Hurricane Preparedness
7 Steps for Business Preparedness for Hurricane Season
Photos of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane season is once again upon us while the economic impact of Hurricane Katrina is still with us. While we all feel for the homeowners, for their losses, I cannot help but think about the economic devastation which has continued to strain New Orleans, now three years later.
To that end, business and the economy, the following list is presented to help you and your business prepare for hurricane season.
- Protect your team. The only thing we can’t replace is the people. Everything is secondary to personal safety. A lot can be written on this subject, but one word really does it: Leave. Actually two words: Leave early.
- Ensure your ability to communicate. Establish your emergency communication plan now. If you have one in place, review it and update it. Make sure the information is fresh. The plan should explain how every member of the team will communicate – and cover voice and data communications – and it should anticipate that primary communications means will fail – in other words, “call my cell” is not a plan. A proper plan will have complete contact information for all team members including several alternative contact arrangements for each member.
- Protect your systems and data. Assume that your normal premises will be unusable for at least 30 days or one complete business cycle. You must have a) backup and b) a way to utilize your backup in alternative infrastructure. Redundant facilities can be very expensive. Explore hosted failover options.
- Protect your business processes. Determine in advance how you can go on delivering value to your customers during the interruption. In today’s service based economy, many businesses no longer need big machines or large inventories or even specific locations to be able to continue to serve their customers. Planning for and knowing what you can do for customers is unique to each business – but far from impossible if well thought out in advance.
- Don’t expect help. You are on your own…at least in the early stages. And if you have a credible plan covering the points in this article, you’ll be so far ahead of the curve, that when help does arrive, you won’t need what they are offering.
- Conduct a test – at least annually but preferably quarterly. Things change over time. Account for the changes and update your plan after each test.
- Expect the worst. I’m not saying be a pessimist, but heed Murphy. Whatever can go wrong…it will.
If businesses facing the threat of hurricane or other disasters have a good plan, we can save businesses and jobs and preserve the value we have built in our companies, communities, cities and more.