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You never know where your next disaster is coming from. When my wife and I purchased cancellation insurance for an April 15 trip to Amsterdam, we probably weren't thinking about the possibility that when we woke up on that morning, the first news we heard would be about some volcano in Iceland.

But this got me thinking about Charles Coe, a CPA who I had asked to write some thoughts regarding disaster planning a couple of months ago. I first talked to Coe during August 2005 when he was the subject of a feature to be published in the former Accounting Technology. Coe's business, primarily a technology firm, was heavily involved serving the port of New Orleans from his headquarters is Metairie, a suburb. When the size of the Katrina disaster became apparent, I called to ask him if I should cancel the story. He said, "No."

Disaster planning can get formulaic. There's always a lot of talk about having backups that work off site and protecting the physical security of your computers so some casual visitor doesn't walk off with a laptop loaded with proprietary information. But while large businesses concentrate on business continuity, I suspect it gets less consideration at smaller organizations.

But Coe's willingness to go ahead with that story points to the sometimes overlooked ended of the phrase ending with business continuity. Because if you can't operate a business, you can't stay in business. You don't want to have to tell the staff, "Our data is secure, but we have no cash."

Coe's decision to pick which clients were important to deal with and keep serving them struck me as essential. I would go further and think about who has the power to make decisions if the person in charge isn't capable of reaching others. How do you make this happen? Good business continuity planning goes back to good hiring and promotional practices. You want someone who can act when the boss isn't around, who keeps a cool head and has an inventive approach to problem solving when things don't work the way they are supposed to. Catastrophes have a way of interfering with our nice plans for how things should work.

Most crises aren't of the kind that it's impossible keep the business going, although those can happen. But I think even in the worst of times, Coe's decision to go ahead with the story represents one that is important emotionally. Keep things as normal as possible, also applies to lesser trials.

There will be enough interfering with routine that daily practices should be maintained when possible. The staff will have enough problems dealing with the difficulties. I believe this is important in any crisis, whether business or personal. Find a way to make it so everything in life isn't about that crisis, whether an illness or a business problem.

Attitude is important. I don't mean a can-do attitude, which sounds too Pollyannaish in the face of difficulty. I mean an attitude of "We can get through this, even if it's tough." Realistic assessments are a lot more comforting to workers than fantasy.

So when you think about the security of the equipment and the data, think about the emotional security of the staff. And of yourself.

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