In wake of hurricanes, firms boost preparedness

NEW YORK — Business has picked up at data recovery services, insurance brokers and loss prevention consultancies across the nation over the past few weeks, as images of flooded and destroyed Gulf Coast companies made many small business owners uneasy about their own disaster preparedness.

At LiveVault, a data backup and recovery company in Marlborough, Mass., orders doubled around the time that Hurricane Katrina hit, in late August, said CEO Bob Cramer.

“A lot of people found us on the Web and called us frantically. They rapidly put orders through and begged us to get them up and running,” Cramer said.

Many small business owners began thinking about contracting with a remote data backup service to protect their computer data after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, Cramer said. But many never signed up with a provider until they were unnerved by Katrina’s devastation.

But Cramer also said business has leveled off somewhat since the early blip, a sign that many company owners, perhaps distracted by day-to-day demands, are again putting off disaster prep.

“They forget about disasters the week after they happen,” he said.

VeriCenter Inc., a Houston-based information technology firm with seven data backup centers around the country, also saw an uptick in business, said co-founder Dave Colesante.

“Katrina caused a lot of people to actually engage and force their IT staff to make the leap into the disaster recovery world,” he said.

Insurance brokers have also been getting more phone calls and e-mails.

George Yates, president of Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of New York, in East Hampton, said his firm has been getting calls from businesses wondering whether their insurance includes flood coverage. For many owners, the answer is no — flood insurance has to be purchased separately from a standard business policy — and so Yates’ company has been selling more coverage for floods.

Yates said his company has been working on its own disaster planning. Located right next to the Atlantic Ocean, East Hampton is vulnerable to hurricanes.

“We went through a fairly formal plan of what we would do if disaster struck,” he said. The company has had its data backed up and arranged to have phone calls routed to remote locations if its office is unusable.

The video and photographs of stranded people in New Orleans also prompted small business owners to think about some more mundane disaster preparation items. Be Ready Inc., an Oceanside, Calif., company, has seen increased demand for products such as its 72-hour kit, which has water, food bars, first aid kit, a solar radio, flashlight and other items.