It was five days before Hurricane Katrina would pummel New Orleans, where my Internet adult business CruisingforSex was based, and the initial storm had reached land in southern Florida. By Saturday morning, I made contact with my employees to make sure precautions were being taken. We initially planned to go through our usual preparation; however, we quickly realized that it would require something beyond routine. By Saturday night, we had two backups of our servers: a set of tapes in the possession of one of the owners of my hosting company, and another backup on servers in Texas. Though nervous, I felt confident we did everything possible to protect the business. In retrospect, I know we weren’t fully prepared.
Around 8 a.m. on Monday, Aug. 29, the eastern edge of New Orleans was hit, and our servers, presumably safe on the western edge of the city on the fourth floor of a concrete structure with generator power, quickly crashed. By 10 a.m., only one server remained online, which allowed us to post a message promising we’d return as soon as possible. That server eventually went offline, too. We remained offline for three grueling days. We eventually resumed limited operations after repositioning our backups to servers in New York. Those two backups saved my business from an even worse disaster, but backups are only the beginning.
Regardless of where you live, you still could be impacted by disaster—either manmade or natural. A disaster may be a small fire that only destroys your company or a deadly viral outbreak that hinders global commerce, but you will sleep better if you have a strategy for any worst-case scenario.
Backups are essential. Assuming that everyone regularly makes them, you need to consider where you store them. If the same building houses your backups and your servers, then you aren’t prepared. Our decision to have a copy stored on servers in Texas saved us.
Immediately establish contact with employees. Shortly after the storm, cell phone towers and land lines became useless. We now encourage every key person in our operations to have two cell phones and insist that everyone have an online messaging mechanism, such as ICQ. Thanks to ICQ, I was able to locate my network administrator in Florida, which expedited our quickly getting back online. Quick and reliable communication after a disaster is absolutely critical to restoring your business.
Make sure you have adequate cash reserves to purchase plane tickets, order servers and generators, or aid employees. Money problems are the last thing you need to deal with during a disaster, and while assistance is often available, loans may take a while to process.
Be patient. I delayed the process of bringing my business online for at least 24 hours because we needed to give everyone involved a chance to collect themselves. As a business owner, you need to focus on employee needs first, not getting your servers back online. Listen closely to what people say and hope that you’ve created a foundation for trust in advance of any catastrophe. If you’ve always been a tyrant, they might question your reassurance.
If possible, give your employees assurances that your business can survive this and that their jobs are not jeopardized. I made a point of reassuring everyone that we were in a position to recover and that they’d be paid regardless of how much actual work they could do.
The most important lesson I learned from this disaster is that it is ridiculous to expect the government to be there for your business and your personal safety in what can be the gravest period. They always say to be prepared to survive for at least three days after a hurricane. For New Orleans, even that standard failed to pass muster. With the help of those I work with and the support of total strangers, we recovered. After being in temporary quarters for several weeks, we returned to New Orleans and resumed full operations. With advance planning, you stand a much better chance of recovering from whatever God or man throws your way.
Keith Griffith is founder and owner of CFS.com, a New Orleans-based business. Among their websites are CruisingforSex.com, CFSporn.com, CruisingforEscorts.com, and CruisingforDicks.com.
