It really is a small world after all. Who knew as I headed into the office Monday morning that my business was sitting atop ground zero for an electrical explosion that would spark a sizeable underground fire and cause power outages that played havoc not only with Vancouver traffic, but with ecommerce across North America.

I’m happy to report that as soon as power went down, our team was able to spring into action and had remote offices up and running within a matter of hours. Fortunately, our web servers and web services weren’t among those affected by the brown out and we’ve managed to stay on schedule with our projects despite some challenging communications issues. Other businesses weren’t so lucky - the North American MLS system for one is hosted on servers right here in Vancouver and guess what - no power means no servers!

As I type, we’re still not sure when we’ll have power again. The benefit of being right in the heart of the trouble. Kudos to our neighbours over at nowpublic who, even as they shut down the office to evacuate staff managed to post some of the first really good information about what was going on.

If anything has been learned this week, it’s really how ill prepared we are for a real disaster. I’m willing to be there will be disaster recovery and response review meetings throughout the Lower Mainland later this week and early next as affected businesses confront the reality of what’s missing from their existing processes.

For my part - after getting my staff on their way, securing our networks and other critical systems and ensuring the office was locked down, I ended up standing on the hot pavement on Richards Street with other residents of my parking tower waiting to be told it was safe to rescue our vehicles. The fire, it appears, was burning directly under our feet (and our cars) - which explains the incredible heat emanating from the pavement and through the soles of my shoes. After a couple of hours with laptop on shoulder, we were able to wade gingerly into the pitch blackness of our underground lot to retrieve our vehicles. May I never again be caught without a flashlight!

Direct response is gaining ground - with email marketing leading the charge, according to a new survey of large US corporations by Direct Partners, New York. More than 1/3 of the companies surveyed indicated email is their primary direct marketing channel, compared to 25% who use postal mail. And almost a quarter of those surveyed plan to increase their DM budgets by more than 10% in the next year.

Read the full story at brandweek.com.