By Darko Jacimovic
When you’re working and doing business in Florida, hurricanes, tropical storms, and difficult weather are part of the package. Storms are inevitable. All you can do is make sure you’re ready when they come!
The hurricane season in Florida runs from around June 1st to November 30th. Every year, take the time to go through these steps and make sure you’re on track to face hurricane season as prepared as possible.
1. Assess your hurricane readiness
Are you prepared for a hurricane? It doesn’t matter if you’re new to Florida or you’re a veteran hurricane survivor. Readiness is for everyone.
- Is your building in good repair? Check the roof, all mounted signs, support columns, and any outdoor equipment.
- Are your employees prepared? Employees need to be safe and accounted for during a storm. If they can work from home instead of coming in when a hurricane is in the forecast, it can be helpful for them to stay out of harm’s way.
- Do you have data backups? Data is one of your greatest assets. Make sure you have cloud backups or other data protection measures in place to restore data if you experience flooding or water damage to your local data storage.
You can’t prevent every problem, but by being prepared ahead of time you’ll minimize the long-term impacts of storm damage and speed up the recovery process. Hopefully, you’ll only have to worry about your own readiness and the local area will already be prepared by local authorities.
2. Make a detailed hurricane plan
It’s important to know what you’re going to do when a hurricane comes. Your hurricane plan should include:
- Emergency shelter plans
- Weather alert channels
- Evacuation routes
- Communication information for employees and families
- List of outdoor items that need to be secured with plans for how they’ll be secured
- Emergency rendezdous points
- Staff roles leading up to a storm
With your evacuation plans, remember to consider how you’ll get home or evacuate if the storm starts to worsen. If you have to drive at any point, make sure you read up on safe practices for driving in a storm beforehand.
Lastly, plan out how you’ll cut off things like gas and water to your business property in the event of a storm. This can help you minimize damage and further risks if your property does get damaged.
3. Prepare protective measures
Beacuse of the frequency of hurricanes in Apopka and the high risk of wind damage, business owners need to have protective measures onsite, ready to protect the property from storm damage.
You’ll want to have these things on hand at your business:
- Plywood or a similar material to secure windows and doors
- Sealed, waterproof storage for imporant documents
- Emergency generator (serviced) and spare fuel
- Sandbags or other materials for diverting floodwater
- Fully stocked first-aid kit
- Portable pump and hose
- Emergency lighting, fully charged with spare batteries
- Mops and squeegees
- Plastic sheeting or tarps
- Shovel, axe, and other tools as necessary
If you don’t have all these things available right away, that’s okay! Get what you can and build up your emergency hurricane supplies year over year. Check everything you have before the first storms roll in to see if everything is still in working order or if anything needs to be replaced.
4. Clean up and repair the area
Before a storm hits, it’s wise to do any obvious repairs, maintenance, and clean up to avoid unnecessary property damage. Repairing door hinges, broken windows, and loose door latches is the simplest way to protect your property from debris damage.
Outdoor space around your business property needs to be cleaned up and free of debris. Any loose debris around the property can be picked up by strong winds, causing damage to either you business or someone else’s.
Take the time to clean up any obvious trash, brush piles, or debris. If you have a lot of clean up work to do or your business routinely generates a lot of waste, consider getting some heavy duty equipment to make the job easier, such as a trash hopper or large lockable metal dumptster. Get something strong that can last for a long time.
5. Plan for recovery
After a hurricane, you need to be prepared to take care of yourself for at least 72 hours without assistance. Emergency services can’t always reach homes and businesses in hurricane-damaged areas until roadways are cleared, risks are assessed, and immediate recovery steps are taken. Plan hurricane recovery steps with that in mind.
How will you clean up your property and get back on your feet on your own? While you can’t create a lot of concrete plans since you don’t know what the damage will be, you can get a general idea of what you’ll do, how you’ll do it, and who’s responsible for what. It’s better to make these determinations before the storm so you don’t have to create a plan on the fly while you’re assessing the damage.
Conclusion
Hurricane preparedness always sounds like a lot of work, but if you don’t already have a plan in place it’s worth it to make one now. Planning should be done at rest, not under stress. Don’t wait until the first storm comes to figure out what you need to do to limit damage and fix up your business afterwards.
