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Computer Infrastructure Recovery from a Hurricane: Lessons Learned at Lamar University from Hurricane Rita

Presenters:
        Cliff Woodruff, Lamar University
        Lawrence Osborne, Lamar University
        Dominic Beggan, Lamar University

A small number of researchers have studied the impact of hurricanes on academic institutions. V. Kiernan, for example, showed in the Chronicle of Higher Education (2005, 2006) that most university information technology plans did not sufficiently provide for a response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. He reports that only 50% of the institutions of higher learning surveyed reported even having an information technology disaster recovery plan. Natural disasters can cause immense damage to colleges and universities. This facilitated discussion seeks to examine the issues that we at Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas, have found necessary to address as a result of Hurricane Rita, which hit the campus with sustained winds of 125-145 mph on September 24, 2005. The devastation at Lamar was tremendous: 80 % of the 155 buildings were damaged, 20 buildings had roof damage that would require replacement of the roof, trees were uprooted throughout the campus, there was no power for 8 days, 870 dorm rooms received water damage. The total cost was 38 million dollars including lost revenue. Communications were disrupted because the storm effectively eliminated electrical power supplies to most of Southeast Texas. The University website was no longer online, a blog site had to be established at the University of Texas--Austin in order to attempt to communicate with faculty, staff, and students who had evacuated to many parts of Texas and other States. The blog site was itself disrupted by false information distributed by a network intruder. Martial law was imposed in the region for two weeks after the storm, so students and faculty were unable to return to their offices. Nevertheless, within a month, Lamar University was operational again, and the fall semester was completed on time. We are now working with the rest of the Texas State University System, of which Lamar is a part, to develop plans so that faculty and staff can begin to communicate with students as soon as possible after a disaster. Among the actions that an institution should consider in preparing a disaster recovery program are the following: making a list of those experts and consultants who would be available for assessment of damage to telecommunications, determining how long faculty and students could be without Internet access to university servers before coursework could not be completed in the semester, how much of the information on the campus network must be saved at another location that is not threatened by similar disasters, and how much it will cost to provide the necessary capabilities.