Powerful Earthquake Triggers Tsunami in Pacific. Hurricane Katrina Makes Landfall in the Gulf Coast. Avalanche Buries Highway in Denver. Tornado Touches Down in Georgia. These headlines not only have caught the attention of people around the world, they have had a significant effect on IT professionals as well. As technology continues to become more integral to corporate operations at every level of the organization, the job of IT has expanded to become almost all-encompassing. These days, it's difficult to find corners of a company that technology does not touch. As a result, the need to plan for potential disruptions to technology services has increased exponentially. That is what Business Continuity Planning (BCP) is: a methodology used to create a plan for how an organization will recover after a disaster of various types. It takes into account both security and corporate risk management tatics.There is a lot of movement around this initiative in the industry: the British Standards Institute is releasing a new standard for BCP this year. Trade shows are popping up covering the topic.* Complete coverage of the 3 categories of disaster: natural hazards, human-caused hazards, and accidental and technical hazards.* Only published source of information on the new BCI standards and government requirements.* Up dated information on recovery from cyber attacks, rioting, protests, product tampering, bombs, explosions, and terrorism.

Annotation Hiatt (California State University) helps businesses evaluate their vulnerability to accidents and disasters, and guides them through the process of creating a disaster recovery plan. The second half of the book consists of 33 appendices with diagrams, lists, questionnaires, procedures, surveys, contacts, and case studies. No index. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com).

In the devastation that follows a major disaster, there is a need for multiple sectors to unite and devote new resources to support the rebuilding of infrastructure, the provision of health and social services, the restoration of care delivery systems, and other critical recovery needs. In some cases, billions of dollars from public, private and charitable sources are invested to help communities recover. National rhetoric often characterizes these efforts as a "return to normal." But for many American communities, pre-disaster conditions are far from optimal. Large segments of the U.S. population suffer from preventable health problems, experience inequitable access to services, and rely on overburdened health systems. A return to pre-event conditions in such cases may be short-sighted given the high costs - both economic and social - of poor health. Instead, it is important to understand that the disaster recovery process offers a series of unique and valuable opportunities to improve on the status quo. Capitalizing on these opportunities can advance the long-term health, resilience, and sustainability of communities - thereby better preparing them for future challenges. Healthy, Resilient, and Sustainable Communities After Disasters identifies and recommends recovery practices and novel programs most likely to impact overall community public health and contribute to resiliency for future incidents. This book makes the case that disaster recovery should be guided by a healthy community vision, where health considerations are integrated into all aspects of recovery planning before and after a disaster, and funding streams are leveraged in a coordinated manner and applied to health improvement priorities in order to meet human recovery needs and create healthy built and natural environments. The conceptual framework presented in Healthy, Resilient, and Sustainable Communities After Disasters lays the groundwork to achieve this goal and provides operational guidance for multiple sectors involved in community planning and disaster recovery. Healthy, Resilient, and Sustainable Communities After Disasters calls for actions at multiple levels to facilitate recovery strategies that optimize community health. With a shared healthy community vision, strategic planning that prioritizes health, and coordinated implementation, disaster recovery can result in a communities that are healthier, more livable places for current and future generations to grow and thrive - communities that are better prepared for future adversities.

1-Disaster Planning and Recovery Issues2-Regulatory Influences3-Emergency Preparedness4-The Nature of Disasters5-Fire/Life Safety6-Bomb Threats7-Evacuation8-Earthquakes9-Computer and Data Protection10-Standby Power Systems11-Loss Prevention Strategies12-Crisis Planning and Damage Control13-Putting the Plan TogetherAppendix I-Sources of Assistance and InformationAppendix II-Self-Inspection Checklists

Mapping out all the preparations necessary for an effective disaster recovery plan and its safeguard--a continuous maintenance program--this guide is aimed at IT managers of small and medium businesses. The opening section covers the initial steps of auditing vulnerability, ranking essential IT functions, and reviewing the storage of tape backups, with the following discussion focused on the elements of the plan itself. The plan includes a mission statement, a definition of disaster, the assignment of staff to teams, methods of compensating for human error, and standards for documenting the steps of recovery. The final portion of the guide covers the all-important initial testing of the system as well as the proper maintenance thereafter and weighs in on the pros and cons of using outside vendors for recovery systems.

Addressing the vulnerabilities in today's critical infrastructure to natural disasters and terrorism, this practical book describes what public safety and other officials need to do to protect should be doing to pipelines, power plants, telecommunications, and other essential services before the unthinkable happens. The book explains how to maintain command and control in any disaster, and how to predict the probability of those disasters. Written by two highly regarded experts in the field, this one-of-a-kind guidebook shows how to simplify risk assessments and emergency response procedures to disasters affecting our critical national and local infrastructure.