Storms, floods and hurricanes are common summer weather events that pose a serious threat to your Elevanta franchise business. Commercial damage alone totals about $9 billion a year. The risks are heightened if your business is in an area prone to severe storms, vulnerable to flash floods or located along the coast.

Weather risks are often hard to predict and may have wide-ranging effects, so it’s important to understand the dangers and properly manage the risks. Here’s what to know.

What to Know: Timing and Threats

Summer weather is often unpredictable. It’s sunny one minute and storming the next. Storm season is long in many parts of the country and businesses face risks from several different kinds of storms.

Summer Thunderstorms

Throughout the spring and summer in some areas of the country, these storms can come on quickly bringing heavy rain, wind, hail, thunder and lightning. Some storms can be severe enough to spawn tornadoes. Major risks include water intrusion from leaks and flooding, wind and hail damage to structures and exposed property, fires from lightning strikes and mild to severe structural damage from the wind, depending on its strength.

Flash Flooding

The greatest risk of flash flooding is from late spring into early summer, and flooding can occur separately from thunderstorms. Even light showers or snowmelt can lead to flooding in some areas. The FEMA flood map portal can help business owners gauge their own business location’s risk to flooding.

Hurricanes

Typically, hurricane season begins in June and goes through November. Tropical storms, tropical depressions and full-fledged hurricanes can do a lot of damage to buildings and property, due to their torrential rains, high winds, storm surge, flooding and tornadoes. Buildings and property are also vulnerable to theft and fire damage. Because hurricanes cause severe damage across a wider area, recovery can stretch to weeks or months, leading to business interruption.

It’s important to remember that all such storms can also occur at any time of the day or night, impacting your business even when you’re typically not open. Be sure to consider these added risks and take steps to protect your buildings and property from such weather.

How to Prepare: Key Tools to Manage the Risks

Taking a holistic, 360-degree approach is one of the best ways to protect your business from summer storm risks, flood risks and hurricane risks. Be sure to use the full range of tools available to you. Here’s where to start:

1. Risk Assessment

Your building and its contents are likely your biggest assets and can also be costly to replace. A risk assessment can help ensure you are better prepared and protected. Start with an evaluation of your particular risks, such as vulnerability to wind damage, inland flooding and storm surge.

The Ready.gov website has helpful tools and resources to assist. The basic process for risk assessment involves the following steps:

• Compile a list of business assets, such as your people, facilities, equipment and so on, that could be impacted by a risk.
• List out the specific hazards, such as storms, floods and hurricanes, that could cause an impact to each of your assets.
• Brainstorm a list of scenarios in which each of the hazards could potentially impact your business and its assets.
• Estimate the probability that your listed scenarios might occur, from low to medium to high probability.
• Rate the impact that each of your listed scenarios would have on your business, from low to medium to high.
• Review the scenarios and note which ones have medium or high impact and brainstorm mitigation steps you could take.
• Start by mitigating the scenarios with the highest probability and work down to the medium and low probability ones.

2. Insurance

Proper insurance coverage can help you protect your business’s building and its contents. Once you understand the particular risks that your location faces, educate yourself on coverage options that make sense for you. Explore options for Property coverage, Business Interruption Insurance and more.

Once you obtain coverage, take time to read the policy documents thoroughly. Make sure to do so before a storm hits. These are the most important items to check:

• Verify that your coverage is up to date.
• Make sure all necessary parties are listed as named insureds.
• Check your limits and deductibles.
• Note your endorsements and exclusions.
• Make sure you understand the process for filing a claim.

Most insurance covers perils such as:

• Fire
• Flood
• Hail
• Earthquake
• Wind

This means you’re protected from most typical losses due to summer storm damage, flash floods and hurricanes.

However, if you do have questions about your policy or coverage, contact your insurer to make sure you’ll be prepared for your own specific summer weather risks. You’ll also want to understand what steps are required to meet your policy obligations.

3. Emergency Planning

Emergency response planning can take a lot of the stress out of dealing with summer storms, floods and hurricanes. A plan gives you time to think clearly, ready your organization and practice what actions you’ll need to take during an emergency. These are the key steps:

Create a Plan

Create an emergency plan, taking into consideration:

• Facility and staff preparation
• Emergency team roles
• Location vulnerabilities
• Storm preparations
• Evacuation of staff and customers
• Accessibility after the storm

Ensure proper documentation, employee training and routine drills.

Protect Important Documents

Have a plan to protect your important documents:

• Keep duplicate records of essential and sensitive physical documents.
• Make sure any digital backups are technically secured and insured with cyber liability insurance.

Plan Action Steps

Be prepared to act when necessary, planning ahead for the steps you’ll take when there is an expected emergency:

• Forward calls to a handy mobile phone
• Move property to a more secure location
• Unplug electronics
• Sandbag around the building
• Board up windows
• Other tasks as you are able

Communicate Effectively

Decide ahead on a communication plan. Be sure to include a plan for:

• Notifying vendors, customers and employees of potential delays.
• Setting a point of contact for emergency communications.

4. Emergency Supplies

Gather the supplies and equipment you will need in a storm now, before you need them. The right gear will not only help you weather the storm but allow you to minimize the damage to your inventory.

Your organization may need these, as well as additional supplies:

• Flashlights
• Batteries
• Water
• Snacks
• Weather radios
• First aid kits
• Fire extinguishers
• Generators
• Fuel
• Sump pumps
• Tarps
• Sandbags
• Plywood panels
• Floodproofing materials

Supplies should be prepared ahead of storm season and regularly inventoried. Some emergency supplies have a short shelf life and may need to be restocked during the summer storm season.

5. Partnerships

The right partnerships can help you better manage storm, flood and hurricane risks for your Elevanta franchise business. Working with experts, such as your insurance representative, can help you plan for what-if scenarios to make sure you have the coverages you need. Strong partnerships with vendors and customers can also help you bounce back faster after something happens.

For more information about preparing for summer storms, floods and hurricanes and protecting your business, contact Lockton Affinity.