An outage or disruption may occur with or without prior notice. For example, advance notice is often given that a hurricane is predicted to affect an area or that a computer virus is expected on a certain date. However, there may be no notice of equipment failure or a criminal act. Notification procedures should be documented in the plan for both types of situation. The procedures should describe the methods used to notify recovery personnel during business and non business hours. Prompt notification is important for reducing the effects of a disruption on the system; in some cases, it may provide enough time to allow system personnel to shut down the system gracefully to avoid a hard crash. Following the outage or disruption, notification should be sent to the Outage Assessment Team so that it may determine the status of the situation and appropriate next steps.