Hurricane Season   Hurricane Preparedness from Firestorm   If you are a Business: What is your plan for this season's Hurricane threat?   How will you deal with employee shortages due to a storm? Will suppliers be affected? Do you have a backup Supply Chain plan? Do you have an Employee Crisis Communication channel? Have you communicated to Customers? Remember the 48 hour "YOYO" rule: You're On Your Own the first 48 hours immediately after a disaster   General Preparedness: NOW   Create a written emergency preparedness and action plan for your family and business. Review it, distribute it, be available to answer questions and concerns. Call your insurance agent and/or carefully review your policy. Review insurance coverage for your home and business, and the contents. Determine your flood insurance eligibility - homeowners insurance...

Firestorm Crisis Newsletter 04/06/2012   Disaster Due Diligence Banking and Information Technology - 1.5 million card numbers at risk from hack National Safety and Security - NATO summit could shut down Chicago rails Information Technology - Serious cyber security lapses found at Pacific Northwest electricity supplier Banking and Information Technology Bill Baker, Vice President, Operations, Firestorm Solutions, LLC  HEADLINE:  1.5 million card numbers at risk from hack SUMMARY:  Global Payments is a large NYSE traded company that is involved in processing transactions for Credit Card transactions as an intermediary between merchants and banks.  The scope of their business includes Europe and Asia as well as the United States.  The company, headquartered in Atlanta, services over 1 million merchant accounts throughout the world and has an excel...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 14, 2012 ROSWELL, Ga, DENVER Colorado Firestorm is pleased to announce their newest franchise has been established in the Denver/Boulder, CO, metropolitan area.  The new owners are Robert and Jennifer Freedman, from Boulder, CO, and Guy Higgins, from Lafayette, CO.  All three are principals of Performance², a business consultancy based in Boulder.   “The three principals bring a diverse set of backgrounds and experience to the Firestorm Franchise, with a combined 100 years of private- and public-sector business experience.” Said Firestorm President/Co-Founder Jim Satterfield. Until now, Performance² has been focused on helping businesses significantly improve their performance through effective strategy development, leadership and decision making. Jennifer Freedman,  “We are excited about joining the Firestorm family, which wil...

Press Release   Firestorm Announces Strategic Partnership with Nexis Preparedness Systems Atlanta, Georgia, (Business Wire) March 6, 2012 Firestorm Announces Strategic Partnership with Nexis Preparedness Systems Firestorm, a national leader in business continuity, vulnerability analysis, risk mitigation and crisis management, today announced that it has entered into a strategic partnership with Nexis Preparedness Systems, a market leader in the Preparedness and Emergency Supply industry. The partnership will facilitate a cohesive access point for forward-thinking companies to more efficiently order and manage preparedness supplies and inventory.  Nexis Preparedness Systems (NPS) offers custom-designed Emergency Survival Caches to specifically fit the needs of any size organization. Utilizing proprietary supply management computer applications, Nexis Preparedness Systems...

Disaster Preparedness    8 Tips for Fire Risk Preparedness   Summary Reference Article (Huff Post):   Texas Wildfires Protection Plan Still Only Half-Funded Three years before this month's historic wildfires in Texas, the state's forest service came up with a $20.4 million plan to stop the flames from starting or tamp them out before small blazes grew deadly and destructive. But the plan is still only half-funded – a result of the weak economy, a strained state budget and what one former lawmaker calls a "dereliction of duty" by legislators who almost always prefer to spend money only after a crisis has unfolded. The Forest Service concedes that even the full fire-protection system would not have completely spared Texas from last week's catastrophic fires -- which incinerated more than 1,700 homes, blackened tens of thousands of acres and killed four people -...

Business Continuity   DRJ Fall World is the World's Largest Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Conference and Exhibit   The Industry's Most Comprehensive Business Continuity Event - San Diego - September 11-14, 2011 Join Firestorm at Fall World 2011 at our Booth #65 and enter to win a Portable Generator! Comment below if you're attending, we'd love to meet you! DRJ - Disaster Recovery Journal - has a longstanding reputation of providing relevant, high-quality content along with an exhibit floor that includes representation from both established and new players in the industry. DRJ is the largest and most comprehensive product exhibition that provides buyers with a first-hand look at technological advances that harness the power of the converged network. Every year Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity professionals come to DRJ to meet face-to-face with the t...

Business Continuity Site Assessment / Risk Assessment / Vulnerability Analysis Site Assessment A careful assessment of building infrastructures and management systems is an important part of any overall business continuity program. Evaluation of a site's existing physical security structure (facilities, systems, and processes) and assessment of how well an organization is protecting its people and property against likely threats is a critical part of a company's business continuity plan. At Firestorm, we lead with a member of our team with subject matter expertise in security related issues.  We then evaluate the facility grounds, building, and existing physical security systems and processes to determine how well key assets are being protected. We also assess the ability to determine how well prepared an organization is to detect, assess, and res...

On June 1st, 2011, a Facebook page called PrayfortheTornadoVictimsofApril2011 posted this message (where the actual first message appeared is unclear):    Within hours, Facebook, Twitter, blogs and others had repeated the message.  A Facebook page popped up: Boycott Direct TV for Charging Joplin Customers $500  and Twitter users continued to spread the message (you may view them here http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%40directtv+Joplin and here: http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%40directv+Joplin); not the type of viral marketing any company wants to see. Some speculate that the official policy of DIRECTV was not well communicated to all internal staff in a timely manner, and perhaps a CSR delivered incorrect information. (That's a costly mistake). Question:  Have you fully tested your company's crisis communication plan company-wide? To add confusion, ...

HEADLINE: CDC: Lyme Disease Cases More than Triple Since 1992 SUMMARY: The cases of Lyme disease -- the most commonly reported vector-borne illness (or disease transmitted to humans by ticks, mosquitoes, or fleas) in the United States – more than tripled between 1992 and 2009 to about 30,000. Children are more at risk because they spend more time playing outdoors and in high grass or leaves, where the ticks that spread Lyme disease are found. Lyme disease is transmitted to people through the bite of infected blacklegged ticks, which are most active May through July. Symptoms of Lyme disease include fever, headache, fatigue, and a large, expanding skin rash. If left untreated, infection can spread to joints, the heart, and the nervous system. STORY LINK  ANALYSIS by -Dr. Don Donahue, Director, Firestorm Healthcare Response Team First identified in 1975 in Old Lyme, Conn., Lyme d...

As posted by Craig Fugate, Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, on his official Twitter account (@CraigatFEMA) "FEMA Region 1 is supporting #Massachusetts with the most recent deadly #Tornadoes Damage assessments beginning today." The rare tornadoes hit the bay state last night, and tornadoes were confirmed in Springfield, Wilbraham, Westfield, Monson, Brimfield, Sturbridge and Oxford. Two people were killed in the West Springfield storm, one in Springfield and one in Brimfield, according to the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency's Peter Judge.    The following video was taken by children from their schoolyard - downtown Springfield, Ma.