Weak Flood Prevention Structures Place IT Infrastructures at Risk

The risk of flooding affects many people, not just the ones who own riverside property. Rivers are prevented from flooding by a system of man made levees. Many of these levees were built many generations ago to protect farmland. Overtime, farms turned into suburbs, levees deteriorated, and governments cut levee maintenance budgets; these factors have all contributed to increase people's risk of flooding.

No countries are free from the risk of flooding; even mountainous regions are susceptible to destructive flash floods. In light of flood catastrophes like Hurricane Katrina, the United States government issued their first inventory of the nation's levee system to look for weaknesses and assess the risk of flooding. The US government's findings are not encouraging for any person who lives next to a flood prevention structure and believes their government has built it strong enough to withstand anything.

The Associated Press reported that, as of January 2013, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is 40% through their levee inspection process. The Corps oversees a total of 2,487 flood preventing structures which protects 10 million people. Of the 40% of the structures that have been inspected, 326 levees covering 2,000 miles were found to be in urgent need of repair. The people and property that are at risk of flooding span across 37 different states.

The reasons that the levee system is in dire need of repair are as varied as there are different types of levees. Many of the causes that weaken levees come from the fact that the levee system is old and deteriorating. Most levees are made out of dirt and are slowly being worn down by different forces of nature like roots, animal burrows, water erosion, and yes, flooding. Levee systems also have several pumping stations used to pump flood water away from at risk areas. The pipes used to remove the water are decaying, and the pumps are old machines that are not built to last forever.

The problem is compounded by the fact that after the Corps of Engineers originally built the levee system, they then handed off the responsibility to maintain the levees to local municipalities. Over the years, local governments have had a difficult time coming up with the money needed for regular repairs. After generations of budget cuts and population shifts, many local governments are now faced with the near impossible task of raising the millions of dollars that will take to get their levees up to par. This levee situation is not unique to the United States, every part of the world that has decaying flood prevention systems that are expensive to repair and maintain.

Seeing as ⅓ of the levees the US Army Corps of Engineers have inspected are in serious need of repair, this should make everyone take a second look at how safe their homes and businesses really are from flooding. Major floods are hard to predict and can do major damage. Some of the most destructive floods are known as "100 year floods," due to the fact that the flood waters may only peak at a certain level once every 100 years. This means that for 99 consecutive years people are building closer to the water's edge with the memory of the last major flood being only footnote in local history. Therefore, when a 100 year flood hits, it catches people off guard and ill-prepared simply because they may have not even known that they were at risk. We encourage you to check your local historical records in order to determine when the last time a 100 year flood hit your area.

Flooding is an issue that threatens many homes and businesses. There may be a local stream or drainage ditch near your property that is a puddle of water 99% of the time, but all it takes is one heavy downpour for that small stream to spill its banks and do major damage. Even if you live high and dry on a hilltop and consider yourself immune to flooding, you may have friends in your community living in the lowlands that are at risk.

A disaster like a flood can cause major damage to every piece of physical property in its path, including your IT infrastructure. If a flood takes out your physical servers, then your digital property, like your company's data, will be swept away and gone forever. Flood insurance will cover all of the physical damages so that your business can buy new computer equipment and rebuild; but, if your company data was only on your flooded servers, then the damage sustained by flood water will make data retrieval impossible.

SMART Services offers a backup and disaster recovery (BDR) solution that will protect your company data from major disasters like floods. Our BDR solution works by automatically backing up all of your company's information to a secure datacenter. The datacenter that houses your information is located on high ground, kind of like Noah's Ark resting on Mt. Ararat; and just like Noah backed up the animals with two of every kind, SMART Services's BDR solution redundantly backs up your company's data with multiple copies.

After the flood waters recede and the dove returns carrying an olive branch, you will then be able to rebuild your business with all new computer equipment. Once your office has dried out and your new IT infrastructure is set up, the BDR solution will provide your business with all of its files and applications as soon as you power everything on.

Being prepared for a flood with a backup and disaster recovery solution will make the difference between your business surviving a disaster or having to close up shop for good. Call SMART Services at 586 258-0650 and we will sandbag your business with our BDR solution, the ultimate in data protection against any disaster.