Hurricanes were nothing new to the Gulf Coast region. Businesses and residents had experienced those vicious storms and survived in the past.

"Most people had always heard 'hurricane' and thought 'OK, we'll be out two to three days. We've got to drive somewhere but everything will be OK,'" says Lonnie Stockwell, managing partner of the Metairie office of Postlethwaite & Netterville, a Leading Edge Alliance firm.

But the Gulf Coast would not be OK a few days later—and the news served as a wake-up call to businesses everywhere of the need to prepare for disaster.

"The same lessons learned in the hurricanes apply to everybody," says Ron Cuccaro, president and CEO of Adjusters International, one of the leading U.S. disaster recovery consulting organizations. "Be aware of the potential for disasters in your particular area.

"Be proactive, not reactive," Cuccaro says. "Anticipate the fact it's going to happen."

And what's going to happen may not be a natural disaster the magnitude of the 2005 hurricanes or a manmade disaster as devastating as the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. It can be a power outage, a snowstorm that keeps employees stranded at home for a few days, a chemical spill on the interstate next to your office, a key employee's sudden departure, a crash of your server or a supplier who ceases to operate.

"In devising a plan to deal with everyday disasters, you build resilience that will enable your business to cope with more serious disasters," says Donna Childs, founder and CEO of Childs Capital LLC, one of four companies profiled by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's "Ready for Business" campaign.

Lesson 1: Think about planning before disaster strikes

Two out of every five small businesses fail to survive a disaster. Many because they failed to plan ahead—they did not want to think about the potential.

"Any small business should create a plan," says Brian Drum, president of Drum Associates, a New York City-based executive search firm, "I did not have a plan."

On Sept. 11, 2001, Drum's offices sat a mere 300 yards from the World Trade Center. By Sept. 12, 2001, the area was a crime zone, a place where he could not do business.

While the total destruction was unimaginable, the New York City financial district had undergone a terrorist attack a little more than eight years earlier. The first bombing of the World Trade Center interrupted business for a few days for most, a few weeks for others.

"Things got back on track," Drum says. "People thought, 'It was just a bump, we'll recover.' It wasn't a big enough warning sign."

Childs' background as a former senior executive in the reinsurance industry helped her business' survival. "I understood the likelihood of disruption due to disaster and how devastating that can be," she says. However, she, too, did not anticipate the events of Sept. 11. "Nevertheless, the plan I put in place was sufficient to get us through that experience," Childs says. "My planning took into consideration the means for temporary, remote operations irrespective of the source of disruption."

In 2005, many Gulf Coast businesses, including Postlethwaite & Netterville, had emergency plans. After all, it wasn't a secret that they were in a hurricane region. But Hurricane Katrina struck to create a world few, if any, could have foreseen.

"As good a plan as we had, we were stuck with the realization that you can't plan for everything," Stockwell says. "Plan for every contingency and remember you can't plan for every contingency."

Planning for possible threats helped P&N move quickly when Katrina struck. With employees evacuated from the region, the Metairie office (near New Orleans) set up shop in the firm's main offices in Baton Rouge, 65 miles away. The actual building where P&N operated did not take a direct hit from the hurricane. Five weeks later, P&N was able to reopen its Metairie office—a fact Stockwell attributes to part planning and part luck.

Lesson 2: Communicate, communicate, communicate

"If you cannot communicate, you will not be able to recover very quickly," says Geoff Wold, partner and managing director of LBL Technology Partners, an affiliate of Lurie Besikof and Lapidus, a Leading Edge Alliance firm.

"You cannot rely on normal communication," says Wold, author of several disaster planning books. "You need a Plan A, B and C."

Stockwell understands the need for having several avenues that you can use to communicate—with your employees, your vendors and your customers.

"Today, more than six months later, we're still having problems with cell phones and mail," he says.

Stockwell offers these tips:

• Obtain multiple ways to contact those with whom you work. The widespread power outages caused by the recent hurricanes left the P&N Baton Rouge office without power. With no electricity to its server, the company's e-mail system was down. No one had access to their business e-mail account.
• Get your employees' external e-mail addresses. That way you can e-mail them even if the company servers are not operating.
• Create a phone tree for employees. P&N's six partners in the Metairie office called six employees who called another six, etc. That way no one person was responsible for making all the necessary phone calls.
• Seek contact information from outside your region. Of course, most phone lines in the hurricane region were downed. Cell phones worked sporadically. That's why Stockwell suggests businesses ask employees and any other key people for a phone number or other contact information of a relative or friend who lives outside the area. That way, if a disaster leaves an entire region without the ability to make phone calls easily, the employees can update a friend or family member and know that their status could be passed along to their employer.

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