It is exactly the kind of event that disaster recovery planners prepare for, but hope they never have to experience.

When the disaster struck, I went to Chicago to report on the damage and take photos. The other articles in this special report come from members of the disaster recovery industry who experienced the flood's impacts first-hand.

Although this issue of Disaster Recovery Journal had already been printed, mailing was halted so that we could bring you this special report on this major event.

This disaster will have a far-reaching impact on disaster recovery. Many companies in Chicago were forced to implement their disaster recovery plans. 230 buildings lost power because water threatened their underground power sources. For many disaster recovery planners, this was the first real test of their work. Hopefully we can learn from their experiences.

Reacting to the Flood

Report from Michael Gomoll Chi/Cor Information Management, Inc.

In 1899 the city of Chicago started work on a series of interconnecting tunnels located approximately forty feet beneath street level. This series of tunnels ran below the Chicago River and underneath the Chicago business district, simply known as The Loop. The tunnels housed a series of railroad tracks that were used to haul coal and to remove ashes from the many office buildings in the downtown area. The underground system served Chicago well through the 1940’s when other power sources replaced the coal furnaces. These tunnels went forgotten until April 13th, 1992.

Construction workers had been working along the Chicago River for some time. One of the projects included placing support pillars into the Chicago River bottom. It is theorized that during the placement of one of these pillars, a portion of the turn-of-the-century coal delivery system was damaged. A hole the size of a large automobile formed in the bottom of the river and punctured the tunnel ceiling. Exactly when the rupture took place is unclear, but on the morning of Monday April 13th several Loop office buildings began to report significant amounts of water in basement and sub-basement facilities. The flooding was caused by massive amounts of river water pouring into the maze of underground tunnels. The tunnels led directly into the basements of many of the older Loop buildings.

Marshall Field’s flagship store, located on State Street in the heart of the loop, reported flooding in sub-basements two and three with water levels reaching 40 feet. With heating and electrical systems located in these basement areas, not to mention a substantial amount of valuable inventory, the threat was significant.

Most of the City and County governmental buildings are also located in the Loop. As with the Marshall Field's building, the City/County utilities were threatened by extensive flooding. Valuable assets were also in jeopardy, but in this case the assets took the form of valuable government records. The records existed in hard copy and microfiche form and contained a wealth of historical information about the nations third largest city.

Chicago’s financial district, including the Chicago Board of Trade and Chicago Mercantile Exchange, was also threatened by the torrent of water. The threat of the flooding came not so much from the water itself, but from the impact the flood could have on the extensive electrical and computer networks. It doesn’t require an advance degree in electrical engineering to imagine the potential safety risks to office buildings, some over 100 stories high with thousands of tenants, if the electrical system is comp romised. By mid-day, the entire loop business district was evacuated.

CHI/COR Information Management’s corporate headquarters is located in the heart of the loop and was also affected by the flooding. Located in the southwest corner of the loop, adjacent to the Sears Tower, its offices were on the outer edge of the affected area.

The first order of business for the Executive Committee was to determine what business processes were threatened, and based upon a business impact analysis, initiate the appropriate recovery steps. The Executive committee highlighted the following recovery processes:

• Evaluate The Threat To Personnel
• Activate Customer Support Network Procedures
• Prepare Off-Site Facilities
• Back-up And Secure Information Systems

Here is how each of these areas was addressed.

Evaluate The Threat To Personnel

It was determined that the threat to personal safety was minimal at the time of disaster declaration, though it was decided that eventually complete evacuation would be a necessity.

The buildings elevator system was scheduled to be shut down by 1:30 p.m. To help avoid a bottleneck at 1:25, all 'non-essential' personnel were evacuated in stages as their recovery functions were completed. All employees were kept informed of evacuation alternatives and timeframes. By following the predefined evacuation procedures and routes, all 'non-essential' personnel were evacuated well before the 1:30 deadline. This orderly evacuation helped make the subsequent evacuation of the emergency staff quick and efficient when the time came.

Activate Customer Support Network Procedures

After all personal safety issues were addressed, the Customer Support Team went into action. Their first order of business was to re-route all customer support lines to a cellular telephone network. Once these cellular channels were in place, the Customer Support Team worked in tandem with the Off-site Facilities Team to ensure that support personnel would have continuous access to their various support tools and databases.

Prepare Off-Site Facilities

Our plan called for the availability of personal computers at several off-site locations for members of the support and development teams. Many support and development personnel have access to PCs at home. The Customer Support plan called for the staggered dispersion of personnel to off-site locations. This tiered approach to the evacuation helped to maintain continuous availability of all support functions, as no time was lost because personnel was in transit. The transportation of support personnel was co ordinated by the Facilities Evacuation Team.

Back-up and Secure Information Systems

The Data Center Team immediately instituted the necessary back-up and protection of critical business applications and data. The back-up of the entire day's activities was initiated and that information was available should the need arise to re-locate to the hotsite facility. All systems and equipment were then secured to protect against any threat caused by the flooding and possible electrical problems.

CHI/COR President Rick Effgen commented 'We were fortunate in many ways. We had sufficient warning time, sufficient evacuation time, and the availability of all of our recovery teams. These factors, combined with extensive planning, allowed us to 'practice what we preach.' We were able to continue all major business functions during the crisis and return to full operations the following business day'.

The ramifications of this disaster, both physical and financial, will be felt throughout Chicago for a long time to come.

Chicago Businesses Forced to Declare a Disaster

Report from John Jackson Comdisco Disaster Recovery Services

At 5:57 a.m. on Monday, April 13, 1992 a building engineer at the Chicago Merchandise Mart found water flooding the third sub-basement of the building. Little did he, or numerous Chicago Fire Department and City workers on-site by 6:10 a.m. know, that a hole the size of a car had ruptured in the restraining wall of a freight tunnel located under the Chicago River. Fifty feet below Chicago�s streets and below the Chicago River, a 100 year old, 60 mile long freight tunnel interconnects the sub-basements of many Chicago office buildings. This tunnel, no longer actively used for freight, serves as a conduit for power, telecommunications and Cable TV cables. The rupture between the river bottom and the tunnel caused over 250 million gallons of water to traverse the tunnel into building basements, causing power to be shut off, buildings to be evacuated, and businesses to c ease operations.

CDRS received its first declaration before 9:00 a.m. Monday. By mid-day, 12 firms had declared 18 individual disasters. The disasters included subscribers from the financial, brokerage, government and services/distribution industries. Additionally, by the day following the initial disaster, 17 alerts were pending for 13 additional customers.

Comdisco supported 8 customers at its Wood Dale, IL site, 7 in Carlstadt and North Bergen, NJ, one AS400 customer in Bridgeport, NJ, one customer in San Ramon, CA, and one in Alsip, IL.

Several subscribers utilized newly configured Workarea Recovery Centers to provide telephone, personal computer and office space solutions for displaced workers. For all vendors, this disaster called for more workarea recovery space than previous disasters, reflecting more comprehensive business planning, rather than just planning for data center recovery. 'This is the largest recovery in our history,' said Comdisco President Ray Hipp.

The disaster was essentially power related, as no actual computer centers were destroyed by the flood. Lights and air conditioning in the work areas are out, so personnel can not occupy the work space.

Once power is restored, many buildings will attempt to isolate themselves from the problems and pump out the water. Efforts to dig a connection from the freight tunnel to Chicago's Deep Tunnel water retention system are projected at 8 days or longer. The entire freight tunnel may be in some danger of collapsing, and a further investigation will survey the total infrastructure of the downtown area for other instability.

Unlike other disasters such as the San Francisco Earthquake and the New York power outage, this was not a brief event followed by restoration. This disaster could drag on for weeks. Just fixing the first part of the problem--stopping the flow of water--could take a week.

The Worst Disaster in Recent History

Report from Barney F. Pelant Barney F. Pelant & Associates

Trends may start on the east and west coasts (i.e. Hurricane Hugo and the Loma Prieta Earthquake of 1989) in our country, but when it comes to doing it bigger and better, don't count out the midwest. On Monday, April 13, 1992 began what has become the biggest business disaster to face us yet.

The story began last year when contractor Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Company of Oak Brook, Illinois installed new pilings around the Kinzie Street Bridge along a branch of the Chicago river that wraps around downtown Chicago. Speculation is that the new pilings, which were driven down into the muddy depths of the river at an unapproved location, ruptured a turn-of-the-century tunnel system. Investigation of the causes will continue for months.

The 62 mile tunnel system was built to support rail and coal supplies to the many buildings of the city. Today the tunnel is used to distribute various cable systems, however the older buildings of Chicago have bulkheads accessing the system. On January 14, 1992, two cable workers from Chicago Cable Television came across the visible cave-in that was occurring in the tunnel at the Kinzie Street Bridge. The concrete was breaking away and mud and silt were coming through the openings. They recorded this on video and attempted to get through the bureaucratic offices of the city to notify the Department of General Services.

The cost to repair the cracked opening was estimated by city officials at around $10,000, but actual repair bids exceeded that amount. Consequently, additional estimates were being requested, and ironically, a meeting to review what should be done was reportedly scheduled to take place a day after the tunnel ruptured.

Days after the disaster struck, the city remained crippled by the slow process of draining millions of gallons of water from the tunnel system and two to three stories of basements that support many of the high-rise buildings in the city. It is here that we find the power distribution, cooling and boiler plants essential to the functioning of the buildings. Tons of materials, including broken concrete, mattresses, gravel and "rapid set" concrete have been dumped into the river atop the opening to try to sto p the flow of water. But all of this was of little help, as the water continued to rise in the buildings. The city was declared a federal disaster area as federal, state and local officials are working feverishly to solve the problem.

For the many businesses in the downtown area with major corporate computer centers, it brought the biggest declaration of disasters yet to hotsite recovery vendors.

This was the largest disaster ever for Sungard Recovery Services, which had its first declaration of disaster at 7:30 a.m. on Monday. Seventeen Sungard customers were affected.

The greatest financial impact was felt by the Chicago Board of Trade, which shut down completely on Monday, and resumed trading only at small volume in subsequent days. An estimated 25 billion in trading of the 36 products handled by the CBOT were lost on Tuesday, before limited trading was re-instated on Wednesday.

Although CBOT still had water cascading into its basements on Thursday, it was conducting limited trading with darkened corridors and a limited number of elevators and computers. This impact was felt world wide.

The biggest financial issue yet may be insurance, as this is not being considered an 'act of God' flood, eliminating coverage for many organizations. Estimates are ranging in the $100's of millions in losses.

Business recovery centers like MEDS in Chicago were in immediate use as emergency operations centers for key operations. On Thursday, McCormick Place, one of Chicago's largest conference centers, offered its entire conference space for one month as a free business recovery center for affected businesses.

The Chicago Transit Authority transit system of subways that support the city have been closed down, with re-activation not expected for weeks. A parking ban was placed on the entire downtown area to allow the access needed by the many emergency vehicles being used to provide temporary power, and to pump out water into the storm drains.

Several city blocks went without power for the first couple of days, however by systematically cutting off the circuits to the flooded buildings, other buildings have been brought up. Two of Chicago's largest department stores, Carson Pirie Scott and Marshall Field's were both affected. The 3,000 hourly employees at Field's and the 2,000 at Carson's were paid for work on Monday if they were scheduled to work, but won't return to the payrolls until the stores reopen. Employees at Filene's Basement have been laid off until the store reopens.

The recovery in Chicago will be tentative for a long time to come. Simply stopping the flow of water has been a major engineering challenge, and removing water from the tunnels and basements has stopped until the primary problem can be resolved. Complete blocking of the ruptured tunnels may take 10 days from the initial disaster, and draining the tunnels will probably take an additional two weeks.

Special Report
HURRICANE ANDREW

The Human Side of Hurricane Recovery
by Richard L. Arnold, CDRP Editor-In-Chief, Disaster Recovery Journal

1992 has been a horrible year for disasters of all kinds. Earthquakes, riots, floods and now hurricanes have caused unprecedented damage. Unlike the Chicago Flood, business' biggest disaster ever, Hurricane Andrew wreaked a terrible human toll.

Although many businesses suffered physical and financial losses from the hurricane, the vast human crisis has complicated recovery plans. Even relatively unaffected companies with recovery plans in place have struggled because their employees were hit so hard by the disaster.

The hurricane missed the Miami business district by 20 miles, sparing many businesses from the destruction. South Florida's residential areas, however, have been completely levelled. Many residents are homeless, even more have been stripped of basic resources.

These victims are understandably more concerned about their families and their survival than they are about their jobs. People are looking for a place to live; most are too traumatized to do anything else. This vast regional disaster underscores the responsibility companies have to their employees when developing contingency plans.

Rodney Hargroder presided over a successful recovery at Premier Bank in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Hargroder learned, We had a basic assumption in our disaster recovery plan that staff would be available for recovery, but we had some no-shows at the Emergency Operations Center. At one point, we had one person staffing our data center.

For companies in south Florida, personnel problems were worse. Organizations could not communicate with or even locate many employees. Bell South's first priority after the disaster was finding employees and helping their families recover. By mobilizing corporate emergency resources, Bell South tried to meet the survival needs of its employees, providing food, supplies and crisis trauma counseling.

Two civic groups who provided assistance were the Brotherhood Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention of Memphis, Tenn., and the Texas Baptist Men of Dallas, Texas. These two groups were already moving into Florida and Louisiana preparing relief efforts as the hurricane was approaching and later responded to the devastation in Hawaii. These relief and recovery teams used Global Water Technologies water purification systems and power generators in conjunction with mobile kitchens to provide for people in emergency situations.

A growing number of organizations are developing corporate-wide contingency plans which address regional disasters and personnel emergencies. A safe data center is of little use if no one is there to run it.

The other articles in this special report come from other members of the disaster recovery community who were involved in the recovery from Hurricane Andrew. Lessons learned from yet another disaster can help us all to be better prepared for the future.

Nation's Costliest Disaster

By Mike Tobin, CDRS

By almost any traditional measure, Hurricane Andrew was the worst natural disasters in disaster recovery history. In addition to the staggering human cost, the valuation of destroyed property was the largest in United States history. At the time of this special report, thousands of individuals and families remain homeless, with no prospects for returning home within weeks; it may be years before life returns to normal in this stricken area.

From a business continuity perspective, Hurricane Andrew ranks among the major recovery events in history. A large number of companies lost computing capability and many had to relocate to recovery centers in order to continue business operations. In at least one way, however, Hurricane Andrew was not as devastating as it could have been. Its point of landfall in Florida lies a mere twenty miles south of the heavy concentration of large data centers in Miami. Had Andrew struck Miami directly, the damage to computing capability would have been far greater.

As it was, CDRS received nine disaster declarations from seven companies, ranking Hurricane Andrew the third largest multiple recovery event in the company's history. One major customer, John Alden Life Insurance Company, ran its processing from a recovery facility for 15 days. While it was challenging, this recovery typified the advantages a well prepared, well tested company has in dealing with such events. John Alden had in place a well detailed hurricane recovery plan which provided for the forwarding o f data and people to a recovery site prior to the storm impact. The recovery ran smoothly for its entire 15 days.

Another factor which may have softened the business impact of Hurricane Andrew is the predictability of hurricanes relative to other types of disasters. Many of our customers undertook advance preparations for the storm, aligning people and data away from the projected impact area. While most of these companies never actually switched their processing to the recovery site, they were able to effectively run in parallel for the duration of their crisis.

Running parallel operations was more prevalent in the storm's second phase in Louisiana and Texas, where the damage was substantially lower. Experiences from previous hurricanes (Hugo and Gilbert) proved valuable for recovery vendors and subscribers alike.

Of course, there was a human side to the recovery as well. Many of those individuals involved in the recovery spent time away from their homes and families during a time of extreme psychological uncertainty. The performance of these people under fire was truly admirable. In several cases where customer staff were physically unable to relocate due to the impact of the storm, they were replaced on site by CDRS staff, to insure successful recovery.

CDRS wishes to salute the entire South Florida business community for their effort and resilience under very trying circumstances.

Wind, Water & Devastation
Restoration Priorities Meet Hurricane Andrew
By Pat Williams Moore, BMS CATASTROPHE

"The best laid plans of mice and men..." would find it a struggle to deal with Andrew's wrath and the damage it left in its wake. The psychological and financial scars will be felt by the people who suffered its effects for many years.

As our physical operation centers in threatened areas were "battening down the hatches" in addition to preparing to respond to customer needs, our BMS CAT Catastrophe team moved into northern Florida on Sunday, September 23. Knowing from past experience that airports and highways would soon be closed, our Team took emergency and restoration supplies and moved into these outlying areas so that response time would be minimized.

Our supply trucks carrying generators, fuel, radios, cellular phones, emergency lighting equipment, ladders, chain saws, dehumidifiers, corrosion control kits, restoration chemicals, drinking water, emergency supplies of food and first-aid kits rolled out to supply and distribution points in selected areas so that they could move in as quickly as possible.

Once the storm moved out and it was safe to drive further south toward Miami. Driving south we saw uprooted trees, twisted road signs, broken billboards and intermittent roof damage. Once we reached south Miami, the devastation was much worse, roofs torn off, road signs missing completely, landmark building locations blown away and power lines down. Even the concrete poles holding the main power lines were snapped off.

Traffic lights, dangling perilously close to the cars were not working, police barricades were everywhere and traffic was backed up for miles. Unless you could prove you had a hotel reservation, a security pass or an emergency contractor permit, it was almost impossible to get through security check points.

An important factor in disaster recovery plans, especially for dealing with a "community-wide" disaster, is to include directions to your facilities that do not necessarily depend on road or highway signs, because those signs may not exist after the incident occurs. Landmark buildings, such as a specific gas station on a corner where you are to turn right, may no longer exist. It may sound strange, but if the signs are missing, how do you find your client's building which may have the address sign missing? Getting to and from different locations could take hours due to the traffic and debris. Vendors and insurance adjusters who did not house their personnel early enough after the disaster had trouble finding hotel rooms, and some hotels had no power and/or no water for at least the first week after the hurricane. Those who were able to find hotels with power and water were usually as far away as Fort Lauderdale.

The initial stages of restoration involved removing debris, cutting away fallen trees, removing water and dehumidifying facilities. Generators and sufficient fuel were critical.

Restoring facilities and their contents damaged by Hurricane Andrew resembled a battlefield triage operation. Our normal access to affected electronics, telecommunications, documents and media were severely hampered by extensive debris, structural collapse, highly corrosive salt water, lack of power and negligible support services. Removing debris and water, acquiring emergency power, clearing corridors and lowering the relative humidity were our first priorities.

Compared to damage from fresh water, after which equipment can often be successfully restored, the pervasive salt water and high humidity could quickly reduce success levels. It was imperative to get to those areas of the building where critical equipment and components were in operation or stored, and to apply emergency corrosion control procedures as quickly as possible. Separating the equipment that could possibly be saved had to be done immediately. Prioritizing thousands of pieces of equipment was a cr ucial function for the project management team.

Innovative project managers removed equipment from the damaged area and temporarily erected a substitute clean room environment. In many cases where the machines were not restorable, the hard drives could be cleaned and the data retrieved. Archival documents, vital records and critical work in progress were scattered everywhere. Rusted filing cabinets, overturned racks and shelves, documents wadded up in blocks where the water had receded from them and bound volumes filled with debris and sewage were prevalent throughout the affected buildings. What was important and cost effective to save?

Even for those companies who had prioritized their records and work in progress, access to these documents and media was critical before mold and mildew appeared. Refrigeration trucks would serve as emergency freezing units, pending freeze-drying. Soon after Hurricane Andrew, a water main broke in New York, flooding basements and vital record storage areas, tornadoes devastated areas of Wisconsin, a major institution in the Northeast was heavily damaged by fire, and Hurricane Iniki hit Hawaii. These disasters have further tested contingency plans and recovery operations, adding to what is perhaps the worst year for disasters in history.

Hurricane Andrew

By John Nevola, ISSC

No one knew of Saturday, August 22, 1992, that Hurricane Andrew would turn out to be the largest natural disaster in the nation's history. No one could predict that it would supersede Hurricane Hugo as the costliest disaster ever and cause over five times the damage of that 1989 storm.

At the IBM Business Recovery Services (BRS) "war room" in Tampa, Florida, activity kicked into high gear that Saturday. As one of the primary large and mid-range systems backup hot sites, Tampa would serve as the focal point for all customers calls, alerts and disaster declarations. A duty team of highly skilled specialists in various technical disciplines toiled through the night making technical assessments, plotting the path of the storm, evaluating options and planning for the various scenarios that were likely to unfold.

Recovery center staff created maps listing the locations of all customers in the storm's path. They made contact with local emergency management organizations. Subscribers started calling to advise IBM of their status and intentions or to put us on alert. Equipment, particularly network gear, was checked and packaged for shipment. Communication links were check out to the eleven other IBM Area Recovery Centers. Finally, key IBM executives were contacted and informed of the situation and status. Having done all that could be done by way of preparation, the teams braced and awaited the storm.

While BRS teams toiled to assist Florida customers already in the throes of business recovery, the storm raged across the Gulf of Mexico and teams of experts in Texas and Louisiana were completing preparation and contact for customers in those areas. The two hurricane landfalls were two major disasters, separated by less than 48 hours.

When it was all over, there were an estimated 33 declarations in the industry, 17 of them handled by IBM Business Recovery Services. The customers that BRS serviced were from Florida, Louisiana and Texas. Many major industries were affected including banking, health care, financial, wholesale, chemical, transportation, data processing and travel.

As power was restored, the recovered customers returned to their home sites, wiser for the experience and more resolute in their efforts to assure recoverability in the future. Beyond the sheer magnitude of Hurricane Andrew, the business recovery lessons learned did not reveal any surprises. Non-subscribers still endeavored to avail themselves of recovery centers and services at the last minute and, unfortunately, had to be turned away. Some customers regretted not testing and updating their plans more freq uently and returned home determined to exercise their plans more vigorously in the future. While none of these problems turned out to be show stoppers, they made some recovery efforts lengthier and more complex than necessary.

The same lessons apply: have a plan and exercise it regularly. Be confident that your hot site vendor has the skills, experience and depth of resources to assure that you can successfully recover.

Andrew won't soon be forgotten. It has again reminded us how fragile humankind is in the face of nature's wrath. Even with warning, little could have been done to reduce the devastation. It is likely that building codes in south Florida will become more stringent in the future and that measures will be taken to assure a complete social recovery as well as to minimize the impact of a reoccurrence.

Companies in affected areas will mimic these actions in an effort to strengthen their own business recovery posture. They will be better prepared in the future for having suffered through Andrew.

But somehow I can't help but feel that some, particularly those in unaffected areas, will again ignore the lessons of a recent disaster and do nothing differently. And there remains that bothersome and nagging feeling that there are far worse disasters awaiting us out there, somewhere in the future.

Special Report

 THE SAN FRANCISCO EARTHQUAKE

At 7:00 P.M. October 18, 1989, I sat down to watch the World Series, as many others did, when suddenly the channel went off the air. Soon thereafter came a message stating that San Francisco just had an earthquake. As time went on, they announced that the quake measured 7.0 on the Richter Scale and the bay bridge had collapsed. They also mentioned an enormous amount of fires that occurred from gas explosions, and contended that this was a disaster of catastrophic proportions. This was “the big one” that everyone has been predicting for a long time. By this time I had a mental vision that San Francisco was about to break off into the ocean. I then decided then to fly to San Jose to see the extent of the destruction firsthand.

I left Wednesday, October 19 for San Jose. With the constant news updates relating the death and destruction that occurred in the afflicted areas, I was somewhat reluctant to go, not knowing to expect. I kept calling the airlines to confirm that the airport was open. One report said the San Jose airport was indeed open but the San Fransciso airport was closed due to cracks in the runway.

After I arrived in San Jose, I started inspecting the airport walls for cracks. I soon discovered that neither the airport nor the houses in that area sustained any significant amount of damage.

Later after touring downtown San Francisco, which sustained limited damage to its business district relative to its overall size, as well as other areas that were supposed to be destroyed beyond recognition, I found nothing to substantiate the magnitude of destruction portrayed by different media.

By the end of my first full day in San Francisco, I discovered that most of the news reports on television were either misleading or else partially inaccurate. For example, it was stated on Tuesday that the Bay Bridge would be fixed by Thursday; on Friday, the real word came out that it might be fixed within one to two months. The press focused primarily on the loss of life and the homeless.

What the press didn’t focus on was the impact that the quake had on businesses. In the following paragraphs I will try to focus on these important issues.

The areas hardest hit were:

Watsonville
Los Gatos
San Fransisco
Oakland
Santa Cruz.

Watonsville lost their main business section due to the collapse of buildings and electricity; Los Gatos suffered approximately eight blocks of buildings with major stuctural damage in their business district; San Fransisco had power outages and window breakages; Oakland had approximately 10 blocks with structural damage: and Santa Cruz had approximately 12 square blocks of buildings with major structural damage, and over 50% of these will be on the demolition list.

The police had roped off the areas surrounding these business districts, and no one was allowed in. The contents of some businesses were functionally intact, but the owners or employees were not allowed to cross the police line. This meant immediate loss of revenue. Imagine walking out of your building at 5:00 one day and not being allowed to return for a week or more. I believe that most of the small to mid-size businesses affected by the quake may have to shut down for good because of the time it woul d take for them to rebuild. Not only will the business be lost, but hundreds of employees, many of whom have just endured private losses, will suddenly find themselves unemployed.

First 72 Hours

Cole Emerson, Senior Management Systems Consultant, SRI International, explained the effects that this disaster had on him and business in general:

“I was in my office with three other associates when the floor and walls began to shake violently. I was standing in the doorway and yelled at everyone to get under a desk. I then realized that I was not in the best of positions myself, so I quickly scrambled under a desk. The irony was that the desk was moving across the floor so rapidly that I had a hard time even staying under it. The walls were actually swaying back and forth and the windows were undulating. It seemed to go on for 15 minutes, but w e found out later it was only 15 seconds.”

The utilities were the first to be affected by the quake. Electricity and water were instantly cut off in most of the affected areas. The problem was exacerbated by gas ruptures that further delayed the return of electricity. Revenue losses occurred instantly due to electricity loss, police lines preventing entry into buildings, and absence of employees.

When push comes to shove, employees give precedence to their domestic situation over their business. This will almost inevitably include the person(s) in charge of the disaster recovery plan. If a disaster similar to the California earthquake strikes your company, you may not have your allotted personnel there to pick up the pieces. “The only person who would put his company over is his family is a psychotic one,” Emerson said. “I could not get my mind back on my job; I couldn’t even begin to get focuse d on my work until late Thursday night.”

What was learned from this disaster is that no matter how comprehensive your disaster recovery plan is and how well it is understood by your employees, your workers will virtually abandon the business until they are certain that their domestic situation is secure. Thus, you should appoint several alternates who can fill in if your critical employees are unavailable. If you have employees in another state or a region that is not affected by the disaster, plan ahead for them to replace your indisposed worke rs in the case of an emergency.

If you are using an alternate site for a backup to your business, include these out-of-town employees in your testing phase; make sure that they can restore the principal components of the company. Also, be prepared to assist your key personnel in the personal realm as much as possible--that is, confirm that their families are safe, help them with housing accomodations if necessary, and help to look after their family for the duration of the disaster. Once you take care of these considerations, the critic al employees can focus on the job as quickly as possible.

The plan itself

Make sure the person(s) who has developed your particular plan has substantial credentials in the disaster recovery field. Ideally, you want them to have experience with real disasters that have addressed broad issues of business operations, data processing, and telecommunications. If the expert has no firsthand experience, make sure he has a sound knowledge and understanding of several past disasters of other companies and their aftermaths. You, too, should be attuned to previous disasters and how they were handled (or mishandled) by other companies. Ultimately, a lack of competency in the plan will almost be as dangerous as none at all, for it will give a false sense of security and the financial life of the organization will be at risk.

Because disaster recovery planning is still a relatively new idea, most plans have yet to reach the stage where they are as good as they could be. “As the certification process continues to evolve and standards become stricter and more defined, you will have higher quality plan. But for now, be shrewd in your decision--when you go to select a consultant or an automated Disaster Recovery plan, remember that the automated plan is only as good as the expert who developed it,” said Emerson.

A Corporate Perspective

Tom vonNovak, President of the Northern California chapter of the Association of Contingency Planners (ACP), tells how he was on the 17th floor of his 20 story office building when the quake struck at 5:04. Although the building swayed 1 1/2-2 feet during those fateful 15 seconds, it escaped relatively unscathed. The adjoining building, however, “was immediately condemned...thefront of the building was maybe ten feet out into the street and all the bricks and mortar were completely down,” vonNovak says. “Within fifteen minutes, the building was cleared and there were thousands of people on the street not knowing what to do.”

Due to the immediacy and magnitude of this earthquake, several unanticipated adjustments had to be taken into account in response to the emergency. The sudden loss of communications is a prime example of what happened in California, and what could well happen elsewhere. Even if your company has its network backed up with T1 for its data circuits, it may be that, with the phone lines down, no one can make the essential call that will activate the recovery process.

Another unexpected element could be the extent of the long term losses, particularly for small to medium-size corporations. They may not have the resources to withstand a long outage; a San Francisco newspaper article estimated that in the stricken areas of Northern California, up to 25% of the smaller companies will be forced to close their doors.

Financial Impacts on Bay Area

As of Sunday October 22, 1989, the estimated damages had climbed to over $9 billion. This figure can be roughly broken down into two categories: immediate property damages, estimated at $4.1 billion, and business interruption damages, estimated at $5 billion.

Another important economic factor that cannot be overlooked is the relocation factor. VonNovak explained that this as “a reevaluation of where a company is doing business and how much they’re going to lose should that general area become temporarily inoperable.” Essentially, this refers to the loss of productivity resulting from the actual shutdown of the facility and the subsequent reduced productivity because employees do not report for work. This may be because employees cannot reach their workplace o r other economic factors. For example, the collapsed bridge was a vital artery linking the East Bay area with downtown San Francisco. Suddenly, approximately 200,000 daily commuters must find an alternate route to travel to work. For now, a ferry will take up the slack: however, this will cost each person $8.00 a day as opposed to a $2.00 toll for the bridge.

What We Can Learn From This Disaster

Both executives and their employees can gain valuable hindsight from the California earthquake. Before a disaster strikes, executives must allocate sufficient funds to ensure the safety not only of their individual employees, but also of the organization itself. Ideally, the disaster recovery planner should have direct contact with senior management, rather than filtering information through corporate channels.

Employees should know exactly where they stand in case of a disaster such as an earthquake. They should be aware of the compensations to which they are entitled in case of a disaster, and be certain that there is a clear understanding as to the exact nature of such compensation.

Company Planning

As you reevualate your plan, keep these questions in mind:

Is your plan up to date?
How often do you test it?
Does your plan have alternates to your key employees to the plan?
Have you considered all aspect of communications?
What would happen if an extended outage occurs?
What exactly do you expect from your test?

Statistics from 3 years ago said that only 5% of all corporations have plans. Today that figure has risen to 43%. That still leaves a considerable number of companies unprepared for the worst. Furthermore, of the 43% with plans, only an estimated 60% have tested them.

If you are without a plan, estimate how long it would take recover without one. The cost for recovery without a plan will increase exponentially versus the cost with one. In addition just having a plan is not enough; it is useless to discover that your plan is insufficient or somehow lacking when it is tested under fire.

Building Codes

It seems that the one common denominator in the damaged areas was that none of them had reinforced masonry. The pictures in this article were from Los Gatos, and Santa Cruz. San Francisco has had building codes in effect for over 10 years now and it seems that it has paid off. The loss of life was minimal due to these strict codes.

If an earthquake of that magnitude hit St. Louis, Missouri, the death toll would be much higher. A major portion of the city is unreinforced masonry. In fact my own chruch is only 9 years old and it is not reinforced at all. I dont think the building codes in St. Louis are as strict with regard to earthquakes, and the state and local governments are not as prepared for earthquakes, as Northern California. I am mentioning St. Louis, because I live here and are familar with the city. St. Louis, is not th e only one with this condition. Memphis, Tennessee is closer to the New Madrid Fault line than we are, and they are in the same shape we are. Many towns in Missouri and Tennessee would fall in the same catagory as St. Louis.

Now that I am back in St. Louis, I am going to use my experiencefrom the Bay area, and safegard the welfare of my family. I plan on purchasing earth quake insurance Monday.

Written by Richard Arnold, Editor-in-Chief, Disaster Recovery Journal