How Should I Prepare My Business for Hurricane Season?

6/24/2021 (Permalink)

Just like with your home, hurricanes can significantly hurt the property of your building.

Preparation for hurricane season in South Florida can be very over whelming, especially with making sure your home and family are safe. While your personal life takes priority, it is important make sure your business is prepared to take on the hurricane as well. Preparing for hurricanes before they happen, especially when it comes to your business, can save you hours of stress and worry when the storm comes.

With the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicting an above average hurricane season for 2021, and many businesses still recovering and adapting from the COVID-19 pandemic, it is crucial that businesses take hurricane preparation into account. Because hurricane are predictable events, businesses can take necessary steps to ensure they will make it out of the storm unscathed.

Create a Plan and Practice It

Conduct an Audit

The first step to creating a hurricane plan for your business is to conduct a preparedness assessment to see exactly what assets need to be protected, even ones that are not as obvious. For example, a storm may not directly impact your business, but it could hurt suppliers that your business may rely on. By having a strong understanding of your resources, you can adequately communicate with suppliers who may be affected by a storm.

Monitor Threats and Know Your Reponses

Compared to other natural disasters, hurricanes are extremely predictable which can serve as a huge advantage in terms of preparedness. Know how each part of your business will be affected by the storm and what your team will do to deal with each hurdle. Some of the most common responses include closing your office space, turning on backup generators, or providing employees with a suggested evacuation route.

Form an Emergency Team

It is very helpful to have a planning team of key individuals that can serve as the point people in an emergency. It is also important to ensure the wellbeing of all of your employees and make sure there are clear channels of communication.

Keep Your Resources Safe

Protect Your Facilities

Just like with your home, hurricanes can significantly hurt the property of your building.  Make sure your windows and doors are boarded up and ensuring you have a backup power plan to keep critical security assets working. It is also a good idea to move important documents, and technology away from windows.

Backup Data

In the technology age, it is crucial to make sure all your data is secure and backups are stored in a safe and dependable place. For example, external hard drives are a great place to store online data and you can ensure they are kept in a safe place.

Operate remotely

With the COVID-19 pandemic, many businesses successfully adapted to remote work. With many of these strategies already in place, the same remote work space can be utilized during a storm. If power and Wi-Fi are still available, your team should be able to function. Make sure any work from home channels are still available in case of a storm.