I have a great deal of experience of living without electricity. I spent 37 days without power in Guam after Typhoon Omar virtually destroyed the power grid when the 215 mph sustained winds rolled thru the island.
Being prepared for the worse and putting in the investment of an adequate generator and having enough fuel to run that generator is the only choice. Being a partner of a ISP in Guam we had planned for such and event and knew our business customers would still needed connectivity as many companies had previous similar Typhoon experiences and had generators.
We had strategically located out business inside a building that had a optional buy-in clause for “X” amount of power during a power outage which we had secured. We had additional insurance to cover the added generator cost of a pro-longed power outage. Luckily we had done our homework and we were able to keep the servers running and all of our services in on-line. This made us king of the hill and set the stage to have a angle over our competitors for many years as we where the only ISP to be prepared when the big one hit.
During the crisis and as a after thought we scrounged together about 50 computers and had them scattered throughout our offices and allowed those business partners without generators to come in a utilize a PC. We kept the office manned 24 hours a day and went the extra mile it built us customer loyalty like I have not seen in any other business I have been involved in.
In a sense we where their emergency back-up center before the word had been coined. Today we have a fully functional storm hardened recovery center setup in-which we have sold the seats in that center to companies and day traders that will allow them to come in and continue business in the heat of storm. Those that do not want to pay for a permanent seat have the option to buy-in when needed at a much higher premium.
The latest blackout in the US lasted a very short 24-48 hours for most business’s but what would they do if they had to go 37 days without power? That is a fundamental question that many should be asking themselves. The investment may be high but the payoff huge in time of disaster. The question you need to ask yourself can your business afford to go without power for a week, two weeks, month or longer? [Business Week]