Determine what you need most before planning

One of the most important things a business needs to plan ahead for is the disruption of utilities before and after a disaster. And the first step to take is to determine which utility is vital to continued operations.
Critical to most businesses is power. When electricity goes down, businesses need to have a plan to secure critical information and data, according to the Emergency Preparedness Business Continuity Standard, developed by the National Fire Protection Association.
Citizens Financial Group, parent of Citizens Bank, which operates 1,616 branches and has $160 billion in assets, knows that having a contingency plan in place is crucial.
“Citizens Financial Group does have a disaster recovery plan in place to protect customer information in case of power outages, fire, natural disasters or acts of terrorism,” said Kathy O’Donnell, spokeswoman for Citizens. “This plan protects critical customer account information from being compromised or lost if any of the aforementioned scenarios were to occur.”
Ready Business, a Department of Homeland Security initiative designed to “educate and empower Americans to prepare for and respond to all kinds of emergencies,” suggests that businesses have battery-powered commercial radios, NOAA weather radios with an alert function and less technological resources such as batteries and flashlights.
If communication and the Internet are vital parts of day-to-day business operations, Ready Business suggests the use of walkie-talkies, cell phones and other devices that do not rely on electricity as a backup to a telecommunications plan. Portable generators also can be used to power vital equipment and should be pre-wired to the most important equipment.
Keep copies of site maps, customer and law enforcement lists, insurance policies, building maps and computer backups in a waterproof and fireproof container to ensure an easier recovery.
Another contact in those emergency lists should be that of your local electricity provider.
National Grid provides electricity to nearly 5 million customers in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and New York and delivers gas to 3.4 million customers in the same states. Of course, it needs to know when your power is out.
“A customer should never assume that we know they are without power,” said David Graves, a spokesman for National Grid.
But at the same time, businesses need to be up and running soon after the interruption.
“Within the industry, I’ve seen an increased emphasis on the need of having restoration done in a timely manner,” said Thomas Murphy, National Grid’s emergency preparedness coordinator.
One local corporation has had to test the reliability of its disaster recovery plan too many times.
CVS Caremark Corp., based in Woonsocket, was affected by last year’s California wildfires, Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Florida’s four consecutive hurricanes in 2004, and the Northeast Brownout in 2003.
“During Hurricane Katrina we had to close our 16 stores in the New Orleans metro area,” said Michael DeAngelis, a CVS spokesman. “Many suffered heavy damage. Within weeks, we were able to re-open all but two of them.”
When the power went out in those stores, CVS put its plan in motion and held conference calls involving all affected departments, including pharmacy, distribution and human resources.
In addition, “we also have generators stored in our distribution centers that we can deploy rapidly into markets in which stores have lost power in order to re-open them as soon as it is safe to do so,” said DeAngelis.
While CVS is regularly updating its disaster plans and monitoring weather forecasts to prepare for impending inclement weather, National Grid is doing the same.
With forecasts three times a day from two vendors, National Grid then benchmarks that against the National Weather Service’s forecasts.
“There is emergency planning once it goes beyond it being a little ripple,” Murphy said.
That is when National Grid begins to mobilize its employees to put its plan into place.
“We simulate business and residential impacts,” Murphy said. “We did an anticipatory drill out of Gillette Stadium and predicted a wind storm. We marshaled that whole logistics group and had the event been as bad we would have been ready to roll.” •