Sandy is not over

I live in New York City, and Sandy was my first hurricane.  I am one of the very lucky.  Except for rattling windows and worry, we were spared the worst of the storm.  We never went dark, never cold, never hungry.  

John Swanson, Window & Door's associate publisher,  lives and works about 90 blocks south of me, and the lights went out.  He came to my apartment last Wednesday to get WDweekly out and charge cell phones and laptops.  He then decamped with his family to his mother's house in Massachusetts for the rest of the week.  

On Saturday afternoon, I walked around Greenwich Village, where the power had just come on. Building doormen commented about the ghost town atmosphere.  Some people I talked to hadn't yet seen the endless images of destruction on Staten Island and Atlantic City, among many others.

As is true in any disaster, where you are relative to the epi-center can mean life, death and degrees of destruction.   For some glass companies in New Jersey, New York and Connecticut last week, scrambling even a few hours before the 'worst storm ever' hit was the difference between maintaining some power and connectivity to the world or none at all.   They were also among the lucky semi-prepared in the face of Sandy’s onslaught.   We're still hearing about others who have lost their homes, their glass business or both.    

To be sure, there are lessons to be learned as mayhem continues in some areas, and clean-up and rebuilding starts in others.  For those of us safe and sound in other parts of the country, as you reach out to help those in need, think, too, about helping yourselves for a future calamity—whatever form it takes. 

As I searched for articles on disaster recovery planning (stay tuned, you’ll see a lot more), here are six steps to start thinking about and implementing now:

1. List events that may cause lost data or technology
2. Safeguard  company data
3. Safeguard the network
4. Safeguard staffing
5. Test the plan
6. Have a recovery plan

You can read the full article, “Disaster Planning in Six Quick Steps,” on Inc.com and also this one, “Disaster Recovery Planning 101.”

It will be a long road for some in our industry to get back to installing glass.  The National Glass Association is reaching out to its members in the affected areas.  We'll update our coverage as we know more.   

Harris is publisher of Glass Magazine and vice president of the National Glass Association. Write her at nharris@glass.org.