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Creating a Disaster Plan for Your Business | SERVPRO® of Alamo Heights
1/11/2019 (Permalink)
Floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfires and earthquakes can make Mother Nature quite a force to be reckoned with. The best way to cope with these natural disasters is to be prepared for any or all of these worst-case scenarios.
Preparation for those disaster situations must involve creating a natural disaster plan for your business. This blog will be used to suggest considerations that need to be made when designing that plan.
In planning for a natural disaster and creating your disaster plan, you will need to consider many aspects that pertain to your business. Everything from employees to material assets must be taken into consideration.
Some of the things you need to include in your considerations should be:
- Ways to protect your employees
- Ways to secure your assets
- Getting your business back up and running again
Many checklists have been developed by informative sources like the Red Cross, FEMA and Ready.gov that can help you identify areas that need to be included in your natural disaster preparedness plan and also areas where there may be weaknesses in your disaster plan.
If disaster were to strike without warning, that very disaster plan could be the difference between life and death. Hence it is important to have a plan in place that lays out procedures and safety measures for employees and visitors to follow.
Ensure that evacuation routes and exits from your facility are all clearly marked and visible, identify an area that will serve as a shelter, consider the installation of emergency lighting and have designated staff “safety wardens” who are properly trained and will be ready and able to guide and assist with all emergency efforts.
A basement or storm cellar is the ideal location for a shelter space in the event of tornadoes or other high-wind circumstances. However, if there is no basement space available, designate a small interior room on the lowest level of the building, such as a closet or interior hallway, as a shelter space.
Even if your business is located in a brick and mortar location, there will still be choices you need to make about protecting the inside assets. There may be thousands of dollars of equipment and merchandise at risk when a natural disaster strikes.
Having a comprehensive and up-to-date inventory of these items and, if possible, photographs of your assets prior to a disaster is useful if insurance claims have to be made. If your assets are based on a computer server, take the steps, such as cloud storage options, to ensure that the backup system is working correctly and the storage system cannot be damaged.
Speak with a contractor to locate areas that could stand improvement with regard to structural integrity if you own your building. This contractor will be helpful in walking you through possible safety upgrades and give advice on any areas that may not withstand certain weather situation.
If a natural disaster does occur, it is quite possible that your business will have to be closed due to damage until that damage can be remedied. Every day you remain closed is another day of lost profits; therefore, it is wise to have a “disaster” fund set aside to cover additional costs that are not covered by your insurance.
Compile a list of contractors in advance who will be available for rebuilding or repairs and know which cleanup and restoration service will be available to quickly respond to your emergency situation.
With SERVPRO® of Alamo Heights, you can count on us to get to the disaster faster and make it "Like it never even happened." Our training and expertise have prepared us to help with water damage, storm damage, fire damage and mold remediation quickly and effectively.
Knowing what to do when disaster strikes your business is of the utmost importance. When it comes to the cleanup and restoration aspects, depend on SERVPRO® of Alamo Heights to be there for you.