Natural Disasters Disrupting Home Businesses
January 10, 2007 by Mary Emma Allen
We think of natural disasters affecting businesses, including home businesses, close at home…like floods, earthquakes, blizzards, hurricanes, etc. and often don’t consider far reaching effects. When I mentioned blizzards the other day, I only touched upon the ramifications caused when phone lines and the Internet are down nowadays.
Recent earthquakes hit Taiwan and caused disruption of Internet connections and phone lines throughout Asia. I’d read in a news article of an Asian businessman saying he hadn’t realized how far reaching such a natural disaster could be and how much we now rely on phone lines and the Internet in the economic world.
One of my readers left a comment after my post about blizzards, “Here in the Philippines, Internet connection slowed down like a sloth when earthquakes hit Taiwan. Thankfully, it’s getting better now.”
This makes us realize that disasters can have worldwide effects whereas until recently they may have been more localized. Something far away can cause problems in our business.
It might be a good idea, in our home business planning, to start thinking what we would do in a natural disaster to keep things going…or determine how long we could maintain and survive if we were slowed down.
Yes, I could totally relate to the dilemma over the damage caused by the Taiwan earthquake. I was barely able to update my blogs for weeks. My dial-up connection was just no good. So, I decided to subscribe to wi-fi and now I’m a happy banana.
This is a good post, Mary Emma. Keep writing!
Thank you, Connie, for your input and sharing your experience. I’m pleased you find this blog helpful.
We’ve gotten so we almost take for granted the use of the phone, computer,and Internet and don’t realize how these affect our lives until we don’t have them or they’re slowed down.