Segments of Bermuda's international business sector took swift steps in the wake of Thursday's Island-wide power failure to safeguard critical data and keep key divisions working, it emerged over the weekend.

"We shipped our finance guys to New York," said AXIS Capital chief financial officer Andrew Cook. Other companies made similar moves to make sure its most critical units ? mostly finance and investment teams ? could continue working, including access to key information.

Some, like AXIS, flew key personnel out. Others counted on increasingly adept mobile networks (with models of cellular phones and handhelds now offering anywhere access to e-mail and Internet) to conduct business and some moved into 'work recovery' sites hosted by secondary firms.

There were even those who called on the goodwill of companies that did have power. "My office is full of clients using our computers to get online and do work," said one businessman on Thursday, who had a generator running as a back-up power source throughout the blackout.

The city of Hamilton ? home to hundreds of insurance and reinsurance offices, as well as hedge fund administrators, banks, law firms and accounting offices ? was the most severely affected area from last Thursday's explosion at the Belco electric plant, which left much of the city in darkness up to Saturday night.

For reinsurers ? one of the largest segments of the Island's international business sector ? it was a bad time to be caught out by a power failure. While reinsurance companies were already through their critical July 1 selling period, another crunch time is looming with the release of second quarter earnings reports scheduled in the next fortnight.

One way some got through were back-up power systems, with many of the Island's insurance and reinsurance ventures equipped with uninterruptable power supply systems (UPS) designed to keep computer systems operating. And in this case, the back-up power supplies allowed some chief financial officers and their teams to continue working on reports for the second quarter period, which ended June 30.

Although power was restored late on Thursday and on Friday to many of the insurance and reinsurance ventures that sit along Pitts Bay Road, other offices in the centre of Hamilton were affected for longer periods. One of those was the Richmond Road offices of American International Group. Although the AIG Bermuda office was forced to close on Thursday and Friday, its computer network continued running and key personnel had enough power from the company's UPS to continue working.

ACE Limited was another insurer that sent most staff home on Thursday because of the power failure, while systems kept the company open for "essential business".

With all but a handful of Bermuda-based insurers and reinsurers being owned publicly through listings on the New York or London stock exchanges, it is critical that quarterly reports be delivered to investors on time. To not do so creates the risk of investors questioning the reasons behind a delay, and possibly losing confidence in holding the stock.

"Losing two days at this time after the quarter is obviously not helpful," said one chief financial officer at a Bermuda-based reinsurer that trades on the New York Stock Exchange.

Some who were unable to work from their offices took up temporary desks, complete with telephones and remote access to their company computer networks at a secure facility run by QuoVadis.

"Many organisations had not planned for a total Belco failure, and we were able to provide services and technology to get them back on their feet," said Michael Branco, a technology specialist for QuoVadis, a firm specialising in disaster recovery and internationally-recognised digital certificates.

QuoVadis said three hours after Thursday's 3 a.m. explosion at Belco, its own disaster recovery plan was being acted on. And by 11 a.m. it had already delivered back-ups of computer systems to several clients, including shipping data overseas.

QuoVadis wasn't the only company who met early on Thursday to make sure disaster recovery plans were working. Mr. Cook said AXIS staff met just after 9 a.m.

"It was a learning experience; a great dry run of our disaster recovery system," said Mr. Cook, who said that elements of the plan that failed, could now be fixed.

"We had just rolled out a new and revised disaster recovery plan in case we get hit by a hurricane this year. Now we know what adjustments need to be made," he said.