Disaster recovery plans pay off in flood

Long before the water started flowing inside the Sears store on McBrien Road in East Ridge, employees already were moving merchandise and setting up barricades.

The employees knew what to expect because the store also flooded back in 2005. Plus, they were prepared because they have a disaster recovery plan, said Henry Hughes, the store's manager.

"We have a contingency plan in place, and it's working," Mr. Hughes said.

That plan involves rearranging items in the store so they don't get wet and having a team gathered to clean up the mess when the water crests and eventually begins to recede.

While the officials at Sears were ready, many Chattanooga businesses are learning the hard way the importance of having a disaster recovery plan in place.

As their businesses flood and customers are turned away, owners are losing money, according to disaster recovery expert Pete Heles.

"Most companies can't survive three days without generating revenue," said Mr. Heles, owner of Framework IT, a disaster recovery consulting business in Indiana. "Being aware of things that can affect your business is a key component of building a business continuity plan,"

Mr. Heles will be in Chattanooga Thursday as part of a workshop held at The Chattanoogan hotel to tell business owners and employees about the importance of disaster recovery and business continuity plans. The free workshop is being held by Claris Networks, a Knoxville-based data services company.

"What a lot of businesses are realizing is it is not necessarily OK just to have your data somewhere, it's everything else that goes with the business," said Larry Bodie, CEO of Claris. "That's really why we're putting on the workshop, to make businesses aware of it's more than keeping your data safe, it's how you operate in the event of a disaster."

The plan involves forming a detailed course of action that, in the event of a natural or man-made disaster, the business can continue to function as it normally would have. Such actions would be having phones routed to managers cell phones or the officials with a company.

About 95 percent of businesses do not have a disaster recovery plan, Mr. Bodie said. Once a business suffers a disaster, it is more likely to fail, Mr. Bodie said.

"About 93 percent of businesses lose operation for 10 days following a serious disaster, and most will file bankruptcy within a year," he said.

For businesses that carry inventory that could be damaged in a disaster, waiting for insurance to replace items can take weeks or months, and during the time the business is not making money on those items.

Having a plan ensured that despite losing power, use of phones and having between 4 and 6 inches of standing water in the store Tuesday afternoon, no merchandise at Sears in East Ridge had been damaged, Mr. Hughes said.