Report on Incident Response

The importance of disaster recovery plans Disaster recovery (DR) is one component of contingency planning (Whitman & Mattford, 2017). Specifically, disaster recovery refers to all the activities when preparing, detecting, reacting and recovering from a disaster. A disaster is defined as an unexpected event that affects the organization’s ability to perform mission-critical tasks (SANS, 2003). To recover (return to normal operations) from such an event, the organization needs to have a tested DR plan and policy in place. Such plans should be supported by senior management and support the vision and mission of the organization. According to SANS (2003), key elements to a disaster recovery plan are:
•Establishing a planning group
•Risk assessments
•Prioritization of information assets (inclusive of applications and networks)
•Recovery strategies
•Plan documentation
•Verification criteria and procedures
•Implementation
Other important aspects include testing the plan as well as continuous maintenance and update. In addition, the DR team should consist of personnel from each major business unit to be involved in all disaster recovery planning activities. This ensures that all facets of the organization are taken into consideration while promoting an all-inclusive support structure.
According to Sahebjamnia, Torabi, and Mansouri (2015), “the lack of proactive BC (Business Continuity) and DR planning may lead to loss of reputation and market share, customer service and business process failure, regulatory liability and increased resuming and restoring times” (p. 261).  The question is not whether the disaster will strike but when and how severe. Hence, all organizations from small to large, need to have tested plans in place to be able to respond and recover from disasters.
Below, three cases are presented, outlining the responses of Chevron, Walmart, and the Weyerhaeuser Company to hurricane Katrina in 2005.

The Weyerhaeuser Company response to Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina, a category 5 storm struck the Gulf coast from Florida to Texas killing more than 1,800 persons, in 2005. The Weyerhaeuser Company was one of the companies affected by the destructive hurricane. It is one of the world’s largest private owners of timberlands, which was established in the 1900’s. In addition, Weyerhaeuser currently employs about 41,000 people in 18 countries. Hurricane Katrina affected 40 plants across the Gulf coast.
The organization initiated its response after Hurricane Katrina by appointing a senior management committee which was led by the Senior Vice President, Ernesta Ballard (FEMA, 2011). In addition, the company appointed a disaster relief coordinate from within the company to oversee disaster relief efforts. Moreover, the company established several programs such as adopt-a-family, loaned employee program, and wood debris disposal. Moreover, the company made in-kind and direct cash donations and coordinated employee donations as well. In addition, the Disaster Relief Coordinator Katy Taylor developed a guide, called “Rebuilding a Community: An Employer’s Guide to Assisting Employees,” which received the “gold standard for disaster relief programs” and was used as a benchmark by relief organizations. It can be seen from the response that the first priority was securing personnel and providing relief to people. Today, the company survived the major storm and is continuing its business operations.

Walmart’s Response to Hurricane Katrina
Another organization affected by Hurricane Katrina was Walmart. Walmart, a multinational retail corporation boasts of over 11,000 stores globally and employing over 1.9 million people. In the Gulf coast, Walmart maintained hundreds of stores, employing thousands.  It was the single largest disaster the company has had to respond to. The estimated losses for hurricanes endured in that area was over 40 million USD. This included losses due to structure damages, business interruption, and looting.
Because of the organization's size and global reach, Walmart has its own 24-hour emergency operations center (EOC). This center monitors weather conditions using special software and equipment. Hence, the center was able to begin response when the storm was upgraded to category 5. The company’s Business Continuity Director, Jason Jackson, immediately began managing the businesses response operations from the center.  The response team included over 50 managers and support personnel, signaling the serious response attitude.
In addition, the CEO, H. Lee Scott, Jr., guided the company’s response by having conference calls, twice a day. One of the first things that the company started to do was move storm-readiness supplies and cleanup materials to its stores. Moreover, the day before the storm, the Business Continuity Director, initiated the delivery of generators, emergency supplies, bottled water to designated staging areas, so that the company would be able to reopen quickly if the storm really did hit as expected. Another initiative was the preloading of trucks with emergency supplies for customers at the various distribution centers. These were ready to be delivered to the locations where it was most needed.
To ensure that all stores remained in contact and shared information, Walmart set up a satellite link, providing reliable communications (phone and internet) in the hardest hit areas. This allowed stores to keep supplies and equipment in stock. Moreover, a ‘replenishment team’ was established to reorder essential products on demand, so that the stores that lost communication to the inventory system would still be able to track and maintain inventory levels. Another important initiative was the use of an online emergency registry. This was a web-based service that helped customers, employees and the general public to access information pertaining to relief services (FEMA, 2011).
In short, Walmart’s response to Katrina included over $18 million in cash donations, hundreds of truckloads of free merchandise, meals for over 100,000 persons and job security for all displaced employees. Walmart’s response represented highly-effective business continuity. This disaster recovery response has earned Walmart even higher praises and respect throughout the world (Cooper, 2013).

Chevron’s response to Hurricane Katrina
The Chevron Corporation is another company that was affected by Hurricane Katrina. Chevron is a multinational energy company with activities in more than 180 countries. The company has several platforms on the Gulf coast with supporting operations in the nearby states, which were affected by the storm. The company suffered over 1.4 billion in losses due to Hurricane Katrina. This was due to a reduction in crude oil and natural gas production, repair and maintenance cost of facilities, asset write-offs, and expenditure for items that were not insured.
The first response activity for Chevron was securing its employees. Employees from all the offshore oil platforms located in the hurricane’s likely path were evacuated. This was a very good response since one of the platforms had capsized. Moreover, the company attempted to account for all employee personnel, by establishing toll-free lines, using radio and web communications, as well as newspaper advertisements. In addition, Chevron employees also went door-to-door in search of missing co-workers. Chevron also donated cash, vaccines, blankets and other supplies to those affected.
This disaster also led to the establishment of the employee-funded Chevron Humanitarian Relief Fund which donated thousands to those affected by the hurricane. The company also established temporary housing facilities spanning 12-acres, for these employees. These facilities included water, catering, power, satellite communications, sewage treatment, medical services, bedding, laundry, and recreation.
Moreover, another notable initiative is the commitment to the rebuilding of childcare facilities, which earned them many awards. From a business stance, once the storm had subsided the company conducted damage assessments on all affected facilities to begin repair and recovery (FEMA, 2011).

Conclusion
Of the three cases presented, Walmart’s response was by far the most comprehensive and proactive. The company had initiatives in place before, during and after the disaster. Its experience with logistics and global network resulted in a proactive and effective response to disaster recovery.
In all cases presented, the priority was on securing human life; from evacuations to setting up toll-free communication to door-to-door searching for personnel and adopt-a-family programs. The company’s affected ensured that their employees were accounted for and received adequate relief to return to some sense of normalcy. Not only did the organizations provide relief to their employees, relief was also sent to all those affected in the form of temporary housing or supplies.
A crucial factor in ensuring that a DR plan is executed well is constant communication among the DR team members. In Walmart’s case, there were conference calls twice a day. This ensures that everyone is updated to date with much-needed information. Remove this communication and team members would be unaware of how to coordinate and dynamically respond to changing information.
In addition, leveraging resources that are unaffected, for instance, the employee loan program, eases the burden on an already disaster-stricken area. In addition, the wood debris disposal program set up by the Weyerhaeuser Company was intuitive to aid in the cleanup and waste removal process. From the case studies, each company tried to leverage on its strength to provide relief and secure employee personnel.
The experience of these companies has contributed to the development of recommended practices and improved steps when dealing with a disaster. The experience equips them with the knowledge on how to coordinate future disasters and rebound from them.
According to Prazeres and Lopes (2013), “A Disaster Recovery project is a job which is never completed – project planning must be tested and revised several times during his lifetime” (p. 800). We can see from the examples present, particularly in the case of Walmart that having a tested and current disaster recovery plan can make the difference between the demise of a company or the renewed faith and respect in one.

 
References
Cooper, M. (2013). Walmart takes collaborative approach to disaster recovery. Retrieved from https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/capital-projects-infrastructure/disaster-resilience/assets/pdf/interview-mark-cooper.pdf

FEMA. (2011). Chapter 11: Business Community Response in Hurricane Katrina. Retrieved from https://training.fema.gov/hiedu/docs/emoutline/emerg%20and%20risk%20mgmt%20textbook%20-%20chapter%2011%20-%20%20business%20commun.doc

Prazeres, A., & Lopes, E. (2013). Disaster recovery–a project planning case study in Portugal. Procedia Technology, 9, 795-805.

Sahebjamnia, N., Torabi, S. A., & Mansouri, S. A. (2015). Integrated business continuity and disaster recovery planning: Towards organizational resilience. European Journal of Operational Research, 242(1), 261-273.

SANS. (2003). The Disaster Recovery Plan. Retrieved from https://www.sans.org/reading-room/whitepapers/recovery/disaster-recovery-plan-1164

Whitman, M. E., & Mattord, H. J. (2017). Management of information security. Boston, MA, USA: Cengage Learning. ISBN: 978-1-305-50125