By Benecia Beyer
In our most recent newsletter (do you receive our newsletter? if not - send us an email at info@divitainc.com and we'll add you to our list!) we had an article "Are You Prepared for Disaster" in which we spoke about the 100 year flood for our area and what impact this would have on your business and how you can be prepared by having a disaster plan in place.
I can't help but wonder (although they probably did just fine as they had just recently participated in the Forward Challenge '06 biennial continuity-of-operations exercise - so they were somewhat prepared) how the IRS faired when torrential rains closed the headquarters beginning June 26 after an estimated 5.5 million gallons of water flooded the basement and sub-basement. The unprecedented flooding caused extensive damage, destroying or heavily damaging electrical equipment and air handlers. The sub-basement was under 20 feet of water and the basement was under 5 feet of water. More than $25 million was spent repairing the building. While all the electrical and air systems have been repaired, some construction work will continue on areas in the basement until approximately April.
The tax agencies IT systems were not affected by this disaster since they are located chiefly at the IRS suburban headquarters in New Carrolton, MD. So the processing of tax returns have been unaffected.
About 2,000 IRS employees, who have been working at 15 other buildings in the Metro Washington area, will be moving back to headquarters in stages.
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