Hurricane Rita and AlpineZone.com

[Greg]

Hello AZers - well I bet none of you would expect that Hurrican Rita, now packing sustained winds of 170 mph with gusts to near 215 mph and the 3rd most intense Atlantic basin hurricane ever recorded, could affect AlpineZone.com directly. Well, it turns out that AlpineZone's Web host, JaguarPC, is located in Houston, Texas. As many of you know, Rita is projected to make landfall somewhere near Galveston, which is essentially a direct hit for Houston. Here is more information from JaguarPC that I received on Tuesday:

Originally Posted by JaguarPC

Tuesday 20th of September 2005
Jaguar Technologies LLC
Houston, TX
http://www.jaguarpc.com
============================

Hello Gregory Blasko,
Hello,

This is a special newsletter to address certain concerns
that many of you have regarding Hurricane Rita that may be
heading towards the Houston Greater Area. We would like to
address some of these concerns and go over what each client
can do to be prepared.

There was actually a thread in aftermath of the recent
Katrina hurricane in our forums that discusses this issue as
well.

http://jaguarpc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12784

Our preparedness/recovery plan includes instructions and
procedures for our people and internal systems. As we are
out of all flood plains and we are 60 miles north of a
direct hit, we have been advised that the reinforced roof
fasteners rated at 90 miles per hour would be sufficient.

We did a study and in the past 33 years (including a level 5
hurricane) the maximum wind speed in our zip code was
reported at 69 miles per hour. We feel that we have done a
good job at mitigating risk but that's not to say we don't
plan on just not ever experiencing a disaster.

Depending on the scenario we would take different measures,
at different locations. Should something unpredictable or
uncontrollable occur clients could find your sites served
out of Dallas rather quickly.

While we do maintain daily current backups we insist that
every client maintain their own copy of an updated version
of your sites, databases, and anything you deem as critical
to your site or business.

Some statistical information:
JaguarPC is over on the west side of town, near Bellaire.
That makes JaguarPC about an hour from Galveston.

In Houston, what we call a "direct hit" would be where it
makes land fall right on Galveston. JaguarPC is quite far
from that location so we wouldn't be affected too badly. In
June 2001 flooding from Tropical Storm Allison put every
major roadway in the city underwater. This data center was
used a refuge for other businesses to get back up and
running since it was not affected. JaguarPc is outside of
the 500yr flood plain here in Houston.

This is not say that nothing will happen, so it's best to be
prepared, but we do not expect much of a problem at this time.

JaguarPC has successfully implemented a full-scale emergency
management plan for hurricane Rita. The company is
monitoring all severe weather threats and taking the
potential storm very seriously. JaguarPC's Emergency
Management Team is ensuring all areas in the Emergency

Management Plan (DR/BC plan) are being addressed including,
but not limited to:

Facilities: The facility is outside evacuation areas. All
generator tanks have been "topped off" and additional fuel
will be delivered on Thursday and Friday to our location.
Contact with Centerpoint has been made to establish ongoing
communications with their staff. And overflow parking
requirements have also been established with neighboring
parking lots at 4151 and 4211 Southwest Freeway to address
any potential parking requirements for our data center
customers.

Remote Systems: JaguarPC is monitoring and managing the
center 24x7 and will continue to do so throughout the storm.
All DR/BC plans have been reviewed across our monitoring and
management platform. Both remote and onsite customer systems
will be actively monitored, on "high alert" and available.

Internet Network: The JaguarPC network is secure. Three of
the four JaguarPC redundant backbone providers are accessing
the data center underground.

Backup Customer Communications: JaguarPC is deploying an
emergency email communication platform and should not have
issues with our ability to communicate via email.

Supplies: Customers who send employees to the data center
are responsible for their own provisions.

JaguarPC and its data center are committed to ensuring the
availability, security and integrity of critical data and
applications 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This commitment
doesn't waiver in the event of hurricane or other natural
disaster.

============================

Regards,
sales@jaguarpc.com - Customer Service
Jaguar Techonologies, LLc - JaguarPC.com

I have already made a local backup of all AlpineZone files and have been pulling database backups daily. There's not much more I can do in terms of preparing for this. The folks at JaguarPC seem confident the data center will hold up, but you never know. I have not received any other update from them as the staff are currently preparing their homes and evacuating their families. The only thing left to do is wait and see if the the site stays up over the weekend. Stay tuned!

[bvibert]

Sounds like they are prepared as they could be. Hopefully this storm looses some steam before it hits land.

[ALLSKIING]

I can't wait for hurricane season to be over with. It's crazy. Lets hope for the best.

[Bob R]

I'm glad they are taking care of their families. I'm sure they did the best they could.

[Greg]

Well, keep your fingers crossed for tonight/tomorrow. I've pulled database backups as current as early this morning and hope to grab one more tomorrow morning. Hopefully, we'll stay running...

[blacknblue]

Losing a online forum is certainly not to be mourned in light of what is happening (and has happened) in the Gulf. I'm sure everyone here will understand if our AZ forum is down for a bit. Thanks for making all the preparations that you can.

[Greg]

Originally Posted by blacknblue

Losing a online forum is certainly not to be mourned in light of what is happening (and has happened) in the Gulf. I'm sure everyone here will understand if our AZ forum is down for a bit. Thanks for making all the preparations that you can.

Great way to put it in perspective...

[Greg]

We seemed to have weathered the stowm just fine...

[ctenidae]

Your spelling didn't...



Glad to see that, over all, it wasn't as bad as it could have been. For AZ'ers and Texans.

[ALLSKIING]

Originally Posted by ctenidae

Your spelling didn't...



Glad to see that, over all, it wasn't as bad as it could have been. For AZ'ers and Texans.

Spelling does not count in AZ and the reason for this is that I am bad at speeelliingg.