Quadric Software

Disaster Preparedness: Lessons Learned from the Northeast Windstorms

If you live in the Northeastern region of the United States and you’re able to read this, you are one of the lucky residents who has regained power after the windstorms that hit the region earlier this week. According to the Washington Post, more than 1 million power outages were reported throughout the Northeast.

Here in Vermont, some residents were still without power, 5 days later. Because we’re such a small state, workers were not prepared for the highest number of outages in our state’s history. This week’s storm is a perfect example of why you can never be too prepared, as well as a good reminder for us, and every business owner, to never say never.

Disasters Really Can Strike at Any Time

On Monday morning, Vermonters awoke to downed trees and power outages caused by the “near-hurricane strength” winds (up to 115 mph in some locations) that ripped through the state overnight. While the weather forecast called for some strong winds, no one expected what’s now considered one of the most powerful storms to ever hit Vermont.

As a homeowner, you can deal with a day or two without power, but if you are a business owner, this is not an option. While we were not expecting such high winds, outages, and delays all over Vermont, we were prepared for it here at Quadric. Even though some of our homes were affected (see images of downed trees at one of our Engineers’ homes), thanks to Alike and a solid BDR plan, we were able to carry on with business as usual on Monday morning.

Helping business owners avoid downtime and the headache that goes with it is our business. And the windstorms this week serve as a perfect opportunity to demonstrate how we were able to utilize the DR practices we recommend from a first-hand experience. It also gives us a chance to introduce the blog topic focus for this month.

Because hurricane season is coming to a close at the end of this month, we’ve decided to designate November as “Disaster Recovery Awareness” month. For the next 4 weeks, we’ll be posting articles on preparing and recovering from any type of disaster, from ransomware to hurricanes and extended power outages.

If you’re not familiar with disaster recovery planning, you may want to check out “4 Things You Should Know About Disaster Recovery Planning: Part I” and Part II.

Stay tuned for more tips on Disaster Recovery and be prepared for the worst, whether it’s expected or not.