ICS News

Snowstorm Surprise: Is crisis management really fun?

This picture from the Stamford Advocate says it all: One misplaced tree can make lots of people miserable. Hundreds of uprooted trees and snapped branches can shut down a state.

Wayne Curtiss, one of our upbeat Senior Infrastructure Consultants, saw 7-8 fallen trees crash down across the road leading to his condo complex. He was lucky as he was parked on the side of the trees with access to the outside world.  Some of his neighbors who tried to drive across the snow-covered fields left the complex in a tow truck.

I call Wayne one of our "upbeat" consultants because he thinks Mother Nature's sucker punch to Connecticut has provided some unexpected moments of "fun."

"Sure, losing power for so long has been extremely frustrating, but it was also a chance to test our resiliency for our clients. We learned a lot about them and they learned a lot about us -- just in a few days," he says.

Calling his office a "shelter for servers," Wayne found his desk becoming the temporary emergency headquarters for the Cats Limited Veterinary Hospital, ALIRT Insurance Research (a risk analysis firm) and Elite Property Management (condo management).

"All three were able to run their businesses despite having no electricity. We wanted to get their servers up right away to prevent most mail from bouncing back. That can hurt your reputation rather quickly," he says.

ICS employees also got to reconnect with Harry's Pizza, one of the few West Hartford eateries still open during the week. Harry's didn't bring their servers (counter staff or counter computers) to our "shelter," but they satisfied our appetites as ICS graciously sprung for an inpromptu pizza party to rally the troops!

Although ICS miraculously didn't lose power at anytime during the crisis, most of our employees weren't so fortunate. To raise spirits, the company treated everyone in the building to breakfast and lunch for the first two days. Workers kept up the comraderie and pitched in for breakfast for the rest of the week.

Numerous ICS employees and their families also took advantage of the hot showers here at the office. And with our creature comforts being taken care of, we spent the first Monday morning of the outages calling all our clients to check if they needed any emergency assistance or anything else -- either professionally or personally.

Certainly, it's a sign of the times when the local TV station starts giving away generators as prizes in Facebook contests. Smartphones have given many of us a surreal sense of connectedness even when we have no heat or running water.

Echoing Wayne's observations, Paul Boiano, director of our CRM Group, found the storm to be a community-building experience in his home neighborhood.

"Sunday morning was an event. Neighbors helping neighbors clear out trees, open up roads and those with gas could warm up water for coffee and share it," he recalls. "Lots of cooking on the gas grill or the open fire pit in the backyard this week."

While the odd combination of frozen trees followed by a bout of Indian summer created a camp-like environment for some, the storms coming this December, January and February might not be as much fun.

But at ICS, we're preparing for any contingency so our clients can keep relying on us. Our backup generator is battle tested from Hurricane Irene and we're planning to add more generator-powered outlets in both conference rooms to minimize lost business productivity.

Yes, these kind of weather emergencies are aggravating for sure, but they also tend to bring out the best in people!