{"id":14459,"date":"2019-04-03T10:57:14","date_gmt":"2019-04-03T14:57:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/avtech.com\/articles\/?p=14459"},"modified":"2019-04-19T14:07:48","modified_gmt":"2019-04-19T18:07:48","slug":"business-continuity-plan-protect-against-rain-spring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/avtech.com\/articles\/14459\/business-continuity-plan-protect-against-rain-spring\/","title":{"rendered":"Does Your Business Continuity Plan Protect Against Above Average Rain This Spring?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The NOAA has announced that Spring 2019 is expected to bring above-average rain to much of the continental United States.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The higher amounts of predicted rain combined with frozen\nground and melting snow will result in near historic flooding for far too many\nstates. In fact, flooding in much of the Midwest is unfortunately already\noccurring. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Organizations are 10 times more likely to suffer from water leak damage than they are from fire damage, so it\u2019s critical that your business continuity plan covers the potential of water leaks in your facility. It’s also important to consider having temporary water leak barriers either on-hand or at the ready to help stop the flow of water if a leak occurs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is your region poised\nfor major flooding?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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In the article linked above NOAA  points out that 25 states have the potential to see moderate to major flooding. If you are in one of those states, having proactive flood and water leak monitoring is critical to maintaining uptime and helping to prevent data loss and physical damage to your facility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even the best proactive monitoring you\u2019ve installed as part\nof your business continuity plan can\u2019t fully protect your organization in the\nevent of catastrophic flooding. Proactive monitoring can, however, notify you\nof the exact moment water began to intrude on your mission-critical areas,\nwhich can allow you to begin planning mitigation and recovery as soon as you\nconfirm a leak has occurred. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Organizations that aren\u2019t located near major bodies of water\nare still prone to flooding concerns; don\u2019t let your landlocked location\nprevent you from taking precautions against flooding. Heavy rain can cause\ngutters, sewers and drainage to back up, causing potentially unseen and\nunexpected flooding into your facility. Roofs that have damage from winter\nstorms can leak, as can windows that may have worked loose during winter winds.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Water leak damage\ncomes quickly and without warning<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ve seen the damage that unexpected water leaks can cause\nfirsthand, with experience in our own building as well as at previous places of\nemployment our employees have worked at.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of our employees worked for a telecom company that moved\nits data center to a basement level in a newly constructed building. The data\ncenter was fully enclosed in glass for maximum visibility, and thankfully the\ndata center was built on a raised floor. Two weeks after moving in, a massive\nspring rainstorm caused water to seep into the new office, mere feet from the\ndata center. Thankfully this happened during business hours, allowing staff to\nimmediately power down portions of the data center before severe damages could\noccur. Imagine if this happened at 3am on a Saturday when staff wasn\u2019t onsite –\nhundreds of servers would have been irreparably damaged, causing terabytes of\ndata loss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our own historic mill suffered flood damage a number of\nyears ago when frigid winter temperatures caused frozen pipes in an unheated\npart of the building. It\u2019s not a pleasant sight to arrive at your building in\nthe early morning to see the fire department blocking off part of the street as\nwater streams out of your second-floor windows. Thankfully in this situation\nthe leak didn\u2019t occur near any offices or our fulfillment area, so computers,\nfiles and our stock weren\u2019t affected. If the water leak occurred just 50 feet\nin another direction, it would be a completely different story. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Review your business\ncontinuity plan to ensure leaks are monitored<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Many organizations have plans in place in the event of a fire or sustained power outage. With this Spring\u2019s outlook, it\u2019s critical to ensure your plan also covers water leaks due to heavy rains and potential flooding. Extreme inclement weather can happen in any location, regardless of environment, and water leak monitoring will help you to protect your sensitive electronics, data, goods, and much more. Additionally, having water leak barriers installed in your critical areas will help stem the flow of water if flooding occurs, and will also allow you to clean up much more quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Insurance statistics have shown that water damage claims costing more than $500,000 has doubled just since 2015<\/a> and claims that cost more than $1 million have tripled<\/em>! While insurance may help your organization recover in the event of a major leak, wouldn\u2019t it be better for any possible leak to be a minor one that doesn\u2019t cause your organization prolonged downtime and damages? Insurance claims can\u2019t help rebuild lost customer confidence unfortunately if you\u2019re forced to shut down for even a short time. Make sure proactive water leak monitoring is part of your business continuity plan now to help protect your organization against costly loss this spring and beyond.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The NOAA has announced that Spring 2019 is expected to bring above-average rain to much of the continental United States. The higher amounts of predicted rain combined with frozen ground and melting snow will result in near historic flooding for far too many states. In fact, flooding in much of the Midwest is unfortunately already […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[20],"tags":[164,50,57,60],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n