By tomorrow, Hurricane Florence is expected to make landfall in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. With strong winds predicted up to 130 mph, the storm should make its first landfall by noon on Thursday, September 13, 2018. While the storm’s path is still progressing, over 1 million people are facing mandatory evacuations.   

After securing one’s personal safety and home, it’s also important to take into account the impact Florence could have on local businesses. If time allows, preparing one’s business to weather the storm will help those impacted get back to work following the storm. 

Over the past few days, the Digital Edge Disaster Recovery Team has been virtually migrating many of its Carolinian and Virginian clients with onsite systems to virtual servers in the New York Area. Digital Edge is ensuring that business data, backups, applications, and server images are safely stored off-site. If requested, Digital Edge can coordinate the process of moving any critical systems to our Cloud environment.  

These virtual servers will safely run during the entire storm. Digital Edge can assist clients prepare pre-built emergency messages to keep your customers and employees informed (closed, open for business, etc) so they can be quickly deployed to your website following Hurricane Florence’s departure.  It is highly recommended someone out of the path of the hurricane has access to update your website, and the Digital Edge team is here to fill that role.

The Digital Edge Disaster Recovery Team also urges businesses in Florence’s path to do the following: 

• Ensure all workstations/laptops are elevated off of the floor and powered off;
• Wrap any computer equipment that is directly near a window with light plastic; Do not wrap equipment that is online – heat buildup may cause damage or fire; 
• All surge protectors should be put in the off position where applicable- Systems without a surge protector should have a surge protector added or the equipment should be unplugged from the wall; 
• Place a thin plastic barrier over any critical network racks and secure them with painter’s tape; Do not place barrier over equipment that is online – heat buildup may cause damage or fire; Plastic should be removed before equipment is brought back online; 
• Ensure your disaster recovery team members have updated contact information and role assignments.
• Ensure your disaster recovery team shares with staff members what method(s) of communication will be available after the disaster; We highly recommend email as it will be far more reliable and accessible to most people;
• Generate and secure the following items in an offsite trusted fire/water proof safe or bank deposit box: 

o Digital pictures of physical assets/inventory for insurance purposes on USB stick
o Printed report of physical assets/inventory
o Printed copy of disaster recovery plan
o Printed report of employee contact information
o Printed report of all vendor contacts and account numbers (power, water, gas, fire alarm, hvac, EIN, insurances, etc)
o Printed copy of critical usernames and passwords such as banking, insurance, web host, etc

If you feel that your business is in need of Digital Edge’s Disaster Recovery assistance in preparing for Hurricane Florence, please contact the Digital Edge team.