Article Reviewed by a licensed insurance professional: Sam Meenasian (CA dept of insurance license #0F75955).
Estimated reading time: 6 minutes
Key Takeaways
- Businesses must prepare for hurricane risks to avoid significant damage and losses.
- Creating a comprehensive hurricane plan, including evacuation protocols and communication methods, is crucial.
- Review insurance coverage to ensure adequate protection against storm damage, including flood and business interruption insurance.
- Establish a business continuity plan to maintain operations and employee safety during a hurricane.
- Train your staff on emergency procedures and data security to ensure an effective response during a storm event.
When you own a business, you have to be prepared for many different kinds of risk. You might be thinking about vandalism, cyberattacks, or even inventory loss. It is not as likely that you will think about natural disasters like hurricanes. Even people who operate a business in Florida, Texas, North Carolina, or Louisiana can sometimes overlook protections for hurricane damage.
A single hurricane can cost a county or city as much as $22 billion. It’s not just people’s homes that get damaged by natural events like hurricanes. Businesses can also suffer significant damage related to storms.
There are some key steps that you should take before the next hurricane season arrives. These are critical activities to tackle so that your business will not have to close its doors due to storm damage and losses. Being prepared in advance for a seasonal event like hurricane risk can help you protect your business and limit your claims exposure.
Have a Hurricane Plan
You might be shocked to learn that many businesses in areas that are impacted by hurricanes don’t actually have hurricane plans in place. You need to design an emergency response plan that handles all kinds of different scenarios that could be related to storm damage. From complete loss of power and internet to business relocation steps and stages, you need to have a plan in place that you can practice and count on.
You should also have an evacuation protocol that your staff is familiar with and trained to complete in the case of a storm. You need to be sure that all your staff get fresh training to follow the evacuation plan and that new staff members are shown how to handle this kind of emergency.
Your business property needs to be put in a safe place if you need to evacuate. You should board up windows, reinforce doors, and move items that cannot withstand water damage. You can find hurricane-resistant home supplies for these tasks or even refit your entire business location to withstand storm pressures more effectively.
Communication plans should be created so that everyone knows who to stay in touch with and how to stay connected in the event of a storm. You should also back up your data offsite so that you can get right back to work even if your main business location’s computers are all damaged by the hurricane.
Review Insurance Coverage
Your insurance is the main defense that you have against storm damage. You will need to be sure that you have all the necessary coverage to get back on your feet after a storm. Your insurance agent can advise you about added waivers and coverages that can be key to keeping your head above water if a hurricane devastates the town or city where you operate.
Your property insurance will help you to restore your business location once the storm is over. You should be certain that your deductibles are affordable and that your coverage limits are high enough for storm damage.
You should have business interruption insurance in case you have to relocate during or after the storm. Business interruption insurance can help you to pay wages, operating costs, and other bills while you continue to do business away from the storm.
Flood insurance is not part of your standard insurance policies. Be sure that you have FEMA coverage if your property or area of the state requires that you carry it.
Windstorm damage can be covered with specific windstorm coverage extensions. Not all states offer this added coverage, but it is fairly common.
You should be sure that you understand the exclusions that pertain to all of these insurance products. You might be able to fill coverage gaps with the help of your insurance agent. If you cannot fill them, best practices and changes to your operational workflows can help to prevent issues related to storm damage that falls between coverage protections.
Generate a Business Continuity Plan
Your business continuity efforts will help you to keep your business open and operational even when a storm has impacted your city. You will need to consider various important factors as part of your continuity efforts.
You should make sure that critical business functions are going to be handled correctly and promptly. These are the first things that need to be attended to when a storm is on the way.
Remote work needs to be part of your business continuity arrangements unless there is not enough of your workflows that can be completed away from your business location. You should also see if you can address your supply chain. There are going to be gaps in the processes that you use to secure materials and supplies, so you need to be sure that you are thinking about how to manage these issues if they crop up.
Your financial resilience should also get some attention. Make sure that you have a plan to maintain financial well-being if you run into a storm that causes major damage, a relocation, or a loss of access to supplies and materials.
Perhaps most important of all, make sure that you have employee safety as part of your policy overhaul in your business continuity plan. This will include providing them with access to information about escape routes, safety at home, shelters, and emergency contact information.
Stockpiling emergency supplies can also be critical for your business continuity plan. You might need to have emergency kits on hand at work, tools and equipment to help with cleanup and recovery, fuel and power, and even food and water. You could become trapped at your work location, and you don’t want to have to struggle to make things work until you can be rescued.
Communication devices can also come in handy since phones of any sort usually don’t work during hurricanes.
Train Your Staff
Your employees need the training and understanding of the protocols to follow when there is a storm event. You might not be with them if they are at work when the hurricane hits. You might not be able to guide them or make choices for them for a whole host of reasons. Make sure that your teams understand evacuation procedures, emergency contacts, data security, and first aid. The more prepared your staff is for the worst-case scenario, the better they will handle the challenges of an emergency.
Data security is a key part of the process of surviving a tough storm situation. Make certain that your staff has training to prevent breaches and other kinds of hacking. This is especially important if you are going to send your teams home to work remotely while the storm is impacting your business.
Conclusion
Hurricane season happens each year, and you need to be prepared to handle it the smart way. Use these tips and back them up with good coverage to make sure that your company will handle the next hurricane season without issue. Reach out to us today to find out how you can protect your investment from the damage that can come from Mother Nature.
