It’s time to get ready for the next disaster
Q: My business escaped damage from Hurricane Harvey, but I might not be so lucky next time. Other than making sure my flood insurance is paid up, what else should I be doing to be prepared for the next disaster? A: Although disasters come in all shapes and sizes, from natural to manmade, here in the Houston area we do seem to be hit regularly with hurricanes that bring floods, so flood insurance is never a bad idea. But there’s a lot more that you should be doing. And with hurricane season starting in just a month and running from June through November, now’s a good time to be doing it.
The American Red Cross, perhaps best known for helping people recover after a disaster, has a program to help you prepare for the next event, whether it’s a hurricane, flood, tornado, heatwave, power outage, fire, loss of a key executive, or anything else that causes physical or economic damage to your business.
The program, Ready Rating, is free to join. It comes with resources, staff support, ongoing training, periodic reviews and more. The program will help you take a look at where you stand right now in terms of preparedness, where you’d like to be. It also provides instructions and tools to get there.
According to Paula Jemison, a regional preparedness manager, up to 40 percent of businesses fail following a natural or manmade disaster, and insurance may not save the day. You need an Emergency Action Plan, and you can build one using the Ready Rating program.
Key action steps start with senior leadership buy-in, followed by appointment of one person as a liaison who will be dedicated to completing an assessment tool to determine your current level of preparedness.
Questions asked on the assessment will be about the vulnerability of your staff and clients, safety of your facility, availability of supplies and equipment such as fire extinguishers, frequency of emergency drills, etc.
Then you’ll need to do some research, such as determining the types of disasters that most often affect your geographical area and your type of business. Your local Emergency Management Agency can provide a Hazard Vulnerability Assessment.
Next, you’ll put together a planning committee to develop your written Emergency Action Plan outlining how your business will prepare for and react during the next disaster and how you’ll recover afterward. This should include plans for communicating with staff, clients and suppliers.
Once the plan is in place, the critical next step will be to make sure each and every employee is familiar with the plan. Then comes training, practice, and regular updating. Developing a plan and then putting it away on a shelf somewhere doesn’t do anyone any good.
Find more details and join the program at readyrating.org.
Jacqueline Taylor is deputy director of the Texas Gulf Coast Small Business Development Center Network, a partnership of the U.S. Small Business Administration and the University of Houston C.T. Bauer College of Business. Information is intended to provide general guidance only. jtaylor@uh.edu