Disaster Recovery Journal Spring 2023

n What areas of the building or office to avoid. n Procedures for returning to work and what to do if an employee is not able to report in. n When it is appropriate to contact family members or loved ones. As organizations learn from past flood ing disasters, they should update their weather response plans accordingly to ensure they are optimized for the next time they need to be used. Each weather event inevitably presents a unique challenge or situation that a business hasn’t encoun tered in the past. DEPLOY – Let the flood waters recede and start taking the necessary steps to return to a normal state of operations. Work with insurance adjusters to estimate total loss and determine actions to take to mitigate the damage. At this stage, it is also important to check in with employees to see how they are mentally and deploy the necessary resources and support. Weather events in recent years have underscored the toll they can take on staff, impacting their ability to perform at their best. Final Thoughts As weather patterns we are used to now become unrecognizable, businesses must also change with them, including having continuity plans in place for flooding disasters. A flood can destroy a commu nity, taking years to fully recover. By putting the FLOOD (facilitate, leverage, organize, optimize, and deploy) acronym into practice, businesses can save thousands of dollars while protecting their most precious resources: their people. v

tions. Leveraging these services takes the guesswork out of deciphering a weather forecast and streamlines the process of gathering actionable information, espe cially during a flooding event when cir cumstances can change rapidly. Before flooding impacts a particular community, it is also best practice to lever age other relationships that will prove ben eficial after a storm passes. For example, reaching out to governmental and other state agencies before a flooding event to

during a flood. If team members are tasked with cleaning up after a flooding event, keep in mind they could be exposed to one or more of the following hazards: n Dangerous materials such as asbestos, mold, lead, or chemicals. n Downed power lines and trees. n Confined spaces. n Blood and mosquito-borne diseases. It’s also important to remember banks

Flooding doesn’t just happen in close proximity to a body of water. Flash floods can happen anywhere when an area experiences a large amount of rainfall over a short period of time. “

may be closed, and employees may not be able to use credit cards or withdraw funds due to the Internet being down and loss of power. Weather preparedness plans should include how an enterprise will orga nize its resources and respond to these types of incidents if they occur post-flood. OPTIMIZE –

set up recovery resources so the business can mobi lize them quickly after the storm passes. ORGANIZE – It goes without saying that in any severe weather event, including a destructive flood, protecting employ ees is the top priority. In 2017, Hurricane Harvey dumped an unprecedented 30 inches of rain in the Houston met ropolitan area in just a few days. The storm ravished communities across the entire metro and demon strated why having a well coordinated and organized staffing plan ahead of a disaster is imperative. Businesses should con sider mobilizing essen tial staff and making contingency plans if an employee’s home floods or they cannot get to work due to impassable roads

Regardless of its size – 10 employees or 3,000 – all enterprises should have a documented weather response plan, and all employees should be familiar with it. Those in charge of making deci sions before, during, and after a flooding disaster should understand how to optimize the response plan to ensure response and recovery efforts are performed as efficiently as possible. It should be considered a living, breathing document, reviewed periodi cally throughout the year, and adjusted as circumstances warrant. The weather response plan – at the minimum – should include the following guidelines for employees during flooding events: n When to evacuate or shelter in place. n How and when to obtain information about the emergency. “

before conditions dete riorate. In these cases, consider booking a nearby hotel room for them until the danger passes and have a plan in place to make sure they are fed. Organizing these types of logistical issues before the flood ing occurs will alleviate chaos and main tain business continuity at the height of a flooding emergency. Having a well-coordinated staffing plan after a flooding event is just as crucial as having contingency plans ahead of and

Shannon Copeland is an industry man ager for StormGeo and a graduate of the University of Oklahoma’s School of Meteorology. During her tenure, she supported numerous research initiatives

focused on severe weather, emergency management, and disaster preparedness and recovery, including content review for FEMA’s National Hurricane Program training series. As an industry manager, Copeland sup ports StormGeo’s outreach strategy and aids in iden tifying weather-related risks to businesses and their employees.

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