If your business is in a hurricane zone, you know you must be prepared at all times. According to FEMA, nearly 40%of small businesses do not reopen after being hit by a natural disaster.
Having a hurricane preparedness plan helps your business take the steps necessary to reduce potential damages to your property, systems and data.
Workplaces are an often overlooked segment of hurricane safety preparedness. As you may know, businesses within 50 miles from shore have a greater risk of business interruption and property damage due to a hurricane than those located further inland.
The idea of prepping for a devastating natural disaster might feel daunting or far-fetched. But when it comes to how to plan for hurricane season, having any plan is better than none at all.
Whether you’re an employer or an employee, taking proactive steps to prepare for hurricanes and other natural disasters helps mitigate devastating losses to your business — and provides reassurance that your business and people are covered.
Here’s our hurricane preparedness plan to help your business survive common disaster scenarios.
Hurricane Preparedness List For Businesses
- Have a business continuity plan
- Implement an emergency communications strategy
- Monitor weather forecasts and act early
- Protect your people
- Protect your data
- Protect your location
- Set up remote operations
1. Have a Business Continuity Plan
Your business should have a business continuity plan no matter where it’s located.
A business continuity plan (also known as a disaster recovery plan) ensures that redundancies are in place to keep data systems operable in an emergency. For example, if your primary internet service fails, having a backup satellite internet service keeps your business up and running.
2. Implement an Emergency Communications Strategy
Maintaining communication channels during an emergency is of the utmost importance. So what happens when phone lines are down during a hurricane? Having access to an emergency satellite network ensures you can communicate and keep critical applications running, giving you an extra layer of safety and peace of mind.
- Off-grid voice communications are functionally independent of the internet and cell service and give your business 24/7 access to critical servers.
- Satellite phones and VSAT technology ensure instant voice communication no matter what the circumstance.
3. Monitor Weather Forecasts and Act Early
Waiting to act in an emergency can have disastrous consequences. Pay attention to weather forecasts when anticipating a hurricane’s landfall — it could mean the difference between life and death.
4. Protect Your People
People are your most valuable asset. Make sure they stay safe by considering the following steps:
- Have a current employee roster and make sure you know who is working and where they are at all times.
- Have a communications system in place that notifies all employees in case of an emergency.
- Maintain emergency supplies for three days. Emergency kits can include drinking water, non-perishable food, first aid kits and sleeping gear like blankets and pillows.
- Create an evacuation plan to help get employees to safety as soon as possible.
5. Protect Your Data
A worthwhile business continuity plan includes having current data backups that can be restored when operations resume. But remember: Not all data is digital.
- Ensure that any critical business documentation stored onsite (like contracts, licenses and tax returns) is kept in waterproof containers.
- Save copies of important documents in an off-site storage location.
6. Protect Your Location
Taking steps to protect your business’s physical location is key to a successful recovery effort.
- Secure all doors and windows to protect against flying materials and debris in high winds.
- Use sandbags to secure any low-lying areas subject to flooding and storm surges.
- Establish shutdown procedures for all facilities.
- Turn off utilities and electricity for any non-essential equipment.
- Make sure furniture, equipment and hanging decor are secured.
7. Set Up Remote Operations
You may be unable to access your business’s physical location once a hurricane approaches.
Setting up remote operations enables you to conduct business at reduced but acceptable levels until full operations are restored. Planning for these scenarios and testing them ahead of time will ensure successful remote operations and business continuity once disaster strikes.
Prepare for Hurricane Season With IP Access International
Mobile satellite internet offers reliable connectivity to disaster-proof your business and keep your critical applications running. Whether you need business continuity or to protect critical infrastructure, IP Access has the solutions you need.
We offer fully integrated solutions for any communication technology requirement that are easy to set up. From mobile satellite internet and off-grid communications to fixed, mobile and flyaway solutions, our technology and service are second to none.