The Office of Business Continuity Planning (BCP) monitors disasters and emergency events that impact institutions of higher education or related industries domestically and abroad. The purpose of the BCP news feed is to assess the impacts of recent disasters and emergency events for lessons learned that may be helpful to UNC Charlotte's students, faculty, and staff.

The following is a list of recent emergency events, associated impacts, and lessons learned:

East Carolina University -- Hurricane Irene (August 2011)

Hurricane Irene made landfull east of Cape Lookout, North Carolina on Aug. 27th and from Aug. 26th to Aug. 28th the Category 1 hurricane with sustained winds of 85 mph affected campus operations. ECU began hurricane preparedness operations several days prior to the storm's landfull. The impact to communities along the North Carolina coastline was significant: 150 homes were destroyed, many more were flooded, widespread power failures were reported for days, and seven people lost their lives.

Pitt-Greenville airport recorded a 73 mph wind gust and 12 inches of rainfall. It is important to note that although this storm was not the "big one" it wreaked havoc along the North Carolina coast due mostly to the fact that the storm was slow moving. ECU is familiar with hurricane preparedness challenges and is an example of how the UNC Charlotte community can take positive steps toward greater preparedness whether you are a member of the student body, faculty or staff. The main impact to ECU was power loss and IT service limitations. Limited communications was a significant obstacle for response and recovery operations as well. The total damage cost for this disastrous event was approximately $1.5 million. The need for continuity of operations plans (COOP) for departments and colleges was a lesson learned since response and recovery operations lasted several days following the storm's initial impact.

Staff and Faculty are encouraged to contact Josh Allen, Business Continuity Analyst at 7-7884 or jalle131@uncc.edu for additional information on contingency planning.