Disaster Recovery�Tabletop Exercise

Disaster Recovery Tabletop Scenario

• Print a copy of your Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) and have it available for this tabletop exercise.
• Print a copy of your Disaster Preparedness Checklist and have it available as well (bit.ly/k12drp).
• During the scenario, your team can only use what’s on your Checklist. If you don’t have it on your list, you can’t use it.
• You feel confident your team is ready to handle a disaster should one occur.

​

Things to keep in mind…

• How would this incident or a similar natural disaster affect your own agency?
• What resources would you like to have that you don’t have now?
• How fast could you respond to a real incident?
• Make sure you’ve completed and printed the Disaster Recovery Preparedness Checklist before starting this exercise (bit.ly/k12drp).

​

Disaster Recovery Team

Roles:

• Disaster Recovery Lead / CTO (required)
• Facilities Team Lead (required)
• Network Team Lead (required)
• Server Team Lead (required)
• Applications Team Lead
• Chief Business Officer (CBO)
• Scribe: Assign someone to be your Team’s Scribe.

Form your Disaster Recovery Team! Record decisions your team makes. Your team will report out at the end.

Day 1 – January (Tuesday)

• The National Weather Service reports a severe storm is forming off the coast. Rainfall is predicted to be 3-5 inches over several days.
• Reports indicate that small creeks and rivers may be affected. You don’t have any creeks near your administrative office or most of your schools.
• Your team informs leadership (Cabinet) that you don’t expect the storm to impact services provided by the IT department.
• What will you do?

​

​

Day 2 (Wednesday)

• The storm grows more powerful than expected.
• 2 inches of rain has fallen in just a few hours, causing minor local flooding in your area.
• Most roads are open. However, the wind speed is significantly higher than predicted. There are reports of fallen trees affecting power lines.
• PG&E issues multiple warnings to be prepared for possible power outages due to the storm.
• What will you do?

Day 3 (Thursday)

• It rains heavily. Winds gusts have reached 60MPH.
• At 10am, several trees fall and take down the power lines to your administration building. Your data center no longer has power.
• At 11am, PG&E announces widespread power outages in your area with no ETA for restoration.
• By 2pm your team realizes power will not be restored by the end of the day.
• What will you do?

Day 4 (Friday)

• Power is restored to your building by 10am. However, you discover that 2 virtual server hosts have a hardware failure and will not come back up.
• You can’t bring all virtual servers online without impacting the performance of your critical services.
• You must decide which 5 services you will bring online until you can obtain at least one replacement server. Your primary network connection is still up.
• What 5 services did you choose to keep online?

What services did you keep up?

And why?

Day 5 (Saturday)

• Rain is falling steadily. Winds have decreased but are still peaking at 30MPH.
• At 2pm the Department of Water Resources notifies the public that the local reservoir is nearing capacity despite constant release of water during the storm.
• Another storm is coming. Residents are advised to avoid travel. Additional rainfall is expected over the next several days.
• What will you do?

Day 6 (Sunday)

• Department of Water Resources indicates the local reservoir is at capacity. River levels are expected to keep rising.
• Residents are under a voluntary evacuation warning due to the threat of rivers overflowing their banks.
• At 3pm, your primary internet connection goes offline due to a telco fiber splice point failure.
• You have no ETA for repair.
• What will you do?

Day 7 (Monday) – Part 1

• Your Internet connection is restored at 8am.
• At 3pm, the Emergency Broadcast System issues an alert that the reservoir’s main spillway has been damaged due to the increased release of water and can no longer be used.
• They are using the emergency spillway to release water.
• Water is flowing out the emergency�spillway in an unregulated fashion.

Day 7 (Monday) – Part 2

• At 5pm, your Superintendent asks you to send a communication to all staff and parents, encouraging them to evacuate to a safe area.
• At 8pm, authorities issue a mandatory county-wide evacuation order due to the threat of massive flooding if the dam fails.
• Traffic is very heavy. Major delays are expected.
• Your home is in the evacuation zone. Most of your team members are also affected.
• What will you do?

Day 9 (Wednesday)

• The storm has finally ended.
• The operators of the dam begin using the damaged spillway, but the area is still under evacuation orders.
• Your staff is unable to physically access the administration building due to the order.
• Your CBO calls you in a panic, asking if there is a way for business staff to process payroll.
• What will you do?

Day 10 (Thursday)

• Water levels in the reservoir have stabilized due to the emergency releases and lack of new rain.
• Authorities change the evacuation order from mandatory to voluntary.
• Many roads contain debris from localized flooding.
• Your Superintendent asks you to notify all staff to not return to work until Monday (except support teams).
• Half your staff let you know they have suffered severe flood damage from the storm.
• What will you do?

Day 11 (Friday)

• All evacuation orders have been lifted.
• Roads have been cleared.
• Power has been restored to all areas of the county.
• You and most of your disaster recovery team return to work.
• You receive notice that the replacement virtual server host parts will arrive on Monday.
• What will you do?

Report Out

• How did you communicate with your staff during this crisis?
• How did you communicate with parents?
• What other challenges did you encounter?
• What Checklist items do you wish you had but weren’t available?

​

​

​

Thanks for participating!