The effects of a storm or hurricane on external facilities which are indirectly necessary for operation of computer centre are often underestimated. External installations can be damaged or uprooted as a result. Objects that are torn up and flung around by the storm can cause further consequential damage. Moreover technical components can have their functionality harmed as a result of storms.
Examples
Cooler pipes for the air conditioning system of a computer centre had been laid on the roof using flexible hard PVC hoses but over wide distances on the roof facing they were neither held down or fastened. They were grabbed during a hurricane and swept from the roof of the building, in the course of which they were uprooted from their fastenings. The cooling liquid escaped and the system had to be shut down for several hours. For the duration of the storm, due to the danger of being blown off the roof, it was not possible to undertake any repairs. The server park was down for almost 12 hours. It supplied approximately 12,000 users.
In another case a lamellar wall that was used to visually cover the recooling plant on the roof of the process computing centre of an industrial plant collapsed. The sharp metal edges cut through the electric cables of the recooling plant. There was a short-circuit with electric arc, as a result of which the roof facing that had been torn off by the storm caught fire. At the same time the overturned covering functioned to some extent as a windshield, but it allowed enough wind through to kindle the fire. The fire continued in the insulation between sheet with trapezoidal corrugations and liner sheets. It was only by good luck that total loss was avoided.
