ADDING WAR

TO BCM
PLANNING

CARS EVACUATING BEIRUT IN GRIDLOCK

August 2010
Lessons learned from the 2006 war in
Lebanon
Prepared by: Rudy Chouchany
Senior Business Continuity Consultant
www.BCCManagement.com ; Email: Rudy@bccmanagement.com
Adding War to BCM Planning

Adding War to BCM Planning

LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE 2006 WAR IN THE LEBANON

SUMMARY
This study stresses the correlation between war and the Business Continuity Management (BCM), especially for
Medium-Large Enterprises. It covers the case of a recent war in the Lebanon and emphasizes the necessity of
integrating and incorporating war into BCM planning.

BACKGROUND
What happened to Lebanon during the war?
Destruction of National and local Airports (3)
Bombarding and closure of all national seaports (7)
Tightening of air, sea and land blockade
Targeting of high-voltage electricity lines
Power stations (5) and electrical transformers attacked
Fires set at fuel depots
Bombing of petrol stocks
Destruction of more than 40 petrol stations
Devastation of wide swathes of infrastructure
Bombing of 107 major and minor bridges
Blasting of main roads and highways (4450km)
Denying access to many villages
Total destruction of many cities and villages
Major destruction of 30,000 private houses and residences
Minor destruction of 70 000 private houses and residences
Destruction of Hospitals (2), Health care centers (50)
Total destructions of 60 schools and another 100 schools suffered minor hits

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Adding War to BCM Planning

Mobile and wireless relays hit

Audio visual relays blown up
Evacuation of more than 200 000 people
Most of foreigner workers fled
Separation of children from families
Bombing of more than 600 trucks which curtailed the movement of medical supplies and ambulances
Sewage Disposal Systems and Sewage Treatment plants damaged and mostly inoperable
Bombardment of more than 40 factories
Main and secondary water distribution affected by destruction of over 330 water stations
UN Resolution 1701 Ended 33 days of war

What happened to Lebanon after the war?

Continued closure of all runways obligating MEA Airlines to relocate all aeroplanes to another country
Shutting down of all sea shipment access debilitating import and export activities needed for recovery
Failure of national and international postal system
Electrical Blackout of half of the country
No fuel supply ships resulting in a reduction of oil and petrol reserves
Sea oil spillage resulting in long term environmental damage
Beirut Stock Exchange drops 15% and closed for 25 days
Estimated $10 billion business/financial loss to the country
Most of the Factories, organizations, and offices closed for one month and many others failed to open or to
return to Lebanon within 5 years
Loss of 1.4 million tourists leading to cancellation of hotel bookings and of many summer festivals
Many continued blockades, lessening the availability of medical supplies and drugs
Relocation of 800,000 citizens to other areas (27% of Lebanese population and more)
Environmental degradation due to oil spills and bombings, including forest fires, air pollution all leading to a
loss of biodiversity
Contamination of Water, decreasing potable water quantities
Increased spread of disease

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In total 1,191 deaths and 4,405 injured, a social as well as economic catastrophe

Business Preparedness
How and why should an enterprise integrate war into its Business Continuity Management Planning?
Since September 11, 2001 business continuity management has gained higher interest, but still, are we ready
for a war? Not really, but at least, we can learn from some of the events in the Lebanon in 2006.

Some traditional business continuity management practices might not be good in a war
situation.

EFFECTS OF WAR
The first question to ask in a war situation is “does your organisation still want to operate from within the
effected country – in the short term, in the medium term, or in the long term?” Your planning must be set up in
relation to your answer to this question. If yes to any one of these, then given the list above of actual
happenings from the Lebanese experience, you may have to take special account of the following areas.

a) Evacuation:
• Does your organization/government have a plan for mass evacuation?

• Does your government (or that of the affected country) have a plan to receive high numbers of
people from neighboring countries in case of war?

According to ABC News: Beirut, Lebanon July 15 2006 (AP). The US is working on a plan to
evacuate American citizens from Lebanon to the neighboring island of Cyprus, the US Embassy
said on Saturday. “We are looking at how we might transport Americans to Cyprus. Once in
Cyprus Americans can then board commercial aircraft for onward travel” an embassy
statement said.

For instance in this situation, Cyprus called for the European Union’s aid since it could not handle the load of
evacuees.

Reading the ABC article (above in the box), it is obvious no prior plan was available for such an emergency.
In addition, taking the USA as an example, it took long time to come up with a plan and to evacuate all of its
citizens from the Lebanese territories. Evacuation took more than 18 days.

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Evacuation of foreigners from the Lebanon

- Sri Lanka; 90000
- Canada; 40 000
- Philippines; 30 000
- United States; 25 000
- French; 25 000
- UK; 25 000
- Australia; 25 000
- Indians; 12 000
- And many others….

b) Relocation:
Due to the war, many foreign and affiliated organizations relocated their headquarters and businesses
from Lebanon to neighbouring countries carrying on their work but they never returned back.

c) Electricity:
Due to the air and sea blockade and bombardment of power stations and electrical transformers, the
electricity blackout happened in two phases.
First phase: A direct result from the bombardment of power stations and fuel reserves.
Second phase: An indirect result from the lack of petrol and fuel feeding the un-bombed power stations
caused by the blockade.
The electricity crisis began right from the start of the war, initially providing only 18 hours per day coverage
dropping down to zero hours per day as the war progressed.
As mentioned previously, the blockade led to a shortage of oil/petrol in storage and the direct
bombardments of petrol stations reduced the chances of there being enough quantities for local
distribution.
As a result, the citizens and the companies panicked and bought petrol tanks for stockpiling, noting that at that
stage, the prices were increasing tremendously.

d) Mail /Post services/Courier:

Another outcome of the blockade was the complete paralysis of the international postal system (air, sea and
land) as well as the internal post services.
Consequently, all parcel and courier post was extremely delayed if not lost/destroyed. However, during the
war, and a later stage, some courier companies began to offer services but with a noticeable growth of
prices (10-20% increase) due to the high risk of transporting the parcels to and from the Lebanon.

e) Mobile/Wireless/Radios/TVs:
In Lebanon, Radio and TVs antennas are mostly located adjacent to Wireless and Mobiles antennas.

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During the war, most of the biggest Radio and TV antennae were targets for destruction for political reasons.
Consequently, the nearby wireless and mobile antennae were seriously damaged cutting the
telecommunication links across the country.
It is also worth mentioning that due to the unreliability of the electricity supply, the wireless relays started to
shutdown.

f) Monetary & Stock Market

In Lebanon, the currencies dealt with are both the Lebanese Pound and the US Dollars.
On the 3rd Day of the war the Central Bank of Lebanon issued a memo stopping all USD cash transactions
due to concern about the failure of the Lebanese Pound. Also there was a cash shortage as people had
started drawing large amounts of US dollars in panic.
Transactions from Lebanese Pounds to US Dollars were allowed but not in cash, this was designed to halt
panic and to protect the Lebanese Pound. As a result of this protective action only a small increase of less than
one percent was noticed in the foreign exchange.
Stocks went down on the 2nd Day by 10 % and the Stock Market was closed on the 4th Day as no
transactions were accomplished due to technical and non-technical reasons and due to the high demand on
selling.
The Stock Market closed for more than three weeks; consequently financial losses were very high. A high
amount of selling took place once the stocks were trading again.

ANALYSIS
As a result of looking at what happened in this case study, several extra considerations should be
incorporated into the strategies and plans of medium-Large enterprises (MLE’s) which will enable them to
better handle a war situation. The following headings will go over the key points and the considerations
suggested for integration into Business Continuity Management Planning.

Medium - Large Enterprise’s Considerations:

Army/ Safety:
Determine which employees have had military service and identify who might be called in the future. In
addition, the company should be aware if a key job post in BCM was given to an army reservist in order to
train ahead a replacement.
Make available a shelter, not just an underground car park, since this latter will not block the new bombs
which reach more than 200 feet (60m).

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Petrol / Fuel:
Extra fuel storage for the generator is necessary to protect power for the Data Center or DR site since in war
time no re-fuelling will be available and this maybe the situation for an extended period.
Consider purchasing motorcycles for ease of transportation and delivery, due to the very low utilization of
petrol and high manoeuvrability.
For very large Companies with high fuel usage, consider purchasing a petrol station for emergency purposes.

Media:
The employees, especially the executives, should be media trained. They should be trained on the
appropriateness of content, the extent of the information to be provided as well as its timing.

Mail /Post services/Courier:

If the business relies on the postal system or couriers then the service level agreement (SLA) with the provider
needs to be appropriate. You may also require further back up plans as your service providers may not be
able to meet the terms of the SLA in a time of severe disruption.

Internet:
Have a robust backup solution for internet provision. For instance as a minimum find out from the ISP about
their BCM plans and what level of disruption they have planned for. Make special arrangements in case the
fibre optics in the sea or land are destroyed. Arrange for a satellite communication link providing internet
services.

Evacuation:
Be realistic about what would happen if all of your foreign national are evacuated. Temporarily relocate
operations or close down in a planned way so that you can restart as soon as staff becomes available again.

Information technology:
How often do you backup? Do you send tapes to another site? If yes; for how long do you retain them and do
you test them monthly? Do you know what are you backing up? Can you replace your key staff without stopping
business? Note that if you answer no to any of these questions, then you have probably failed to provide the
minimal business continuity management for the company.
Choose the location of the recovery center to be well away from the datacenter, a further option could be to
establish the recovery center in another country.
Set procedures identifying “how, why and who” can fix each type of vendor failures. This requires close
consideration of the SLA agreements with the vendors.
Stockpile spare parts - as many as are affordable –in the recovery center in order to be used either in the
main Data Center or in DR site.
Recovery centers, unprotected, on high floors of a shared building, in a busy neighbourhood, very close to fuel
stores are all high risk factors in a war situation. Updated configuration manuals are essential in the recovery
center (routers, firewalls etc…).

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Use satellites and make them part of your monthly testing procedures; satellite provision should be used when
everything else fails, this gives you access to satellite phones, satellite WAN and satellite internet.
Install voltage regulators in order to avoid failure of the hard disks and other parts due to the low/high
voltage swings of electricity provision during a war when electricity is not well controlled.

Case study example - Three days after the war the department that was responsible for
the cooling of a datacenter room got a call concerning high heat. Due to personnel
exhaustion the call wasn’t answered. The result was that cooling system got jammed and
the heat hit 55 degrees Celsius, so some systems were damaged. The datacenter had
survived 34 days of war but was unprepared for the aftermath.

Plan for HVAC and automated monitoring systems.

Interference from military activity can also be an issue. In this case Navy ships that were near the coast, they
interfered with most of telecom and wireless transmissions which forced businesses to lose communication, plans
should be made to prepare for this and also there could be some liaison with governments on where to locate
the ships (after the war)to minimize the risks
With today’s types of arms technology, the need for a protected anti Electro Magnetic Protection (EMP)
environment is a must.

Insurance:
Almost all companies are insured for business interruption, but in the case of war and terrorism insurance
policies defer to government policies and aid which can take too long to receive. Do you have enough back-
up funding to help you through a war situation? There are big advantages to surviving and being quick to
recover afterwards.

Contact System:
Set up an emergency phone line for giving and taking instructions to/from key staff in BCM using a system
similar to a voice machine-giving a guide to required procedures.
Test your Call Tree several times per year. In case of a disaster or a war, problems in telecommunication with
the staff will be faced; this is where an emergency phone line could play a role. A special satellite notification
system could be used as well. Work on a notification system. For instance, one phone call and the system will
contact every person included on the list through several ways (email, texting, telephone, website, emergency
phone line, pagers, etc …).
Have CB Radios ready and charged in the recovery center with extra batteries and charging modules.

Vendor/Supplier Related:
While entering into business agreements with vendors, take into consideration the following issues;
Do vendors have BCP? Does it cover internal and external services?

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If they have a BCP; what is their service level agreement?

Do they have a dedicated team focused on BCP and disaster recovery?
Do they have a crisis management process?
Will they provide support in case of war and terrorist attack?
What is the timeframe to provide their support?
When did they last test the plan?
Will the backup spare parts be available in another site at their locations?
Will they provide primary and backup contact information during a disaster?

Location selection for Data and Recovery Center:

• War and its effects should be taken into consideration

• Option of establishing a secondary recovery center should be taken.

• Ask the question: Should the recovery center of the organization be in 100 miles radius of the main
datacenter or more? In another country, even in another continent?

• Have petrol tanks stored below ground and far from the recovery center.

• Plan for the isolation of the data center/DR site in case of occurrence of a
chemical/biological war.

Advice for the Organization:

• Don’t expect employees to show up for work during the war; a personal crisis will affect attendance
of even key members of your team. Have double, even treble backups.

• Try to help employees, e.g. by supplying them with petrol to get to work, or providing a small
transportation system (a mini bus) to pick them up.

• Understand the employees and be aware that they will not come to work if their families are in
danger, allow them to bring their families to work, have a place ready to welcome people i.e.: beds,
food, water.

• Have a counsellor available for your employees at all time, during and after the war. Ideally before
during the ‘normal’ times.

• Reduce the time schedule of work i.e. during peace days if the work schedule is from 8 am to 4 pm
adjust it from 8 am to 1 pm or whatever is convenient and aligns with power availability.

• Pay early salaries or an extra half salary since people will be needing money.

• Avoid employee shift work during the war, since it will be a burden and time consuming to set up a
rota – operate a more flexible ad hoc system.

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Rudy Chouchany has been working in business continuity management for the last 14 years. He has consulted in
Information Technology Disaster Recovery and High Availability Services as well as general BCM Planning for the
private sector.

He is Business Continuity Management and IT Security Management auditor certified.

Rudy is an author and International speaker in the BCM field and has been featured widely in publications
including the CPM East Florida, the Business Continuity Journal, Continuity Central Magazine, and Arabian
Business magazine.

Rudy is a Member of the BCI and Business Continuity Middle East.

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