Oct 26, 2012
Many clients have contacted us today to give us special on-call instructions to follow during Hurricane Sandy. As those of you on the East Coast are bracing for the storm, which is expected to impact much of the area in the coming days, ASD wanted to let you know what measures we have taken to prepare for events like Hurricane Sandy.
Earlier today, ASD sent out a fax and recorded message alerting you that we decided to postpone our Crisis Notification Test on Sunday. The decision to postpone the test was made solely out of concern for our clients who will be very busy preparing for the storm. We don’t wish to add any additional stress during this challenging time.
At ASD, we understand that you can’t control the weather, but you can control how you prepare for it. For over five years, we searched for a building that met both our safety and technological requirements before choosing our current location in Media. Our newly constructed, solid brick building houses countless fiber optic cables reaching multiple carriers, ensuring that an outage of one provider will not shut down ASD’s operations. The onsite backup power generating station is strong enough to supply all energy needs until local electricity is restored.
ASD’s location was chosen specifically because it is not located near any flood plains or low lying trees. However, not all of our employees are located in the safest areas so we maintain an open door policy and provide accommodations so our staff and their families can stay overnight at ASD if necessary. During Hurricane Irene, over 40 ASD employees camped out and took calls in the morning to ensure our clients’ calls were protected through the storm. For some employees, ASD’s headquarters became a required shelter due to mandatory evacuations for flood prone areas. Children and relatives of staff members were welcome to take refuge from the storm.
ASD’s large, 15,000 square foot building provided enough space and comfort for staff members of all ages. Our facility is also equipped with a full alarm monitoring system to regulate any abnormalities that might affect the safety of their employees. Despite the size and scope of Hurricane Irene, ASD performed at high capacity, answering more than 98 percent of calls by the fourth ring, and over 85 percent of those were answered by the first ring. During this timeframe our office compassionately handled more than 1500 first calls.
We encourage you to take our Virtual Tour on our Google+ Local page so you can look around our facility and see how we have invested in our infrastructure. We hope that everyone remains safe throughout the storm. Please contact us to let us know if there is anything else we can do to help your funeral home during this time.
About The Author
Jess Farren (Fowler)
Jess Farren (Fowler) is a Public Relations Specialist and Staff Writer who has been a part of the ASD team since 2003. Jess manages ASD’s company blog and has been published in several funeral trade magazines. She has written articles on a variety of subjects including communication, business planning, technology, marketing and funeral trends. You can contact Jess directly at Jess@myASD.com
