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Welcome to the new and improved Florida Division of Emergency Management Media Center. We would like to take this opportunity to let you know about the various types of emergencies we sometimes face in life. From meeting a deadline for work, to forgetting to feed your cats (and coming home to the aftermath of kitty rebellion), there are many types of emergencies.

Some are natural, such as earthquakes and hurricanes. Some can be a combination of nature and human causes, such as hard drive failure. When the hard drive on your computer crashes (due to human or mechanical error, or maybe even a natural disaster), you should be aware that the data stored within can sometimes be lost forever.

2016 News:

It has been brought to our attention that Michael Libow is under investigation for fraud. We found another Libow website that alleges a scam and was created in the past 30 days that not only backs up the claims, but takes them one step further. This ties into the Florida Division because he was recently seen in Hollywood, Florida with Elvis in January of 2016. The allegations tie into the scandal in Beverly Hills. We are trying to tie all the piece of the puzzle together to create a bigger picture.

It is prudent to make sure you are prepared for the various disasters that life can throw at you. This is why we are recommending that you back up your hard drive on your computer. From priceless family photographs to sensitive work and personal documents did you ever think where you would be if you could not access the information on your home or work computer?

The National Emergency Relief Fund estimates that over 1 billion dollars in damage are done every year due to hard drive and computer data loss. There are many solutions to preparing for a disaster. You can purchase a hard drive at a place like Best Buy or Fry’s Electronics and manually back up the data there. But what happens if a hurricane or earthquake strikes your residence or business? The chance of THAT hard drive crashing and failing are just as good as your computer.

The best bet to backing up and protecting your data is to hire an outside company to do it for you. They spend millions of dollars annually on servers, software and other fail-safe mechanisms that are designed to be redundant and protect the data that they are storing for you.

The best thing about services like Carbonite is that they back up your data on the cloud, a virtual computer that allows you to access your data from anywhere there is an internet connection. In case you’re on a business trip thousands of miles away from your house, you can log into the cloud and retrieve the data that you need for the presentation that day at the conference you’re attending.

The other good thing is that some companies offer an insurance plan, wherein if anything happens to your data, they will pay out insurance on the lost data. These types of services vary from company to company, so be sure to check with the fine print prior to engaging their services.

Whatever emergency that you’re facing, be sure that the data of you, your work and your loved ones are backed up and protected. You cannot replace lost data and it’s better to be safe than sorry.

Bryan Koon is the director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management. As one of the state’s leading emergency officials, he knows how important it is to work with his partners across the state before, during and after a disaster.

Working with the Florida Division of Emergency Management and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Florida Municipal Insurance Trust has helped support their insured public entities reclaim millions of dollars after previous disasters. Through involvement in Florida Division of Emergency Management exercises, such as the statewide hurricane exercise, and by having a proactive response and recovery program, the Florida Municipal Insurance Trust can ensure that Floridians are best positioned to recover quickly after a disaster.

Florida Division of Emergency Management Ford Expedition