The physical location of your Web host is often not considered… until it’s too late. Take yesterday, for instance, when Hurricane Wilma knocked Verio’s Boca Raton, Florida data center offline for an entire day. Rumor has it that the Verio data center is housed in a bunker-like building built to withstand a CAT 5 storm. But that didn’t stop little ol’ CAT 3 Wilma from wreaking havoc with the data center’s backup power…

“Twenty-twenty-twenty four hours to go I wanna be sedated.” Joey Ramone’s words rang true, not just for the scores of Webmasters with servers held hostage at the darkened data center, but for the workers who toiled around the clock to restore service, as well.

One unconfirmed report (direct from a Verio employee, no less), laid the blame on trees that had fallen on the backup generators. HostPC reported more specifically that a fuel pump had failed between data center’s fuel storage tanks.

While Verio posted sporadic progress updates for their anxious web hosting customers, HostPC provided more in-depth details on exactly what was happening in Boca Raton. A thread on Broadband Reports provided a sounding board for unhappy Webmasters.

Service was restored to servers on Tuesday morning after being offline for an entire day, but it didn’t last long. More problems with the backup power brought the servers down again, shortly after 1:00 pm.

The incident brings an important issue to light.

Never mind the fortifications touted by marketing copy. Does it make sense to host your Web site at a data center’s located in a region beset by violent weather? Or would it be more prudent to have your Web site hosted at a location less prone to natural disasters?

Whether you’re looking for a quick little $5 a month shared Web hosting account or a robust $500 a month dedicated server, it’s a question better answered sooner rather than (too) later.

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