"... wish I had done this before calamity struck.  We prepared for everything else.  The cost of preparing for disaster is considerabley cheaper than ... what we are dealing with now."

All to often we discuss the prospect of disaster recovery with new and existing customers alike only to be told "there is no money for that right now." We need to get other projects done first.  Disaster does not usually give you a lot of warning, hurricanes can be tracked and you will have an option once you know what is about to happen.  But lets think about a fire in the middle of the night.  Not much warning there, and in the morning you are going to be greeted by a fire-marshal and some smoking embers.  But not all disasters are floods and fires, how about the customer in Miami that survived the hurricane and two days after the hurricane struck; their entire facility was looted resulting in the loss of all technology (servers, workstations, printers, firewall, etc.) including the tapes that held the backups.  What is the plan then?