Businesses in hurricane-threatened areas should prepare

Jun 13, 2006 12:45 PM

           

With the start of another hurricane season all businesses may want to dust off hurricane preparedness manuals. After all, the consequences of not having a Plan B if a hurricane knocks out the power or destroys a building can financially drown a company.
According to a recent article in the Florida Times-Union, in the first year after Hurricane Andrew, about 50 percent of affected business in Florida went bankrupt. That number rose to about three-quarters in the second and third years after the hurricane struck, says John Phelps, director of risk management at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida.
A major reason: Business went under because they couldn't recover or do so fast enough.
About 68 percent of small businesses in the Jacksonville, Fla., area say they do not have a current and effective recovery plan to deal with disasters like a hurricane, according to a CenterBank survey of about 7,500 area firms.
The Times-Union has compiled the following tips from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Federal Emergency Management Agency and CDW Government Inc. that businesses can follow to help with recovery if disaster strikes:
* Preparedness on the Web: Many helpful Web sites can aid businesses in disaster planning and provide useful information about how to prepare and protect a business. They include the Department of Homeland Security's www.ready.gov site; The Institute for Business and Home Safety's www.ibhs.org site; The Disaster Contractors Network at www.dcnonline.org; and The U.S. Small Business Administration at www.sba.gov/disaster/getready.html.
* Back up sensitive data and store copies of it off-site.
* Have backup generators and alternate power supplies for critical applications. Supermarket chain Publix is investing about $100 million to buy 400 heavy duty generators for stores in hurricane-prone areas to keep food from spoiling during a power outage, spokesman Dwaine Stevens says.
* Identify and appoint a team of first responders to tackle disasters. The team can include workers from human resources, claims processing, security and IT, and they must be available at any time to respond to adverse events like a hurricane. They evaluate the situation and decide what needs to be done to support critical business operations like customer service and payroll processing.
* Reach out to employees after a disaster.
* Reduce the vulnerability of the company's physical buildings by implementing mitigation measures. Invest in metal shutters and other measures to protect facilities from wind and water damage following a hurricane.
* Have mobile and satellite phones in case land-line telephone connections fail.
* Have a plan to maintain operations if the company's location is heavily damaged. This can include mobile workstation units -- essentially trailers equipped with desks and computers -- that employees can use in case their offices are uninhabitable.

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