Hurricane Helene's Catastrophic Flooding Tests IT Readiness

The aftermath of Hurricane Helene's 500-mile swath of destruction came into full view as reports and pictures posted after the Sept. 26 storm depicted apocalyptic scenes of normally quiet and tranquil areas — such as mountain tourist destination Asheville, North Carolina.

For an IT service provider, just finding a connection is a nightmare, let alone assisting clients impacted by the storm. Zack Calloway, owner of Asheville-based managed service provider Blue Ridge Technology, chatted with InformationWeek through LinkedIn messaging using his cell phone.

"We began working with our clients early Monday morning, before 8 a.m.," he says. "Our initial conversations were with key stakeholders to assess their most pressing concerns. It quickly became clear that each client was facing different challenges … a few clients lost everything due to 6-10 feet of water in their offices. In those cases, we immediately started working on securing new, used, or borrowed equipment to get them operational again."

Calloway said just finding a reliable internet connection is going to be an issue for some time. "Many of our clients have been told that their fiber and co-ax connections may not be restored for four weeks or more. Unfortunately, cellular service, which many clients use as a backup, is nearly unusable at the moment."

Related:Introduction to IT Disaster Recovery Planning

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