Defining Disastrous Events

An amazing variety of disasters can beset an organization’s business operations. They fall into two main categories: natural and man-made.

After reading the following sections, you should no longer be skeptical about the need for Business Continuity Planning and Disaster Recovery Planning.

Regardless of whether a disaster is natural or man-made, a disaster can disrupt business operations. We discuss how in the section “How disasters affect businesses,” later in this chapter.

Natural disasters

In many cases, formal methodologies are used to predict the likelihood of a particular disaster. For example, 50-year flood plain is a term that you’ve probably heard to describe the maximum physical limits of a river flood that’s likely to occur once in a 50-year period. The likelihood of each of the following disasters depends greatly on local and regional geography:

Fires and explosions

Earthquakes

Storms (snow, ice, hail, prolonged rain, wind, dust, solar)

Floods

Hurricanes, typhoons, and cyclones

Volcanoes and lava flows

Tornadoes

Landslides

Avalanches

Tsunamis

Pandemics

Many of these occurrences may have secondary effects; often these secondary effects have a bigger impact on business operations, sometimes in a wider area than the initial disaster (for instance, a landslide in a rural area can topple power transmission lines, which results in a citywide blackout). Some of these effects are

Utility outages: Electric power, natural gas, water, and so on

Communications outages: Telephone, cable, wireless, TV, and radio

Transportation outages: Road, airport, train, and port closures

Evacuations/unavailability of personnel: From both home and work locations

Man-made disasters

As if natural disasters weren’t enough, several other events can disrupt business operations, all as a result of deliberate and accidental acts:

Accidents: Hazardous materials spills, power outages, communications failures, and floods due to water supply accidents

Crime and mischief: Arson, vandalism, and burglary

War and terrorism: Bombings, sabotage, and other destructive acts

Cyber attacks/cyber warfare: Denial of Service (DoS) attacks, malware, data destruction, and similar acts

Civil disturbances: Riots, demonstrations, strikes, sickouts, and other such events

How disasters affect businesses

Disasters can affect businesses in a lot of ways — some obvious, and others not so obvious.

Damage to business buildings. Disasters can damage or destroy a building or make it uninhabitable.

Damage to business records. Along with damaging a building, a disaster may damage a building’s contents, including business records, whether they are in the form of paper, microfilm, or electronic.

Damage to business equipment. A disaster may be capable of damaging business equipment including computers, copiers, and all sorts of other machinery. Anything electrical or mechanical from calculators to nuclear reactors can be damaged in a disaster.

Damage to communications. Disasters can damage common carrier facilities including telephone networks (both landline and cellular), data networks, even wireless and satellite-based systems. Even if a business’s buildings and equipment are untouched by a disaster, communications outages can be crippling. Further, damaged communications infrastructure in other cities can be capable of knocking out many businesses’ voice and data networks (the September 11, 2001, attacks had an immediate impact on communications over a wide area of the northeastern U.S.; a number of telecommunications providers had strategic regional facilities there).

Damage to public utilities. Power, water, natural gas, and steam services can be damaged by a disaster. Even if a business’s premises are undamaged, a utility outage can cause significant business disruption.

Damage to transportation systems. Freeways, railroads, and airports can all be damaged in a disaster. Damaged transportation infrastructure in other regions (where customers, partners, and suppliers are located, for instance) can cripple organizations dependent on the movement of materials, goods, or customers.

Injuries and loss of life. Violent disasters in populated areas often cause casualties. When employees, contractors, or customers are killed or injured, businesses are affected in negative ways: there may be fewer customers or fewer available employees to deliver goods and services. Losses don’t need to be the employees or customers themselves; when family members are injured or in danger, employees will usually stay home to care for them and return to work only when those situations have stabilized.

Indirect damage: suppliers and customers. If a disaster strikes a region where key suppliers or customers are located, the effect on businesses can be almost as serious as if the business itself suffered damage.

The list above may not be complete, but hopefully it will get you thinking about all the ways a disaster can affect your organization.