Businesses in Cascadia - CREW

• The ability of the work force to report to work, which is affected by factors such as thestate of workers’ homes, the physical well being of workers, and the access that workershave to medical facilities.OPENING QUESTIONSDo you have a plan to revive your business in the event of a disaster? What role does insuranceplay? As you consider your business’s ability to recover, what are your biggest concerns?National/International Businesses & Financial InstitutionsWELLS FARGOLike most major businesses, Wells Fargo has a business continuity plan and engages in drills.Most of our buildings have emergency equipment, such as backup generators. We also maintainemergency supplies for our employees. These are sufficient to last three days.We depend on cell phones for communication. For example, as part of our emergency responseprocess, an emergency team will use cell phones/text messages to contact employees. One of ourfirst concerns is the effect the earthquake will have on the functionality of cell towers and otherparts of this system.What are some aspects of the business continuity plan? Each part of the business has a plan inplace, and these are updated annually. This means that if one line of business is unable toperform its functions because of a disaster, it will have a plan for dealing with this (such astransferring functions to a site in another region). Some personnel can work from home.Redundancy is built into the organization of the business, so functions can be shiftedgeographically if necessary.What about physical structures in the affected region? The retail branches all have businesscontinuity plans. These consider questions such as how money will be delivered to ATMs, howemployees will get to work, and whether or not the vault can be accessed. Physically, theadministrative buildings are fairly robust—these were built to zone 3 earthquake code. The retailoutlets are numerous, and many are located in older structures (built in the 1930s, 40s, and50s)—probably many are Category E structures. Some of the older buildings have beenretrofitted.OTHER PREPARATIONS OF BANKSEach part or branch of the organization has its own recovery plan. Plans address things such ashow to access secure vault locations and how to get money to organizations and government.National banks maintain off-site back up facilities in other regions. They also have regionalteams that back each other up. Much of this is federally mandated. Banks are required by federal12 | CREW Business Roundtables