Business Tips: Hurricane Preparedness

Each year the Storm season seems to start earlier and end later.  BlueTeam reminds you that hurricane season is imminent, and it is never too early to start preparing.

While you can’t control where a storm hits or how damaging it will be, early planning is essential to minimizing the impact. Building an early plan of action helps businesses craft emergency hurricane communications ahead of time, map out their evacuation routes, and brace for impact.

Give your team peace of mind knowing that you have a well-developed plan in place prior to hurricane season.

1. Protect Your People

A company is only as strong as its employees. Just as you look to your team to handle specific business functions, they look to you for leadership and guidance.

Factors to consider:

• Where each employee is located – not just in a directory but in real-time
• Which employees travel and what their current schedule is
• If you have a mass notification system in place to quickly notify your people

2. Know Your Property Before Disaster

Weather-related events are often at the mercy of their specific geographic location. Flooding typically occurs at buildings along the coast but even buildings inland are vulnerable to major damage. You need to consider how you’re going to reinforce each location.

What to know:

• The address of every location under your company umbrella including storage facilities and transportation lots
• What the evacuation plan is for each facility. For example, entrances/exits, stairs, elevators and escalators, parking lots, and access to the closest hurricane evacuation route.
• Which people/teams work at each location
• What the biggest risks for each facility are and how fortified they are to withstand potential damage
• What generators are in place at each facility, the fuel capacity and how long it will last and what additional generator needs the property will need to sustain after a storm
• The types of necessary materials that need to be in place to get the facility up and running again
• BlueTeam can help you document this with our Pre-Loss Assessments within the BlueTeam app.

3. Implement a Two-Way Communication Plan

A potentially life-saving addition to your emergency plan: communication.

• Ensure every employee is able to communicate with leadership and each other during a hurricane
• Regularly update your company directory with accurate contact information for each employee
• Consider emergency communication software
• Back up your data
• Set up cloud systems
• The BlueTeam app allows your employees to quickly report a loss during a storm, allowing us to get a team on-site to start work as quickly as possible.

4. Verify Your Insurance and Consider Your Supply Chain

Not having enough coverage can be just as traumatic as experiencing damage to your building. It is wise to review your policy to make sure you have the right coverage based on the types of circumstances you are most likely to face.

• Check-in with your insurance broker to see if there are any holes in your coverage
• Over the next several weeks, discuss supply chain considerations and contingency plans with your suppliers and partners

5. Partner with a Disaster Response Company

Employing an “ounce of prevention” by establishing a working relationship with a disaster response company is key to a quick restoration after a disaster. Otherwise, you could potentially waste valuable days or even weeks simply trying to line up help, when you could be getting your business back online.

We are glad you chose BlueTeam as your provider for Storm Response and are ready to assist during the upcoming storm season.

BlueTeam is dedicated to building strong partnerships with our clients.

We collaborate with commercial property owners and operators in advance of a weather event, putting an organized plan in place to ensure you do not go without the necessary resources and are able to restore operations in an expedited manner.

To learn more about BlueTeam’s disaster recovery services and priority response program, call us today!