Jeff Corcoran, manager of technical services in the UC Division of Public Safety, put together the following survival guide to help you identify risks in your own office with suggestions on how to be better prepared when disaster strikes. It's your data. It may not be the kind of disaster that Hollywood makes movies about, but it's a disaster nonetheless. Look around your office, and think about what would happen if a pipe in the ceiling were to burst, drenching everything in the room. Perhaps a short circuit in a computer monitor starts a fire that coats everything in corrosive soot.
Floods caused by broken pipes can occur without warning in any building.
We are particularly vulnerable in the winter. A few years ago freezing weather burst a six-inch water line in the CAS library. Beside the damages to the library, the bookstore located below had a foot of water cascade over all of their stock. Inadvertent fire sprinkler activation and roof leaks are also sources of water damage. Theft is perhaps the disaster you can do the most to avoid, but there is no absolute protection.