First, business continuity planning at many institutions, although improved by Y2K preparations, clearly had not fully taken into account the potential for wide-spread disasters and for the major loss or inaccessibility of critical staff. Some firms arranged for their backup facilities to be in nearby buildings for quite legitimate efficiency and convenience, and, as a result, lost both primary and backup sites.
Very few firms planned for an emergency that would disrupt multiple sites in an entire business district, city, or region. Second, business concentrations, both market-based and geographic, intensified the impact of operational disruptions.