It happened during a stormy Wednesday morning commute. A driver lost control of his car and caused eight utility poles to fall. The power went out, the road was blocked by live wires and downed transformers, and everyone already in our offices got trapped in the building.

So we began to execute our disaster recovery plan. Initially, battery and generator backup provided phone and Internet capability. We utilized resources at several other locations to function until we got the all-clear to evacuate the building.

That’s when our disaster recovery efforts began in full — and by three o’clock that afternoon, we had everyone out of the building, the facility shut down, and we were operating completely remotely, with some of our folks at our McClellan Business Resumption Center and others working from home. Customer service calls, billing, email, phones — everything — was operational.

Why did it work out so well for us? One reason is our ongoing DR planning. Another reason: We conduct quarterly disaster recovery drills. As our CTO, Mike Dillon, says, every drill we do teaches us something.

We learned first-hand that even little disasters can have big impacts. And they can teach you things, too. For instance, we forgot about feeding the fish, which won’t happen again.