Can Your Business Withstand These 10 Natural Disasters?

"The wise man built his house upon the rock, and the foolish man built his house upon the sand. When the rains came up, only one house remained." Some locations are better than others to build on. Is your business built on the sand or a rock? You can determine your level of risk by looking at these ten disasters.

As you consider each disaster, make a note of how many of these your area has experienced. To better understand your risk, you may even want to do some research. You may be surprised to learn about major disasters that hit your city 100 years ago, perhaps at the very spot where your office sits; and when it comes to natural disasters, if it happened once, it will likely happen again. How many of these natural disasters are threatening your company?

Landslides
Is your business located on or near a hill? With enough rain, the topsoil can erode and slide down the hill in a messy and even deadly wave of mud, rocks, trees, and building debris.

Avalanches
This is another natural disaster that affects businesses on or near hills, only these hills are more mountainous and in places that are cold enough for snow. Most people don't build on mountainsides, but it's a trend to build in unconventional places; therefore, it's important to at least consider this risk if you live in a snowy area.

Floods
After thinking about landslides and avalanches, you may feel pretty good about yourself if your business is located in a flat area, but if the reason your land is flat is because of that quiet little stream nearby, then there's a good chance that one day, your peaceful stream will jump its banks in the form of a raging flood.

Wildfires
You may enjoy having your office in the woods and being surrounded by nature, but all it takes is one dry spell to turn your nice scenery into a powder keg.

Earthquakes
An earthquake is a natural disaster that can strike almost anywhere on earth. A business built on a fault line will be at a high risk, but every once in awhile you will see in the news an earthquake striking an unlikely place. Nowhere is safe from quakes.

Tsunami
Underwater earthquakes are what cause most tsunamis. These giant waves will decimate anything in their path and no ocean is immune. Most people will brave this risk if it means having such an awesome view from their office window.

Hurricanes
Hurricanes are another risk that comes from living near the coast. Although, hurricanes can do more than just blow away beachfront properties, they can also dump rain over entire regions and cause flash flooding.

Tornadoes
One solution to the craziness of hurricanes and tsunamis is to move inland, but now your business is at a higher risk of being slammed by a tornado.

Volcanic Eruption
While it's unlikely that your business is built on an active volcano, you may have to worry about nearby dormant volcanoes that can awaken and destroy everything in a spew of ash. Think about Mt. St. Helens and Pompeii; is your business near one of these sleeping ash monsters?

Lightning Strike
Lightning can strike suddenly and anywhere. People are most frightened by lightning when they find themselves outside during a lightning storm, but all it takes is one unlikely lighting strike to hit an office building that's improperly grounded to reduce it to ash.

How many of these ten disasters are your business at risk from? 1/10? 5/10? All of these natural disasters are pretty bad, and we haven't even gotten into the various man made disasters that can be just as devastating, like neglect, theft, computer viruses, and more. The more at risk you are from disasters, means the more you will want to take your business continuity plan seriously to keep your operations going after a disaster hits.

Having your company's data backed up is the centerpiece to every business continuity plan. A Backup Disaster and Recovery solution from SMART Services is the strongest way to backup your data because it's stored off site where it will be safe, even if your office building is leveled by lava. A BDR also has the capability to virtualize your servers so you can quickly recover your data and keep your business going.

It might be sunny and nice outside today, but you never know what nature is going to hurl at you tomorrow. Be ready for anything and call SMART Services at 586 258-0650 .