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ZEITGEIST
By Alyson Krueger
Mastering Disaster
For companies large and small, a business continuity plan ensures better chances of recovery.
After a disaster in Westchester County, whether it is a fire, winter storm, flood, hur- ricane, or even a labor strike, there are always more than a few business owners try- ing to put their livelihoods back together. After Superstorm Sandy, the editors of The Daily Voice, an online-based community news organization headquartered in Rye, were forced to shut down its websites for days, no doubt losing readers and adver- tisers, because its servers were submerged in thigh-high water in lower Manhattan.
Just a year earlier, Hurricane Irene took Floods are certainly not the only cream spoil in the non-working refrigera-
its toll, nearly obliterating Velocity Sports Performance, an athletic training facility
in Elmsford, by destroying $200,000 worth of equipment and its newly completed, $400,000 building extension. “I just couldn’t believe it,” says Brian Fee, president and owner of Velocity’s Elmsford facility. “The water was so high, and the equipment— and we have heavy, heavy equipment— was just floating around the space. For a small-business person, it’s your life. You’re looking at it, and it’s very difficult, very emotional to see it all gone.”
disasters to strike Westchester. In July
2006, a freak tornado (the last one to hit
the Hudson Valley was in 1995) nearly demolished California Closets, a store in Hawthorne that sells custom closet organiz- ing and storage systems.
The 2003 blackouts that permeated much of the Northeast took a particular toll on Longford’s, which sells its “own-made ice cream” out of its stores in Larchmont and Rye. Once the power went out, “we lost everything,” says Christine Vita, the store’s current owner. Not only did the ice
tors, all the ingredients melted, ruining
the floors and cabinets as well. It took two weeks—and a lot of financial loss—before the store was up and running again: “I was really, really stressed out,” says Vita.
While these narratives are upsetting, what is even more disconcerting is that many businesses, particularly smaller ones, don’t survive the catastrophes. A study
by the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety claims this figure is as high as 25 percent. Admittedly, some of these companies were already at risk before the
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