For FMs who are responsible for critical facilities, Hurricane Sandy redefined the term "emergency preparedness." Building Operating Management surveyed readers in the states affected by Sandy. Less than 10 percent of those who responded said they had shut down their data centers before Sandy hit. But about 30 percent of respondents said they had a data center that suffered a power outage as a result of the storm. Of those, 65 percent lost power for 2 days or more, 36 percent were involuntarily off the grid for 3 days or more, and 19 percent waited a week or more for utility power to come back on.
Among FMs who responded to the survey, 14 percent reported that their data centers went down as a result of Hurricane Sandy and subsequent weather events. Of those, 48 percent reported they were offline for two days or more.
Responses to the survey are below, as well as here.
| 1. Was the production from any data center(s) in your organization moved to another data center because Hurricane Sandy was coming? R = 174 | |
| Yes | 7% |
| No | 93% |
| 2. Were any of your data center(s) shut down proactively because Hurricane Sandy was coming? R=175 | |
| Yes | 9% |
| No | 91% |
| 3. Did you lose utility power to any of your data center(s) as a result of Hurricane Sandy and the subsequent weather events? R=174 | |
| Yes | 31% |
| No | 69% |
| * 4. How long was utility power out at your data center(s)? R=54 | |
| Less than 1 hour | 13% |
| 1 hour to less than 6 hours | 15% |
| 6 hours to less than 12 hours | 7% |
| 12 hours to less than 24 hours | 9% |
| 24 hours to less than 48 hours | 13% |
| 48 hours to less than 72 hours | 19% |
| 72 hours to less than 7 days | 17% |
| 7 days or more | 19% |
| 5. Did any data center(s) in your organization shut down as a result of Hurricane Sandy and the subsequent weather events? R=172 | |
| Yes | 14% |
| No | 86% |
| * 6. Did any data center shut down because of a problem with or failure of the facility infrastructure, whether caused by storm damage or not? R=25 | |
| Yes | 64% |
| No | 36% |
| * 7. What caused the data center facility infrastructure problems or failures? R=16 | |
| Backup generator damaged by storm | 31% |
| Backup generator not damaged by storm but failed to start | 6% |
| Backup generator not damaged by storm but didn't have enough fuel | 6% |
| Other generator problems | 6% |
| Fuel pump or fuel tank damaged by storm | 6% |
| Fuel pump or fuel tank not damaged by storm but failed to perform as expected | 6% |
| UPS system damaged by storm | 6% |
| UPS system not damaged by storm but failed to perform as expected | 0% |
| Electrical distribution system damaged by storm | 31% |
| Electrical distribution system not damaged by storm but failed to perform as expected | 13% |
| Cooling equipment damaged by storm | 13% |
| Cooling equipment not damaged by storm but failed to perform as expected | 13% |
| Controls or sensors damaged by storm | 13% |
| Controls or sensors not damaged by storm but failed to perform as expected | 0% |
| Failure of the roof | 13% |
| Failure of other elements of the building envelope (other than the roof) | 19% |
| Human factors | 13% |
| Have not determined reason | 6% |
| * 8. Will any facility equipment in your data center(s) need to be replaced as a result of damage from Hurricane Sandy and the subsequent weather events? R=25 | |
| Generators | 12% |
| Cooling equipment | 12% |
| Electrical distribution equipment | 24% |
| UPS | 8% |
| Controls | 12% |
| Roof | 8% |
| Other element of the building envelope (other than the roof) | 4% |
| No equipment will need to be replaced because of damage from the disaster | 52% |
| 9. How was your roof affected by the disaster? R=166 | |
| No damage | 77% |
| Some damage but no water intrusion | 9% |
| Some damage and minor water intrusion | 12% |
| Some damage and significant water intrusion | 2% |
| Significant damage or complete failure of roof & significant water intrusion | 0% |
| 10. How was the rest of the building structure and exterior affected by the disaster? R=166 | |
| No damage | 76% |
| Some damage but no water intrusion | 9% |
| Some damage and minor water intrusion | 9% |
| Some damage and significant water intrusion | 4% |
| Significant damage and significant water intrusion | 2% |
| 11. Do you plan to relocate any data center(s) as a result of lessons learned from the disaster? R=163 | |
| Yes | 6% |
| No | 90% |
| Considering steps but no decision made yet | 4% |
*Note that "R=" indicates the number of respondents to the question. Because relatively few data centers suffered outages, the responses to questions 4, 6, 7 and 8 are based on very few responses, so caution should be used in generalizing the responses. That is especially true of questions 7 and 8.
Data Centers: Surviving Hurricane Sandy
Survey: The Effects Of Hurricane Sandy On Critical Facilities
