Disasters are those critical events that affect the lives of the general public and cause great damage to their properties. To prevent and overcome these issues, the disaster recovery (DR) plan is used. It guides professionals, revealing how they are expected to act to enhance the situation and ensure people’s safety and minimalize associated losses.
The DR team consists of numerous professionals, which provides it with an opportunity to fulfill a range of various tasks. They are often gathered in such sub-teams as communications and public relations teams, administration and operation teams, damage assessment and recovery teams, hardware/software and network, teams. All in all, those professionals who perform their duties being a part of the DR team are responsible for:
- Guidance of recovery operations;
- Communication with stakeholders;
- Provision of basic utility services;
- Contact with media;
- Provision of required supplies;
- Management of surveillance;
- Cooperation with government enforcement authorities;
- Use of appropriate safety programs;
- Protection of population and property;
- Restoration of business operations;
- Environmental renewal (Kilbourne, 2013).
All members of the DR team should act following particular procedures and policies. They need to document a proper emergency response that can ensure people’s safety and minimalize damage associated with the disaster. They are to accomplish operational tasks based on authoritative information. The DR team should identify required mitigations and perform crisis analysis to reveal the effects of the disaster.
Cost analysis is also required because associated procedures can be rather costly because of the equipment used and materials required for renewal. A clear schedule should be developed for professionals to be aware of the actions they are expected to perform. It is vital to align it with the DR plan as well. Team leaders should distribute all vital information to the personnel, ensuring that they are well-aware of the way they are supposed to perform their duties (IMB, 2018). There should be a disaster action checklist that can be used by professionals to ensure that they do everything needed and do not overlook some significant steps.
Depending on the peculiarities of a disaster, the place where it happens, and the influences it makes, different equipment can be required for the DR team to perform their duties. Among the most general tools, one can find trash and transfer pumps, fuel transfer tanks, flashlights, fire-fighting units, and sorbents. Recovery trailers are needed to transport equipment to needed place while batteries provide an opportunity to have enough energy for various tools to work.
All in all, a DR plan is developed to guide procedures required to restore those systems that have been affected by a disaster. Generally, a DR plan starts with such information as to its distribution, objectives, and assumptions (Pollock, 2015). Then, the processing environment is explained. The scope of recovery is identified, the affected environment is described, and needed equipment is listed. Further, recovery procedures are outlined.
The other elements of a DR plan are revealed as well. In particular, a plan for the main disasters is explained. The roles and responsibilities of a DR team are described as well as its members. Providers involved in the recovery are also mentioned. A DR plan includes the discussion of restoration priorities, media protection, security, and backup facilities (“Disaster recovery plan template,” n.d.). In this way, the upper management is to state what should be done in the framework of the DR process, allocate duties, and identify priorities.
References
Disaster recovery plan template. (n.d.). Web.
IMB. (2018). Section 6. Disaster recovery procedures. Web.
Kilbourne, C. (2013). Disaster recovery roles and responsibilities. Web.
Pollock, W. (2015). Disaster recovery — policy and procedure outline. Web.