- A: Where Will You Meet After a Disaster?
- B: Make Your Phone Numbers Follow You
- C: Recognize the Benefits and Pitfalls of Wireless Phones
- D: Consider Two-Way Radios
- E: Carry Pagers
- F: Large Campus? Consider a Low-Power AM Broadcast Station
- G: Who Will Clean Up the Mess?
- H: Who Rewires the Building?
- I: Consult a Commercial Disaster-Recovery Center
- J: Are Your People Willing to Leave Town in a Disaster?
- K: What If Some People Dont Show Up?
- L: Does Everyone Know How to Get to the Recovery Center?
- M: Test Your Recovery Center
- N: Do You Know How to Use the Recovery Center Phones?
- O: Whos in Charge of the Recovery?
- P: Keeping the EMT Apprised
- Q: Who Will Retrieve Data Stored Offsite?
- R: Consider Online Vaulting
- S: Where Is Your Voice Mail System?
- T: Look Carefully at Automated Call Distribution Units
- U: Dont Expect Anything to Work the First Time After a Disaster
- V: Where Will You Get Telecommunications Test Equipment?
- W: For Want of a Nail
- X: Seen Any Good Books Lately?
- Y: Could You Work at the Recovery Center for a Long Time?
- Z: What Did You Learn From Your Last Test?
- Summary: What Did You Learn from This Series?
J: Are Your People Willing to Leave Town in a Disaster?
Issue: Especially in cases of widespread disasters, many employees will go home before reporting to work, to ensure that their homes and families are okay. During Hurricane Katrina, for example, 256 New Orleans police officers bailed out on the job and went home. If the telecom department for your company didn’t show up for work or didn’t go to the recovery center, it could very well be dead in the water.
Action: Identify the people who are responsible for showing up regardless of their home situations. Make sure that they understand the importance of this function and get their assurance that you can count on their being responsible. (And have backup personnel lined up, just in case.)