With hurricane season on the horizon and spring showers a common occurrence, it’s important to remember that it’s not just your home that needs to be protected—but also your business.
Flooding can be a disaster for any commercial business—from damages to the property and premise to equipment loss; the results from water damage can be detrimental. Even if flooding doesn’t directly affect you, it may pose problems with suppliers or other partners you work with; still causing a significant impact on your day-to-day business operations.
Along with financial losses, a flood or hurricane damage may also expose your business to civil or even criminal liability issues—not to mention that there’s even the chance that employees could be injured, or worse, if severe weather struck suddenly.
Floods are the most common natural disasters, so why increase your chances of suffering from their wrath? Proactively protecting your property and equipment now, can help ease the stress of potentially damaging spring weather—so what can you do?
- Create a map that highlights building evacuation routes and emergency plans, make sure that all of your employees are fully aware of what to do if a severe storm or flood struck during work hours; post flood information and an evacuation map where all employees can access it.
- Reduce potential flood damage; try to prevent water from entering the building by installing permanent or removable barriers to seal doors, windows and other openings. Raise electrical sockets, wiring and ventilation systems as well as flood resistant materials if possible.
- Train employees to deal with flooding; proper training will allow employees to react quickly. Educate them to understand flood warnings and you may want to consider training a few employees to be “flood wardens”, who know how to shut the business down and use any flood protection products.
- Along with an evacuation map, create a business flood plan—this will help identify any essential tasks that may help minimize the damages caused by flooding.
- Insure your business against flooding. Review your current business insurance policy—determine if flood coverage is included; if not work with your agent to secure yourself the necessary coverages. It’s critical that you secure insurance that will safeguard both your business and your assets.
Most importantly keep an open line of communication between you and your employees. Make sure everyone is on the same page and makes safety the number one priority!