TecTel
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Voice/Data/IT/Convergence
In August of 1993, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, was inundated with flood waters. The operator services call center and switch system for the company operations, was located in downtown Cedar Rapids. At about 3:30 a.m., I got a call letting me know that the water was rising and that the downtown area was blacked out. We had battery back-up for our switching system and had run a systems test simulating a power failure. At least I knew that we had eight hours of back-up. Arrangements had been made with a generator company to rent a portable generator in the event of an emergency and we had a plan for its installation.
When I arrived in the switch room, the power had been turned off to all but the most necessary equipment. My staff was working with the DMS 250 switch vender by phone to shut down and remove all unused interface cards in the system. We started a graph of battery power readings every fifteen minutes so that we could keep a running projection of how much time we had left. By reducing the load on the batteries, it looked like we could extend our operating time to over twelve hours. Calls to Iowa Electric did not give us much information, so we headed to the Iowa Electric sub-station located south of the downtown area. Arriving at the station, we discovered the staff trying to reset the main breakers to the feeds for the downtown area. There was discussion about smoke coming out of a manhole about one-half block from our building! We headed back to the office to get a first hand view of the problem. Smoke rising from a manhole was my signal to action so we ordered an emergency generator from Davenport Iowa. The generator arrived and was installed in time to keep this outage from shutting our company down. Because we had a plan that we implemented in time to avert a shutdown, we were the only telecommunications company in Cedar Rapids area during the two day black-out to have uninterrupted service.Here are some ideas for a disaster recovery plan.
Have a written plan that includes all information for action in case of a disaster. Designate who will respond, what the procedure will be, where staff is to go in an emergency, and when to consider a situation an emergency.
Do a test execution of your plan to be certain that everyone knows what to do and that the procedure can actually be carried out.
Be realistic about the money you have to spend, and even though you may not be ready to install a generator, at least know how you could go about ordering and installing one in an emergency.
Be alert to potential natural disasters. If it has been flooding all summer, chances are your business could get wet.
You need to plan for emergency lighting. An unsafe situation becomes even more frightening when there are no flashlights or battery-powered stairwell lights.
Plan to provide emergency power for air conditioning and/or heat for your switch room and office areas.
Give some thought to these ideas and write out a plan for your company. Even if the plan is not complete, having begun the process could help you immensely if an emergency should suddenly occur. (Mike Dailey was V.P. of Operations for LinkUSA from 1992 to 1994 and in that capacity built the operations area of this start-up enhanced services telephone company - Editor's Note.)
If you require assistance with a disaster plan, please contact Mike or Pam Dailey at (770) 458-3411 or email pdailey@tectelsolutions.com
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