As everyone is no doubt aware by now, America's fourth-largest city, Houston, in Texas, was hit with a major Category 4 hurricane late last week. Though the storm was quickly downgraded after making landfall, it has still caused unprecedented damage through relentless rainfall that is likely to top 4 feet in some areas before it's done. US officials are now saying Houston and south-central Texas have never experienced an event like this. Being in the data centre business, we are curious as to how the four major data centres located in Houston are faring today. There is both good and bad news.

The good news is that all four data centres are still operational and not reporting any damage. This is not unexpected, given the fact that data centre designers build into their plans certain protections against natural disasters. But that brings us to the bad news: streets in Houston are closed, and many of those streets around the data centres are flooded however the power has stayed on at all four facilities thus far.

Running on Emergency Generators

There is no way to know when power will be restored until after the rain finally stops. It could be days but it is more likely to take weeks. Data centre builders plan for such events by equipping facilities with generators and all four Houston data centres are prepared to run their generators if necessary. The question is, will they actually have to?

Should they need the generators, the facilities would be depending on fuel deliveries to keep them going. Data centres are second in line for fuel deliveries behind hospitals, police stations and other first-responder facilities, but with the roads flooded, how long before the fuel trucks could actually make it through?

Preparing Customers for Data Recovery

No one could have predicted that Houston would get 4 feet of rainfall from Harvey. In fact, the storm exceeded all expectations normally associated with hurricanes coming off the Gulf of Mexico. Unfortunately, all the preparations in the world cannot account for everything. Knowing what they now know about the devastation, data centre officials are beginning to contact customers in the hope of helping them make data recovery plans should the unthinkable happen. The lesson in all of this is that nature will do what it wants to do. Data centre designers and operators go to great lengths to protect their facilities against the most severe weather, but sometimes it's just not enough. Hopefully Houston's four data centres will not suffer any interruption of service. Whether they do or not, there will be plenty of lessons to be learned in the aftermath Hurricane Harvey and its historic flooding.

Source: http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/uptime/four-providers-houston-data-centers-online-access-roads-flooded