Inside the Storm

Bank of Hawaii Uses Video to Help Manage Business Continuity During Hurricane Lane

OVER THE COURSE OF FOUR DAYS, Hurricane Lane dropped more than 52 inches of rain on Hawaii, making it the second highest rainfall total from a tropical cyclone in the U.S. since 1950. That’s just behind the 60.58 inches dumped on Nederland, Texas by Hurricane Harvey in 2017.

It wasn’t the first time that Bank of Hawaii — one of the state’s largest financial institutions — had to prepare for, and respond to, severe weather. With detailed business continuity procedures already in place and a cross-functional committee able to make quick decisions in emergency situations, the bank had a set strategy to draw upon.

Well in advance of the storm’s approach, staff based in the Honolulu office on the island of O’ahu were tracking the hurricane and coordinating branch closures with market managers located on the other islands. That’s when Brian Ishikawa, Senior Vice President and Director of Corporate Security, decided to use the bank’s March Networks® video surveillance system to help the team see what was happening across its footprint.

“The surveillance system allowed us to peek into and outside of our retail branches and make decisions about various closures in advance without putting anyone at risk,” he explained. “We had investigators using the system every few hours to do ‘virtual patrols’. If they were able to connect to an NVR, we knew we still had power and network connectivity at that location. And as the storm progressed, we could also see if there was any flooding or damage.”

As much as eight hours before Hurricane Lane first made landfall, the bank had closed some branches on the Big Island because of fierce winds and heavy rain. As the storm swept through to O’ahu, the business continuity team continued to coordinate and issue communications about branch closures.

“Banks are required by law to remain operational during a crisis, and inform legislators and the public when safety concerns force us to close branches temporarily,” said Ishikawa “So we were communicating with many different stake-holders and also keeping our employees updated so they knew whether to come to work or not depending on where they were located.

“The March Networks system provided us with the remote visibility we needed to make those decisions quickly and keep everyone well informed.” – Brian Ishikawa, Senior Vice President and Director of Corporate Security, Bank of Hawaii

“The March Networks system provided us with the remote visibility we needed to make those decisions quickly and keep everyone well informed. After the hurricane, it also helped us assess the damage and build our recovery plan.”

Approximately 90 percent of the bank’s Hawaiian branches were forced to close before the hurricane dissipated, and while several locations suffered damage, most were able to open again fairly quickly. Fortunately there were no reported fatalities across the islands.

The video solution proved so successful during the emergency, Bank of Hawaii now plans to incorporate it into its situational response plan moving forward. In addition, Ishikawa intends to leverage the video system to continue ‘virtual patrols’ from the bank’s security operations center — conducting visual branch audits to help keep them secure and running optimally.