I hit a deer a few nights ago. *SAD FACE* I wasn't speeding, the visibility was great, and I was really careful because deer are abundant in the area I was driving. I came around a curve and all of a sudden.... THUNK... the deer ran right into the right side of my car! My daughter was in the car with me and neither of us even saw it coming. We didn't even know it was a deer until I stopped, turned around and saw the poor deer laying in the road and the rest of the herd crossing the street.
My heart sank. I felt terrible for the deer and had no idea what to do. Should my daughter and I get out of the car on this dark, curvy road and try to move the deer off the road? Should I call the police? Panicked, I called my husband who was with our sons driving a few minutes ahead of me in his car. No answer. Redial. Voice mail. FRUSTRATION!
So what did I do? Drove the two miles home to ask my husband what I should do! There I stood in my kitchen, telling my husband about the incident when it hit me. I never expected to hit a deer so I didn't have a recovery plan! I don't think most people PLAN to hit a deer.
That's when it hit me. The same thing happens with emergency cooling -- you don't think about it because you don't EXPECT your air conditioning to fail in the first place! Now it's not such a big deal if you just have to tough it out in high temps for a few days. But if you have server room cooling, hospital lab cooling or retail and restaurant cooling that fails, you'll have lost productivity, lost revenue and uncomfortable, miserable customers!
So don't be like me -- an unprepared, emotional mess. Figure out what you need to do if you lose air conditioning. Start by getting the name and number of the building engineer or whoever is responsible for servicing the air conditioning. Check out this cool infographic about small business emergencies. And you can get 10 tips for quick emergency cooling here.
Being proactive is a whole lot better than being reactive! Trust me. I learned the hard way but am happy to say we got it all taken care of. We called the non-emergency police number to report the incident in case we had to file an insurance claim, the police took care of moving the deer, and my kids learned an important lesson about what to do when you hit a deer. I still feel awful about the deer though ;-(