Disaster Recovery Journal

I recently saw this editorial cartoon and found it to be very appropriate for the turbulent times we are all experiencing across the U.S. and throughout most of the world. There is much debate about whether we are headed for a recession. It is all I hear on the evening news, on the television and from political analysts.

Winter has officially arrived, bringing with it all the risks associated with cold weather, snow and ice. As those of us who live in cold-weather areas know, winter storms can wreak havoc on businesses.

Our office is based in St. Louis, so we have had our share of storms over the years. In mid-December a massive winter storm hit across the Midwest and later moved into the northeast. It caused widespread power outages, travel problems and many business closures. Although our immediate area was not affected too much, there were many across the state of Missouri and nation that were.

Kansas, Iowa, Illinois and Oklahoma were also hard hit with ice and power outages. The storm caused the worst power outage ever in Oklahoma, leaving nearly 600,000 without power. Many businesses were without electricity for days.

You can read a more detailed account on the storm in the Around the World column on page98 of this issue. But, I want to take some time in this column to mention a few items that should be of interest to business continuity planners.

Here it is October and it seems like I just announced that this was our 20th year to publish the DRJ magazine. Now, the year is nearly over. Where did the time go?

From the Publisher's Desk
Summer Signals Another Active Season

On the cover of our last Journal (Winter 2007), we celebrated our 20th anniversary by publishing pictures of all our past covers. This compilation was very eye-catching and received a lot of compliments at our recent conference, Spring World 2007. Several attendees shook my hand and commented on the use of disaster photos on our cover. Though we have changed in recent years to feature a variety of covers, the disaster photos have been a mainstay of DRJ. It is a tradition I started in the beginning of my publishing days.