Phoenix–Experts exposed their successes and failures in copingwith Hurricane Katrina, and suggested ways for carriers to plan forthe next catastrophe.

Their advice came Saturday at the mid-winter meeting here of theNational Association of Professional Surplus Lines Offices,Ltd.

“Katrina was so widespread, there's a whole new spin to disasterplanning,” noted David Losson, director of information technologywith Crump Group Inc. in Dallas.

Other panelists were Patricia H. Roberts, president and chiefexecutive officer for General Star excess and surplus lines inStamford, Conn., and Todd Evans, a principal specializing in thirdparty administration at Engle Martin & Associates Inc.

Mr. Evans said of the Katrina catastrophe that the “scope caughta lot of us off guard.”

As a result of his firm's experience, Mr. Losson said his firmwill revamp its business continuity programs to create one for alocalized catastrophe and another for an event impacting a broaderarea.

In a smaller disaster when a facility is made inoperable, a planmight involve securing an office space four blocks away–not thecase with Katrina, he noted.

He added that a small but effective plan is assigning “callingtrees” to contact employees and retail agents to reassure theclient base.

His firm also was prepared with a cache of servers for computersthat it trucked from Dallas to Houston, where it relocated its NewOrleans office.

Mr. Losson said it was frustrating to have a data backupprovider which had the backup tapes, but at an inaccessiblelocation.

He said one Katrina “wild card” was the impact on employees,many who had personal difficulties to deal with such as thedislocation of elderly parents. These situations make it “tough tokeep morale up,” he said.

Another wild card cited by Mr. Evans was the response of publicagencies. Companies that had disaster plans depending on the Cityof New Orleans or the Federal Emergency Management Agency “ran intoserious shortfalls,” he said.

He mentioned how some adjusters “were pushed out of hotels bythe Red Cross and FEMA guys and wound up sleeping in theircars.”

Mr. Evans noted that with good planning the claims process goesmuch smoother, relating that “within the first 48 hours contractorsand salvers get sucked up pretty quickly.” Those firms that havenot made arrangements get pushed to the end of the line, hesaid.

He advised that effective disaster plans involve preselection ofvendors that can help in a catastrophe. He also said to make surethose vendors have their own disaster plan.

In Mr. Evans' view, the industry could probably do a better jobinforming the “mom and pop risk” about the need for disasterplanning. This could involve something as simple as “tak[ing] thecomputers off the floor and put[ting] them on a table,” heremarked.

Discussing what can go awry, he mentioned one company withgenerators on hand but no gas, and an auto dealership that movedits cars to high ground but not its records.

As an example of disaster planning success, he noted that of thenine hurricane-damaged casinos, the three that were quickly backup-and-running were taking in revenue that amounted to 65 percentof the take of all nine before the hurricane.

Ms. Roberts said General Star makes a point of analyzing andrevising its disaster plans after every major catastrophe. Shecatalogued changes that were made after Sept. 11, 2001 and the fourhurricanes of 2004.

The points she mentioned included improved communications plans,providing adjusters with longitude and latitude so they couldlocate properties without street signs, advertising, and a 24-hourtelephone number on a Web site so clients could make contact.

In 2004, a surprise for her firm came in the area of regulatorydemands for information, which it had difficulty providing in atimely fashion because of a cranky legacy system.

After Katrina, she said, the company found it lacked personale-mail addresses and cell phone numbers to contact staff.

Ms. Roberts said it is critical to know where totalaccumulations of risk are and to have enough adjusters on hand. Herfirm has trained casualty adjusters to handle property claims.

She also noted the importance of having electronicrecords-imaging.

Since Katrina, she said, “we tend to plan now for worst-casescenario.”