The greatest mistake businesses make with hurricane preparedness is failing to prepare because they believe their operations won’t be affected. The year 2020 was a unique year because it contained unexpected challenges exacerbated by COVID-19, including the most active Atlantic hurricane season in recorded history. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) predicts another above-average season for 2021, with a likely range of 13 to 20 named storms. That’s why it’s critical for businesses to take a proactive approach in preparing for this season and increasing resilience for the long term.
According to NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information, 2020’s record-breaking Atlantic hurricane season resulted in 30 storms – surpassing 28 storms in 2005. Thirteen were hurricanes, six of which reached wind speeds of more than 111 mph. The destruction amounted to more than $60 billion in damages. Recovery efforts proved to be even slower and more difficult than usual due to widespread flooding, power outages, and damaged infrastructure, in addition to many other pandemic-related obstacles.
While many businesses in certain regions of the nation have traditionally put hurricane preparedness strategies into practice ahead of every season, the unprecedented scenario of a record-setting 2020 storm season during a pandemic significantly increased the risk for business interruption and put a strain on already hampered supply chains. As supply chains have remained stressed during the pandemic, natural disasters can be the tipping point for long-lasting disruption.
For this reason, it’s imperative that businesses incorporate the lessons learned from the previous hurricane season and COVID-19 by revising their disaster preparedness and recovery plans for this year and beyond.
Before disaster strikes your business, consider implementing these best practices:
1. Prepare your business to operate remotely.
With the ongoing focus on crisis response planning because of COVID-19, the increased resources needed for remote work operations, and potential challenges with keeping your workforce safe, disruptions to facilities and communities impacted by a hurricane will likely last longer than usual. Many organizations have not had time to review and refine their plans, which will result in challenges to their responses and recoveries.
While many businesses were able to adopt a fully remote work setting or a hybrid model due to pandemic-related mandates, others depend on brick-and-mortar locations, facilities, and in-person services to generate revenue and continue operations. Regardless of the model used, you can’t continue operations without having a well-documented and trained plan B.
Start by revisiting your plans and considering the following questions:
- Have you addressed the most critical elements of your business, such as personnel? Have you considered where they are located, and for those with a remote work location, have you identified an alternate location?
- Have you included critical functions that are geographically dispersed and identified all machine equipment and technology systems that are location dependent? Determine whether they’re able to be relocated temporarily for the duration of inbound storms.
- Have you reviewed the facts and assumptions your plans were built upon to confirm they are still valid?
- How will you support remote workers and any challenges they may face? If remote workers lose power, water, or Internet, will you provide them with additional equipment such as generators? Will you provide a hardened workspace offsite? If so, plan how to manage occupancy and security (such as providing food and water, whether to allow families, navigating vaccination status, etc.).
- Have you accounted for social distancing guidelines and federal/state mandates if those become necessary? If so, develop and openly communicate contingency plans to ensure staff can operate remotely.
- If your plan relies upon a third-party service provider to clean up and/or restore a damaged facility, will they still be able to perform this duty as rapidly if they have unavailable staff or experience a supply chain disruption? What is your backup plan if they are unavailable?
- Can you shift production or assist vendors with necessary resources?
- Do your critical third parties do the same level of planning for any fourth-party disruption to work being performed for your company?
Exploring these options has become a necessity to ensure business continuity should be considered well in advance of potential disruption.
2. Review your insurance policy.
The insurance market has raised premiums and eliminated unprofitable lines of insurance, creating more uninsured and costly risks for companies. Businesses located in particularly vulnerable regions for hurricanes are also likely to face non-standard prices for insurance. Because of the anticipated activity of this hurricane season, you should be sure to regularly review your insurance policy against your business’ needs during the active months and ensure you have extra capital on hand to cover any unexpected expenses.
Furthermore, the processes for insurance claims have substantially changed since the outbreak of COVID-19. As insurers would traditionally travel in person to the site, they’ve had to adapt to the contactless environment to protect their customers and staff. By mixing technology and digital capabilities, insurers have been able to leverage artificial intelligence, drones, and satellite images to assess property damages.
While this technology can be effective in expediting a settlement payment, some information may be lost that otherwise would have been gathered with an in-person damage assessment. Be sure to document evidence of all damage within your facilities, whether with photos or by scheduling a video call with an adjuster.
3. Invest in your vulnerabilities.
Can you identify the areas of your business which were not adequately prepared for last year’s hurricane season or the concurrent pandemic? For many businesses, communication between staff and stakeholders, effective and flexible management processes, and supply chain stability were significantly impacted. Many businesses were met with unexpected costs and delays in supplies needed to adapt to the disruption. Scarcity of personal protective equipment (PPE), cleaning supplies, and other materials, including ventilated tents and propane, weren’t accounted for in their response strategies. The crisis preparedness plans of years past proved to be insufficient. What may have been effective prior to COVID-19 won’t carry your business through future disruptions.
Conducting an after-action review of previous responses can help identify any outstanding gaps. Next, prioritize corrective actions and seize opportunities to enhance overall organizational resilience. By reviewing your crisis team’s roles and responsibilities, you can better understand how key stakeholders were impacted and where improvements can be developed to mitigate disruptions.
Once plans have been optimized, you should communicate the changes and enhancements to all staff and incorporate these into any future testing, training and exercises as applicable.
4. Perform a mock disaster test.
Take full advantage of the time you have before an impending storm, because any plan is only as effective as its weakest link. When you’ve prepared your operations for potential disruptions to the best of your ability, test your plan. Run through drills and your recovery plans with your team to ensure the strategies are effective. You can also hire a third-party consultant to closely review your plans and advise on any gaps.
Practice these drills with your staff to help ensure your plan is robust while also informing all staff members about the practices your business has in place for a hurricane. This raises the opportunity to gain employee buy-in and facilitate open communication regarding employees’ needs. In turn, your staff will feel more secure about reporting to work during hurricane season, and they’ll be more confident their concerns are addressed.
Ensure you are providing opportunities for your response teams to build close working relationships with each other and feel comfortable collaborating during high stakes and remote scenarios. These teams are influential in determining your success or failure during any crisis, especially hurricane season.
Business continuity plans are also necessary for the recovery process after a storm subsides. Most crisis response and business recovery teams have not managed a response virtually, leading to an acceleration of digitized business continuity and operational plans. Evaluate the plans you have in place for resuming operations, and keep in mind this may need to happen in several phases. For businesses that can operate remotely, the common problems faced by brick-and-mortar businesses will be less of a concern. But for those who need to return to offices or facilities, consider a thorough recovery plan inclusive of relocating displaced assets and personnel to their original location, conducting damage assessments, and tapping available aid from federal emergency relief programs.
5. Act immediately at the first sight of an inbound storm.
It goes without saying that all businesses should be tracking the course of dangerous weather systems this hurricane season. When a storm is bound for your state or region, begin the next steps of your crisis response strategy – in addition to measures that should already be in place. Contact your suppliers, stakeholders, and staff, and inform them of next steps and the pending risks. Be prepared to begin your relocation efforts.
While a hurricane can be detected days before landfall, the precise track is often uncertain. Don’t be caught off guard. From the first sight of an inbound hurricane, take advantage of the time you’ve saved in preparing ahead to implement and assess the effectiveness of your hurricane preparedness strategy.
Be agile enough to respond to the changes and severity of the emergency. The ultimate impact of hurricanes can be unpredictable. Continuously monitor and adjust your plans as needed.
The record-setting 2020 hurricane season was compounded by the impacts of COVID-19, and that serves as a warning for businesses approaching this hurricane season without a robust preparedness strategy. Business continuity and scenario planning take time and resources that won’t be available if you wait. When used effectively, these practices can prepare your organization and make your operations more resilient before, during and after a severe storm.
