How businesses got it right with Ike: Hurricane Ike provided corporations in the Houston area with their first real business continuity test

Risk & Insurance, Oct 15, 2008 by Matthew Brodsky

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HOUSTON -- As days passed after Hurricane Ike made landfall on Saturday, Sept. 13, some businesses sat in the dark, literally and figuratively. They waited for power to turn back on. In doing so, they were perhaps dooming their companies never to be the same. Some corporate risk managers, though, weren't waiting on anything.

For Continental Airlines Inc., Hurricane Rim's near-miss in 2005 prompted the company president to call for an emergency management plan to be available for the 2006 storm season. Pete Fahrenthold, managing director of risk management for Continental, shared the details of this plan, and how well it fared during Ike.

A main part of the plan was a hot spot called the Westlin Center. Located in Conroe, Texas, about an hour drive north of Houston, it consisted of hardened office buildings and a former bomb shelter and was designed to house a duplicate of the airline's Systems Operations Control Center, without which flights are impossible, and other "Tier One" business continuity functions, meaning those essential enough that Continental cannot afford to have them go down for more than 24 hours. "We were concerned that damage to the city center would limit access to our building, so we set up Westlin," said Fahrenthold.

Five days out of Ike, Fahrenthold started watching the hurricane as it lashed Cuba but threatened the Gulf Coast. Three days out, on Wednesday, when the storm reached Cat-3 status within 100 miles of Houston, Continental pulled the trigger: Friday, they would relocate to Westlin.

"The decision to begin using the center on Friday ensured that we did not have any problems getting our people to the site," explained Fahrenthold. Not to say that Wesdha was immune. The site, owned by the Houston-based Westlin Corp., experienced 85 mph winds during the storm, and its generator kicked on when the community's power source went down.

And it's not to say that setting up the hot spot was a matter of just flipping on the power in Conroe. The continuity plan involved activating pre-existing relationships with a local hotel and caterer for nearly 250 rooms and daily meals for 300 personnel. A transportation contractor was notified to provide four buses between the hotel and the hot spot. And Continental airplanes were employed to help workers stationed at Westlin get their families out of Houston.

Speaking of airplanes, the last flights out of Bush Intercontinental took off Friday before winds heavier than 35 mph hit. All planes were evacuated to El Paso and Abilene, and the airport shut down for most of the weekend. Meanwhile, operations outside of Houston kept moving.

Fahrenthold admitted that such an extensive business continuity plan was an investment that Continental might not have gotten a return on. "We were happy we made that investment," he said. "Overall, we came out well with the storm."

Headquarters was operational by Monday, and Continental had succeeded in scoring an 89 percent on-time rate for all remaining flights in its system over the weekend.

Another high-profile business affected by Ike was a 250-room, 14-story, name-branded hotel along the Houston shoreline. Ike's winds twisted around the building, suctioning off most of the front facade. They blasted out the lobby atrium, leaving the interior exposed. Raindrops became missiles capable of piercing window sealant, soaking 80 percent of the rooms, some with foot-deep indoor pools, with other interiors drenched beyond salvation. Storm surge gobbled the wooden pier and gutted the hotel's bottom floor and its offices, fitness center, banquet hall and retail stores.

By Friday, Sept. 19, nearly a week after the storm, the lobby was a construction site of bare drywall and concrete. Whole floors were bare of carpet and smelled of kitty litter, lined with dehumidifiers and drying fans. But the hotel was operational. In fact, guests weathered the storm onsite, and by that Friday, nearly every room capable of housing guests was, including the U.S. Coast Guard and other government employees.

"You have to be very creative in these types of events," said Frank G. Oliver, senior adviser with Aon Rapid Response. With 28 years in claims, Oliver is helping to coordinate the effort to keep the hotel moving forward. "The death knell on a loss is just to let it sit there."

The REIT owner of this hotel did not do that. Prior to the storm, it took Aon Rapid Response's advice to get a massive, 18-wheeler-sized generator on-site. Fuel was brought in to run the beast. By Sunday, dozens of remediation workers arrived. About 20 security guards were retained to ensure safety and protection at the facility. Massive dryers and an industrial crane were set up. Two engineers from Amp examined the building for structural damage, which luckily the sea wall helped to prevent. Most importantly, the envelope of the building was sealed to prevent further damage from the salty, wet air, allowing remediation efforts inside to begin in earnest. So by Friday, the hotel looked vastly improved.