Here is a Case study of how Online Business owners affected by Hurricane Katrina got through the crisis. We can all learn from their stories.

Business owner 1 ran a very successful online storefront from his home in the Gulf Coast region. He ran his business off a desktop computer. When he heard the Hurricane Warnings he backed his data up using a DVD Recorder. He also decided to buy that laptop he had wanted for so long. He took his DVD back-up and restored it to his laptop and did a few hours of testing to make sure his laptop was operational. After he was sure he had a good backup copy. He Made 3 Copies of his DVD Backup. He mailed one DVD to a relative in Arizona. He placed the 2nd DVD Backup in a Safe Deposit box in his bank and he left the 3rd DVD backup with his laptop computer. On Sunday when the mandatory evacuation order came he moved his home desktop computer to his attic. He grabbed his Laptop and a suitcase and drove to Safety. Today 2 weeks after the Hurricane Katrina Disaster he is running his online business from his hotel room on his laptop.

Our second business owner lives in the St. Louis Area 700 Miles from the Hurricane Katrina Disaster Area. His online business was hosted by a New Orleans based company. Hearing about the Hurricane he decided to log into his CPanel and backup his web site. He downloaded the backup to his personal computer. A few days later when his Host went down because of the Hurricane Katrina he simply found a new host restore his web page from his backup to his new host. Changed his Name Servers with his registrar and he was back in business a few days later when the new Name Servers Propagated across the Internet.

You got me both business owners are fictional, However the stories they tell are important. You need to be prepared for a disaster. In both cases our business owners were able to recover from Hurricane Katrina by listening to the warnings and doing make the required preparations. What if there had been no warnings? What if this had been a Fire, Earthquake, Theft or Terrorist Attack? Neither of our business owners would have been prepared. Are you prepared? Consider this your warning. Backup your data. Place a copy of that backup in a safe place nearby. Mail a copy of that backup to a trusted friend or associate 1,000 miles or more away.