The forecast for the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season: between 13 and 19 named storms, including . If your business is in the path of such a storm, it could wipe out all you’ve worked hard to build.
Yet hurricanes are not the only natural disasters that threaten your business. Other, less predictable disasters can strike, as well: flood, earthquake, tornado, and wildfire. Flood waters from Hurricane Katrina in 2005 caused . The Northridge, Calif. earthquake in 1994 . The cost of tornados that hit between May 26 and 29, 2019 . And in 2018 alone, over 58,000 fires scorched close to nine million acres in the US, .
Any one of these natural events could interrupt your business operations or worse, cause permanent closure. That’s because the immediate impact of a natural disaster on businesses is devastating, particularly for small business owners. Nearly 40 percent that close as a result of a storm will not reopen; within two years, 25 percent more businesses will close, and; within three years, .
Planning for Recovery
A well-constructed natural disaster plan can help your business protect against some of the potential costs. A good plan can help your business:
Your emergency plan should address a number of important factors that can help you respond to and recover quickly. Those factors include:
Preparation
Being prepared means knowing what makes your business vulnerable and taking steps to lessen those vulnerabilities. Start with an analysis of your facilities. Which natural disasters are your facilities susceptible to? What is the probability of impact? How does your facility’s surroundings – natural, physical, and man-made – increase or decrease the risk of loss? Are you sitting in a flood plain? What hazardous materials are on site or nearby? How close are railroads, roads, or airports? How quickly could emergency services reach your facility? And are their resources adequate to protect your business? Seek information provided by local emergency planning committees, government agencies, and insurance carriers to determine your level of risk.
Inside your facility, identify the critical products, services and operations you need to recover from interruption. They include:
As you assess your preparedness, note which areas you need to improve in order to be better prepared.
Response
How you will respond to a natural disaster is a critical part of the planning process. What steps must be done immediately after an event? What actions will be taken in the event of or at the prediction of a natural disaster? Are there utilities or machinery that needs to be checked or turned off/on?
Also, understand how your business will respond during an event. Where is the safety and fire response equipment, and do employees know how to use it? Where are the escape routes, restricted areas, and hazardous materials located? What high-value items need to be stored safely or removed from the premises.
A good response plan should include the following:
Particularly with utilities, your plan should include consideration for any backup power sources. Depending on the disaster, your company should analyze how long you can remain operational or inhabit the facility without critical utilities.
Recovery
After the disaster, your organization needs to get back to business. Planning how you will restart can make that transition go much more smoothly. What actions does your business need to take in order to restore critical functions so that you can resume some of your previous operations?
And recovery will take time. Your business, your community, will need that time in order to regroup, assess damages, make repairs, and get supplies coming in again, if applicable. However, it is still important to restart your operations, even perhaps at a lower level of activity than previously.
Business Continuity
Now that the business is running again, how you move forward could mean the difference between full recovery and eventual business failure.
The goal of your continuity plan is to restore the business to where it was before the natural disaster struck. Designate a point person who will oversee the creation of the plan, and also the execution of it post-recovery.
For the plan to work, you need a team effort. Your employees are as much a part of your continuity plan as they are part of your operational success. Get their feedback. Ask what they need in order to do their jobs effectively. What items must they have in order to operate during recovery and importantly, as productively as they can going forward?
General Preparedness Measures
While your preparedness plan will vary depending on what natural disaster threats your business is vulnerable to, a few general points apply to nearly any natural disaster situation. When building your emergency preparedness plan, keep in mind the following decisions that need to be made:
Once you have all the elements of your natural disaster plan in place, review it regularly and update it with best practices and lessons learned. Conditions in your business change rapidly. So too should your disaster plan, particularly if your business adds a new product line, changes existing supplies used, increases or decreases premises, or has a neighboring business move in that poses additional exposures.
Prepared for the Future
Staying ahead of natural disasters takes planning. While you may never need to use your disaster preparedness plan, having both the plan and the training behind it can pay off should the unthinkable occur.
Should disaster strike, the health of your business depends on your plan for both recovery and full restoration of operations. Your plan helps you to review and improve on your operations, while at the same time understanding your full exposure and mitigating what you can prior to any natural event. Coordinating with local authorities and agencies, as well as partnering with your insurer, can help with both mitigation and recovery time.
You cannot plan for everything. But by having a flexible plan that addresses the risks your business faces, you can create a better response that gives your business a fighting chance of recovery.
For more detailed information on how to build a natural disaster preparedness plan, read our Natural Disaster Emergency Planning and Preparedness Risk Bulletin.
Global Asset Protection Services, LLC, and its affiliates (鈥溕喽嗍悠礡isk Consulting鈥�) provides risk assessment reports and other loss prevention services, as requested. In this respect, our property loss prevention publications, services, and surveys do not address life safety or third party liability issues. This document shall not be construed as indicating the existence or availability under any policy of coverage for any particular type of loss or damage. The provision of any service does not imply that every possible hazard has been identified at a facility or that no other hazards exist. 色多多视频Risk Consulting does not assume, and shall have no liability for the control, correction, continuation or modification of any existing conditions or operations. We specifically disclaim any warranty or representation that compliance with any advice or recommendation in any document or other communication will make a facility or operation safe or healthful, or put it in compliance with any standard, code, law, rule or regulation. Save where expressly agreed in writing, 色多多视频Risk Consulting and its related and affiliated companies disclaim all liability for loss or damage suffered by any party arising out of or in connection with our services, including indirect or consequential loss or damage, howsoever arising. Any party who chooses to rely in any way on the contents of this document does so at their own risk.
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