> From:    Peter Kurilecz <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Disaster planning

> <snip>
> The building where I work was flooded during the torrential rains the
> week of June 25th.  The first day we were told the building would be
> closed for a day and to stay home.  The second day we were told it
> would be closed for the week.  By the third day, I was sent to a
> meeting offsite to talk about business resumption where we were told
> the building would be closed for a month.  From then on, our disaster
> recovery program kicked into place and we relocated all critical
> systems and people offsite.  This is the end of the third week and now
> we are being told that the building will be closed for the next six
> months at least to repair the structural damage done to the building
>  from the floodwater (100 year flood).  We were lucky that we were able
> to go back into the building to recover critical files and computer
> equipment.  I guess we can look at this as a test for if there was a
> real disaster where we couldn't go back and retrieve anything.  We had
> the major publishing systems up and running by the end of the 4th day
> and by this coming Monday all 2500+ people from the building will have
> been relocated.  During the interim, many people were working from home
> or sharing workspaces, conference rooms, break rooms, etc.  It's been
> an experience...
> <snip>
>
> Peter A. Kurilecz
> Richmond, Va
> [log in to unmask]

With all of the things going on in the world could we do a little 
survey just by informal poll:

Call your records storage company and ask:

1) Please provide a copy of your insurance coverage? Ask them to 
provide a copy of it and a affidavit summary of its coverage:
	a) Does it cover the loss of your property in their records center?   
There will be limitations in value 	of coverage but that is not the 
concern of this survey.
		1) Insurance companies sometimes play games with them and add caveats 
in later years 		stating the policy covers the storage of records by 
XYZ storage and they don't realize that this 		only covers their own 
records and your records falls outside the blanket policy.
	b)  Does it cover the loss of your property due to fire?  ( Some do 
but most feel that you must insure 	your own records and the first step 
is to tell your risk manager what coverage you have so they can 
	supplement the rest..)
	c)  Does it cover remediation of water damage and smoke damage?  
Ironically this often slips 	through the cracks or the insurance 
company goes all wicked and states, "Oh no!  We only cover 	the loss of 
all the records.  If it is wet or smokey or contaminated, that is not 
covered!  This will 	come into play big time after a fire and at the 
very least slow the records center pay out for some 	time.
(I personally feel that since you want the records storage company to 
use a suppression system that in fulfilling the requirement to put 
sprinklers in the warehouse, the paying for water damage and smoke 
re-mediation should be on the owner of the records.  But you need to 
know what coverage you have so you can supplement it.)

2) Please define your actual service?  Are you merely storing my 
records or are you attesting to provide different levels of protection 
for some records?

3) Please provide a copy of the 100 year flood plain and the policy 
that provides flood insurance.  As we learned in Maine, places can 
flood that never flooded before.  Drainage plans change with 
development.
	1) If they provide a vault then they are probably attesting some level 
of protection and they are 	able to do this.  But remember that vaults 
are to provide protection for a given period of time.  Once 	the fire 
burns beyond the hourly rating of the vault then you are not warranted. 
  Vaults and Vault 	doors offer a prescribed level of protection.

4) How many of you have your inventory of where your records are?  Why 
should the offsite vendor need to tell you where your boxes or tapes 
are?  You should have a current list and you should do audits to make 
sure the pristine warehouse you thought you were in, is where your 
records really are.  I was surprised to learn that one records storage 
company refused to tell the clients where they stored their records and 
would not allow them to audit them???

If you are a records manager you need to show some management skills.

One of the things that differentiate great records storage centers from 
so-so centers is that great records centers have compartmentation, that 
the vault is set apart and the final issue is width of aisle.  The 
independent centers have in the past provided 48" to 52" or wider 
aisles with large capacity drop sprinklers and if above 12' in height 
they are most likely in-rack sprinklers.  The wider aisles provide 
their own fire breaks and the large drop sprinklers provide a water 
curtain of protection.  So far every compartmented fire has limited 
damage.  ( Fire, Water and Smoke)  Some like sky lights so in a fire 
they break out to remove the smoke so the firemen can see to fight the 
fire.

History is now revealing that every single mezzanine fire in an 
uncompartmented fire is basically a total loss or water and smoke 
damage to large areas of coverage.  We need to learn from events.  That 
is how ARMA and records managers can improve the industry.

I will be totally surprised if more than 10 of the members of the 
Listserv have ever looked at the policy of their records management 
company. But this is the first step in creating wrap around coverage.

I am not being critical of the offsite storage industry, as I think the 
vast majority of companies within PRISM and other independents have 
totally improved their product through the years.  Over two hundred new 
companies have entered this arena in recent years totally premised on 
better security, better service and these companies push the others to 
step up their standards as well.

And maybe it is time to look at what your responsibility is in the 
equation.  As some are learning,  expecting total coverage from a 
vendor without asking questions is a huge mistake.

One solution is to have your disaster recovery or business continuity 
insurance company review your storage companies policy?  That way an 
expert is looking at another's Legaleze.



Hugh Smith
FIRELOCK Fireproof Modular Vaults
[log in to unmask]
(610)  756-4440    Fax (610)  756-4134
WWW.FIRELOCK.COM

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