Businesses Craft Plans for Disaster

Everyone needs to have a disaster plan in place, and the way you determine what your plan should be is (examine) the risks you face

By Paul Kerstein

September 06, 2005 — CSO — Northeast Indiana residents are spared hurricanes, but they see flooding, fires, tornadoes, blizzards and ice storms, and the area is on an earthquake fault line. O’Daniel Southtown Auto Outlet in Fort Wayne was able to stay in business after one of their recent floods that destroyed their offices. The News-Sentinel of Fort Wayne reports that the dealership had a disaster plan for when floodwaters returned and they were back in business in two weeks. “Everyone needs to have a disaster plan in place, and the way you determine what your plan should be is (examine) the risks you face,” said Matthew W. Will, associate dean for the School of Business at the University of Indianapolis. A tech company should have off-site data backup, and a manufacturer should have a backup generator and some spare fuel on hand, he said. Some major corporations have entire facilities unused that they are ready to activate during a disaster. Read more.

Read more about emergency preparedness in CSOonline's Emergency Preparedness section.

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