While natural disasters cannot be prevented, they can be and must be prepared for. Understanding the risk of not being prepared is the first step in emergency preparedness, and directly applies to facilities management. However, in this new age of information, it is not the physical reinforcements and preparations taken on premises that matter most to the disaster readiness of a facility. Rather, what matters most are the contingency plans in place for the storage and protection of records, documents, and information that are foundational to facility operations.Today, information is the raw material of any facility, and that facility’s information must be properly protected, insured, and controlled in times of crisis.