Severe weather can be devastating for homes, families and businesses, and in the US severe weather events are becoming more commonplace. Thankfully, technology has advanced so much over the past two or three decades or so that a severe weather event can be predicted hours or even days before it hits. Predictions means nothing though if you do not take the necessary steps to prepare for severe weather.
Property damage, long-term power outages and flooding are all factors of severe weather that can severely disrupt your business, and even cause losses that may destroy it. Here are some actions you can take to prevent your business from falling foul of severely inclement weather.
Think About Your Employees
High winds and flooding are both life-threatening aspect of severe weather conditions. If severe weather is forecast, make sure that your employees are informed and that they are told to work from home if at all possible.
If the worst comes to the worst and inclement weather strikes while your employees are at your place of business, then make sure there’s a safe evacuation plan in place. This is essential for large buildings – buildings that could easily be damaged by high winds and buildings where items and pieces of equipment become hazards during severe weather events.
Finally, you need to accept your responsibilities and keep a check on the safety of your employees – each and every one of them.
Minimize Any Potential Damage
You need to have procedures in place to make sure your place of business has the most potential to survive a severe weather event unscathed. The cost of putting such procedures in place is usually much less than what you would have to pay to replace damaged equipment, and to make building repairs. Don’t rely on insurance – such payments can take months or even years to sort out and by the time your payment arrives, your business may already be sunk.
Identify potential weaknesses and take the necessary steps. Install surge protectors to prevent damage to electrical equipment. Install shutters to protect windows. Make sure anything that’s kept external to your building can be quickly brought inside, or tarps can be used as cover.
Backup Your Important Data
You probably have data backup systems in place already, but if you don’t, then why not? If you keep all your important details (client databases, customer databases, accounts, inventories, trading records) on a single computer, then you are asking for trouble. If you do back up, then make sure backups are kept in a separate location.
Subscribe to cloud-based services if you do not already. Such services maintain your data at locations that are likely to be far from your business, and they keep their own backups. One final thing – if your systems are largely still paper-based, then you really ought to be exploring computer-based alternatives.
Protect Against Flooding
Flooding is the number one killer of businesses during severe weather. No matter your industry niche, if your business location floods, then the damage is often irrecoverable. An investment in flooding protection – such as a water-filled inflatable cofferdam – is one of the best investments you can make. Floodwater can damage buildings so badly that there is no alternative but demolition, and this does not even cover the damage to furniture, fixtures and fittings, equipment, machinery and stored items. You need flooding protection that can be deployed quickly, and easily.
Reach Out to Dam-It-Dams For More Information About Preparing for Severe Weather With Inflatable Cofferdams
To learn more about flooding protection and water-filled inflatable cofferdams, come and talk to the experienced experts at Dam-It-Dams. You can speak to us any time by phone at 810-695-1695, or you can contact us online here.