Mother Nature certainly knows how to challenge businesses on the Eastern Seaboard. Hurricanes Irene and Sandy and several major winter storms recently blew through the region, spreading wide the damage.

“We did close one day for both Irene and Sandy but only once for a ­snowstorm a few years ago,” said Chad Vilotti, vice-president, Liscio’s Italian Bakery, Glassboro, NJ. “The main hurricane concern would have been our roof, but we’ve had emergency electrical power here from the start.”

The company recently replaced its first generator with a larger 700-kw system. “We could power half of Glassboro with it,” joked James Liscio, the bakery’s president. The company also inventories replacement motors for key equipment.

“We’ve only had one episode that required emergency electrical power since we moved here in 2004,” Mr. Liscio continued. “We lost about three hours of production then. But that experience was enough, and having back-up ­capacity satisfies our need to cover ‘what if’ situations.”