The attack on the United States on September 11, 2001, made us aware that detailed plans are required to handle emergency situations quickly and efficiently. To that end, a project was defined to develop a joint disaster recovery plan with one service provider. The focus of the plan is on technical outages and problem prevention; however, tools were developed for “loss-of-life” rescue activities as well. A key component is the countermeasures matrix that contains a comprehensive list of possible failure conditions with specific countermeasures. This plan has been used to help manage service-provider issues during tornadoes, hurricanes, and a commercial plane crash.