Posted by Sarah Rixey on Fri, Jun 14, 2013
As part of our comprehensive disaster recovery planning services, Agility Recovery Solutions sends out a free weekly tip through email. If you would like to receive these tips, please sign up here.
What Is a Derecho?
It’s hard to believe. Almost exactly a year ago, a historic derecho tore across the Mid-Atlantic killing more than a dozen people. The powerful storm left millions in the dark and shut down Netflix and other online services that relied on Amazon's Cloud servers.
This week, weather reports were predicting another possible derecho. So what exactly does that word mean and where does it come from? Click here to find out.
Whether this week's storms were considered a derecho or not, they reminded us all of the importance of preparedness. And as a Washington Post writer argued, the bottom line is that a big storm is brewing; people should be prepared, regardless of what it’s called.
If you have additional questions or would like to talk with a recovery professional about your business continuity needs visit www.agilityrecovery.com or call 866-364-9696.
Posted by Sarah Rixey on Thu, Jun 06, 2013
As part of our comprehensive disaster recovery planning services, Agility Recovery Solutions sends out a free weekly tip through email. If you would like to receive these tips, please sign up here.
Wireless Alerts
Recent severe weather and the start of the Atlantic hurricane season reinforce the need for Americans to familiarize themselves with the look, sound and authenticity of real-time Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEAs).
To encourage, educate and empower Americans to identify WEAs and prepare for emergencies, both natural and man-made, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and Ad Council are unveiling new public service advertisements (PSAs). Click here to watch.
REMINDER: You do not need to register to receive WEA notifications. You will automatically receive alerts if you have a WEA-capable phone and your wireless carrier participates in the program.
To help us build a weather-ready nation, click here to share this information with your employees, co-workers, friends and family. Together we can save lives and transform the way the United States responds to emergency situations.
If you have additional questions or would like to talk with a recovery professional about your business continuity needs visit www.agilityrecovery.com or call 866-364-9696.
Posted by Sarah Rixey on Tue, May 21, 2013
As part of our comprehensive disaster recovery planning services, Agility Recovery Solutions sends out a free weekly tip through email. If you would like to receive these tips, please sign up here.
The Path of Destruction
Rescue workers continue to search for survivors from the massive tornado that ripped through parts of Oklahoma killing dozens of people and flattening whatever was in its path, including a hospital and at least two schools.
The storm system behind yesterday’s twister continues to threaten a large swath of the United States Tuesday, putting 53 million people at risk of severe weather. Click here to see severe weather alerts in your area.
What can you do to help? How can you prepare your business and your employees for the storms ahead? Agility has compiled the following resources to help you, your employees and your family plan, prepare are recover from the storm.
- Helping Oklahoma – If you're looking for ways to help the residents of Oklahoma ravaged by Monday’s tornado, here’s a list of several relief organizations are working in the area.
- Tornado Checklist – Download Agility’s free Tornado Checklist for tips on how to prepare your business before, during and after a storm.
- Red Cross Tornado App – Get your family and home ready for a tornado with the official Tornado App from the American Red Cross.
If you have additional questions or would like to talk with a recovery professional about your business continuity needs visit www.agilityrecovery.com or call 866-364-9696.
Posted by Sarah Rixey on Thu, May 16, 2013
As part of our comprehensive disaster recovery planning services, Agility Recovery Solutions sends out a free weekly tip through email. If you would like to receive these tips, please sign up here.
Prepare. Plan. Test.
Day in, day out, we see organizations taking the initiative to put a disaster recovery plan in place. And while we can't hide the big smile it brings to our face, the unfortunate fact remains that the majority of businesses never test their plan.
Testing your continuity plan is without a doubt the best way to ensure your business remains operational following a disaster. Conducting a yearly test can effectively validate the strengths and expose the weaknesses of your plan while providing valuable practice for employees.
Interested in learning more about testing? Check out the below resources for several first-hand accounts of the testing process.
- Credit Union Discusses “Why Test?” – Click here to register for a live conversation with Westerly Community Credit Union. Westerly will discuss the benefits of testing and recap their most recent testing experience.
- 2013 Shake Rattle & Roll – Click here to read the first hand account of Agility’s President and CEO, Bob Boyd participating in the 2013 Shake Rattle and Roll test exercise hosted by the National Disaster Medical System.
If you have additional questions or would like to talk with a recovery professional about your business continuity needs visit www.agilityrecovery.com or call 866-364-9696.
Posted by Bob Boyd on Fri, May 10, 2013
Here at Agility, we worry about the “what if” scenarios on a regular basis. We run our own Annual Table Top exercise where we test the limits of Agility, our partners, the communities and capabilities in order to constantly evolve the business. But recently I got the unique opportunity to be on the front lines of another test. And what an experience it was! Two weeks ago we were contacted by the American Red Cross as they needed volunteers for a drill they were participating in. If you’ve ever spent any time with me, you probably know I have an intense passion about changing the level of preparedness that exists in this country. I think Agility can make a huge impact on this and in many ways think it’s our corporate legacy and responsibility to lead that charge. As a result, I volunteered. I volunteered without really knowing what the exercise was going to be, how I was going to be involved or what I might be doing. For all I knew, we were going to spend an hour in a conference room in a theoretically exercise. Boy was I wrong!
I arrived Wednesday morning at the Air National Guard base adjacent 
to Charlotte Douglas Airport and checked in with the guard. I then made my way to the Red Cross base command center to learn my “mission”. After checking in I was assigned a character that I would play during the disaster. I received a card on my character and was surprised to see that I was Crystal Burns of Ashburn, GA! I magically became a 54 lady who had some very unfortunate injuries. I was next directed to the “moulage” staging area where I would be “made-up” to reflect my injury. Crystal had a broken right forearm with a protrusion. The moulage people quickly decided my injury was going to be an ugly one – after prosthetic attachments, fake blood, glue and some shredding of clothes I had my injury.
Next I went to the staging center where we were briefed on the event. The exercise we were going to participate in was being run by the National Disaster Medical System (NDMS) for their 2013 Shake Rattle & Roll full scale exercise. The scenario was a 7.0 earthquake on the New Madrid Fault. Thousands of people are injured or killed and there is widespread destruction. The NDMS is activated and charged to receive, triage, stage, track and transport the patients to 47 hospitals in Western North Carolina. NDMS is required to conduct a full scale test every three years. I was going to be one of the patients being evacuated from impacted area (Ashburn, GA) to Charlotte and from there to an appropriate hospital where I would receive care. I was one of about 100 volunteers and our injuries ranged from everything from a simple burn or bruise to severed limbs and mental patients.
After everyone received their “mission” and in some cases “moulage” treatments, we were loaded onto a C-130 military transport plane. This is where the exercise began – the plane has just landed in Charlotte at the Air National Guard base and now the locals needed to receive, triage, track and distribute the patients to an appropriate care facility someplace in North Carolina. The C-130 was an awesome airplane.
I must say, the Air National Guard was the most impressive group I’ve had the chance to work with – they were professional, organized and practiced. Our Wing had just returned from a deployment in Afganistan and just done the exact type of mission we were testing as they were transporting injured soldiers to Germany for treatment. They were as professional a team as anyone could hope for and I immediantly found myself so proud of our Armed Forces. They really set a high standard. Once we were all in place the exercise began – the Guard, local Fire Departments and EMS personal moved us off the plane to triage/staging areas inside a hanger. We were packed into the C-130 like sardines!
Off we went in a very orderly fashion on stretchers to see the Medic teams who quickly assessed our conditions. We were placed into Red, Yellow, Green or Black codes for treatment and transportation. Red were the worst injured and Green the least serious. Black were those patients that either died during transport or died in the holding area.
Once we received our designation, a paramedic came over, 
assessed treatments, and we waited for transport. Some of the folks were evacuated to local hospitals but some went all the way to Blowing Rock. In all, 47 hospitals in Western North Carolina participated and they actually put the people with the most serious injuries in ambulances and moved them to the appropriate hospital. My injury, while it looked awful, was actually far less serious than many other folks – this picture is of a friend who also had a protrusion but hers was in her eye! Made my arm seem like nothing more than a scratch!
When my time came for transportation, I was placed in a large Medic emergency bus that was outfitted to transport, en mass, about 30 patients. My group, luckily, all were going to CMC-Main which is the biggest hospital in the area located downtown about 15 minutes from the Air National Guard base. As I said, some of the folks went to Murphy NC, Blowing Rock, Concord, Wake Forest and other much more remote locations.
We arrived at CMC-Main and were quickly admitted into the Emergency Room, seen by a nurse and finally treated by a doctor. In my case, Crystal needed tetanus, morphine, antibiotics, x-rays, surgery to put pins into my fracture and a cast. 
Crystal was taken really good care of and I’m pleased to say was a survivor of the earthquake. In total the exercise was a stunning success. The Air National Guard successfully transported about 100 injured civilians; they were identified, organized, given care and distributed to the proper hospital best suited to deal with their injury. At all stages along the way our movements were tracked, confirmed and no one got lost or left behind. That is no small feat when you are talking about all the people and chaos involved. The Guard, Red Cross, Fire & Medic and the hospitals were superb. I’m certain they identified lots of areas for improvement but, as we always say, that is why you do the tests. To simulate the steps taken during recovery, identify shortcomings, and help employees practice their recovery responsibilities.
I was thrilled to participate and was truly impressed by all parties involved. If you have ever questioned the value of testing, I encourage you to reach out to local partners and see how you can get involved. I promise, it will be an experience you will never forget.
Bob Boyd
President & CEO
Posted by Sarah Rixey on Wed, May 08, 2013
As part of our comprehensive disaster recovery planning services, Agility Recovery Solutions sends out a free weekly tip through email. If you would like to receive these tips, please sign up here.
Password Protection
Password policies are easy to implement and require next to no budget. For most businesses, it’s a no brainer – a quick, easy and effective way to protect themselves against hackers.
And while many organizations have these policies and procedures in place, the importance of using a strong password can easily be overlooked by executives and employees alike. To ensure compliance across the board, here are a few requirements you may want to consider adding to your network account settings.
- Password Complexity – Set rules that ensure passwords are complex (i.e. contain one upper case letter, one number and must be a minimum of eight characters).
- Lockout Policy – The ability to disable a user account if an incorrect password is entered a specified number of times (many organizations follow the '3 strikes and you’re out ' rule).
- Password Age – Set guidelines that require employees to change their passwords regularly (every 60 to 90 days is good rule).
- Reuse Limits – The ability to detect a certain number of old passwords preventing a user from reusing the same passwords over and over again.
Want to check the strength of your passwords?
Click hereto access Microsoft's Password Checker. Remember: You’re only as secure as your weakest password.
If you have additional questions or would like to talk with a recovery professional about your business continuity needs visit www.agilityrecovery.com or call 866-364-9696.
Posted by Sarah Rixey on Fri, May 03, 2013
As part of our comprehensive disaster recovery planning services, Agility Recovery Solutions sends out a free weekly tip through email. If you would like to receive these tips, please sign up here.
Tornado Alley
Tornado Alley” typically includes the Plains states from the Dakotas to Texas. However, a new study shows that the frequency and severity of tornadoes are actually much more widespread.
As you can see in the below graphic, tornadoes can touchdown just about anywhere. For more interesting tornado maps, click here to visit one of our favorite blogs. Warning: it may become addictive.
While the peak time for tornadoes tends to be in the spring, there is no defined tornado season like there is for hurricanes. And given their unpredictable nature, it is vital you prepare your organization now.
Need help getting started? Download Agility’s free Tornado Checklist for tips on how to prepare your business before, during and after a storm. In addition, we encourage all employees to review the Be Red Cross Ready - Tornado Safety Checklist for helpful tips on how to protect yourself, your friends and your family in the event of a tornado.
If you have additional questions or would like to talk with a recovery professional about your business continuity needs visit www.agilityrecovery.com or call 866-364-9696.
Posted by Sarah Rixey on Tue, Apr 30, 2013
As part of our comprehensive disaster recovery planning services, Agility Recovery Solutions sends out a free weekly tip through email. If you would like to receive these tips, please sign up here.
Rivers on the Rise
Download Your Flood Checklist
The Mississippi and countless other Midwestern rivers are still significantly above flood stage, spurred by the heavy rain last week. Disasters have been declared in half a dozen states due to the deadly flooding that swept away vehicles, submerged homes and shut down bridges throughout the Midwest.
Click here to view a current flood map.
And while the Mississippi River topped out at some problematic spots on Monday, river towns aren’t in the clear yet. Forecasters are predicting another inch or more of rain this week in addition to heavy snow accumulations in the north.
For helpful tips on how to keep your business afloat, download Agility Flood Preparedness Checklist for actionable advice on what to do before, during and after a flood.
If you have additional questions or would like to talk with a recovery professional about your business continuity needs visit www.agilityrecovery.com or call 866-364-9696.
Posted by Sarah Rixey on Thu, Apr 18, 2013
As part of our comprehensive disaster recovery planning services, Agility Recovery Solutions sends out a free weekly tip through email. If you would like to receive these tips, please sign up here.
Terror in Boston
Our hearts go out to the victims, friends and families suffering in the wake of Monday’s tragic attack on the Boston Marathon. While there are still many unknowns in the investigation, local and federal authorities are making progress, and have called for heightened security and added vigilance across the country.
In an effort to assist those in need, Agility has compiled a few resources to help businesses recover, cope and prepare during this trying time.
- Remain Vigilant - If you see something, say something. Americans have a shared responsibility in keeping each other safe. Report all suspicious activity to authorities immediately.
- Coping with Emotional Trauma - If you or someone else you know is struggling with the psychological effects of Monday’s tragedy, call the Disaster Distress Helpline for information, support and counseling.
- Crisis Communications - Prepare your co-workers, friends and family for network outages. Click here to learn why cell phone networks often fail in emergencies and how to best communicate with loved ones during such instances.
If you have additional questions or would like to talk with a recovery professional about your business continuity needs visit www.agilityrecovery.com or call 866-364-9696.
Posted by Sarah Rixey on Wed, Apr 10, 2013
As part of our comprehensive disaster recovery planning services, Agility Recovery Solutions sends out a free weekly tip through email. If you would like to receive these tips, please sign up here.
Partners in Preparedness
As our audience continues to grow and new people join the Agility family, we found it appropriate to re-introduce our collaboration with the Small Business Administration (SBA).
For those of you who don't know, three years ago Agility and the SBA came together and launched an educational program, offering free tools and resources to help small business owners plan for and recover from disasters.
Today, the program continues to evolve and grow, offering new checklists and webinar topics. The co-sponsored website, www.PrepareMyBusiness.org houses everything from real-world recovery stories to information on disaster assistance loans.
Share the www.PrepareMyBusiness.org link with other businesses, partners, suppliers, etc. and help spread the word.
If you have additional questions or would like to talk with a recovery professional about your business continuity needs visit www.agilityrecovery.com or call 866-364-9696.
