San Diego is my hometown and we were living downtown when the 2003 wildfires rushed through thousands of acres destroying everything in their paths. This year we are over the mountain in Palm Desert for the Winter and we received calls and emails from friends who were either preparing to evacuate or had already done so.
My sister has been living in New Orleans since she married a native New Orleanian in 1968. Their family business sustained damage while dozens of their friends and customers lost everything in the floods that followed Katrina's attack.
While economists calculate the losses that piled up, I suspect they did not have a clue how to measure the price small business owners had to pay due to lost data. I believe that data is more important than cash to a business owner. So, think hard about protecting your priceless data in the event fires and floods come your way.
You can learn how some owners do this at Small Business School.
