The Disaster Recovery Centre in Citrus Grove.

To mark the start of this year’s hurricane season, the Deloitte-managed Disaster Recovery Centre (DRC) has already conducted a half-day testing exercise, which included the participation of many of DRC’s clients.

The test consisted of a mock hurricane scenario adapted to fit a reduced time frame.

Managed by Deloitte, and located at Citrus Grove, the centre used the mock exercise both to test DRC’s own staff and its clients in their disaster readiness.

Many of the clients went a step further, however, and tested their full recovery plans, as well as their potential ability to quickly move over to back-up systems when their normal operating systems fail due to storm damage.

Prior to the actual hurricane season, DRC staff launched their exercise by carrying out set procedures required to move DRC into its ‘active’ state so as to respond to and support its clients’ needs.

As the DRC moved from their ‘Alert’ to the ‘Warning’ phases of the exercise, their clients began arriving at the facility and launched their recovery plans.

The actual “hurricane’ phase of the exercise continued with the DRC team assisting clients and providing the latest information on the movement of the mock hurricane, including details of Government-issued bulletins.

With the passing of the mock hurricane, the ‘All Clear’ was issued, at which time clients followed their relevant procedures and stood down to a pre-hurricane state of operation.

The DRC then returned to their regular operations and a ‘non active’ state.

The feedback collected both from clients and the DRC’s own staff will now be used to improve the centre’s operations, and also to assist companies in fine-tuning their own individual emergency plans.

The testing exercises, which are held on an annual basis, are designed to ensure that the DRC is fully prepared and able to deliver the highest level of service to its clients in emergency situations.

Jeremy Smith, Deloitte Partner, said: “Overall, this test was very successful for both the DRC staff and clients alike, who became better acquainted with each other, and importantly, with the DRC procedures, and their respective organisation’s recovery procedures.”