In the aftermath of Queensland's severe flooding and the 300km/h destructive force of tropical cyclone Yasi, all businesses need to consider how they might prepare and act in an emergency. A disaster recovery or business continuity plan is a good start. Even though the best-laid plans can go awry – as some Queensland businesses found out – some preparation is better than none.

For the Brisbane office of law firm Freehills, it was imperative that some staff members stayed on the job, despite its CBD office being closed after the floods. About 30 people were working behind the scenes as a client, gas company Santos, was approaching the final investment decision on a $16 million project. Key members of the team walked to the nearby Sofitel hotel, where the Freehills' IT team had set up conference rooms as temporary office space. However, as the flood waters closed in, the head of the Brisbane office, Michael Back , decided that a more efficient solution was to swiftly pack up the team and transport them to Freehills' Sydney office.

"We had to quickly organise travel, which wasn't easy," Back says. "There was a little bit of panic setting in."

Team members caught a late flight and were working first thing the next morning. These decisions were part of a plan that had been developed and put in place about nine months earlier. "We had identified people who would take a role and what their responsibilities were," Back says.

As part of Freehills' plan, staff were sent home and then contacted by text message with a 1800 number to call to receive further information about when the office would re-open. Overall, Back is happy but says there were hiccups. Some contact details for staff were not up to date and little things such as not having enough printers or BlackBerry chargers hampered his team working on Santos.

Like Freehills, mid-tier Brisbane accounting firm Johnston Rorke, part of the Pitcher Partners Association, didn't have access to its building from late Tuesday evening until the following Monday morning. Managing partner Chris Ball says although the firm had the workings of a disaster recovery plan in place, it was not sufficient.

After sending staff home early on the Tuesday, the JR staff were notified that their electricity would be turned off. "The first deficiency of our disaster recovery plan was that our communication with staff was predicated on being able to contact them through our email system," Ball says. Before the electricity and email servers were turned off, JR staff were sent an email to work addresses, asking for alternate contact details. About 60 per cent responded and another 20 per cent were able to be contacted via Facebook. "That still left us with 20 per cent that we were unable to contact, which is completely unsatisfactory," Ball says.

Small businesses may feel overwhelmed by the precise disaster recovery plans of larger firms but a few simple fixes would have made life easier for the managing director of specialist procurement consultant Project Procure, Greg Edmonds. His office was closed for a week. With IT services and business information in thecloud, his basic plan was that staff could work from home; however, he didn't plan on homes being affected as well. "Our disaster management plan didn't run to the catastrophic," he says.

Edmonds' employees have mobile phones for work but many were on holiday during the floods and hadn'tthought to take them.

Alternate contact information was unfortunately in a filing cabinet in the inaccessible office. A laminated card with everybody's details would have been a simple solution to this problem, Edmonds says.

Insurance builder Siemsen Group's Brian Siemsen has simple advice: have a plan. Siemsen, who is working on reconstruction in Queensland, says businesses were completely unprepared and are facing long periods before they are operational. His own offices in Rockhampton and Bundaberg were affected by the flooding. "

You can never plan 100 per cent but I would rather have a plan that's 85 per cent across the line than start wondering what to do when it happens," he says.