I just came from Infrastructure Optimization workshop for a customer located in Albay, in Southern Luzon, Philippines. The site is within visual range of the famous Mayon Volcano. During our business continuity and recovery planning sessions, I was thinking that the site's close proximity to the active volcano is itself a prime risk. I was wrong.
Volcanic activity in Albay province (well, depending where you are in Albay) may not necessarily be a risk to your systems, since pyroclastic flows happen in the same direction, and their location is really out of the way of these flows. In fact, according to them, when Mayon acts up, their business booms since tourists and volcanologists flock to the cities surrounding Mayon Volcano: the cities of Legazpi and Tabaco. The last of these eruptions happened just last year, July 2006.
The real risk in this region would be typhoons. The Bicol Region is right smack into the path of many typhoons, especially rain, wind and the resulting power interruption. The most recent one being Supertyphoon Reming (international codename "Durian") These photos may give you a glimpse of the destruction made last November 2006.
This region endured a double-whammy last 2006: Volcanic eruption and a supertyphoon.
Lesson learned: more often than not, the obvious risks of disaster may not always be the obvious one like a hyperactive volcano. Instead, learn to listen to your customer because they know their environment better than you, the consultant.
