Did you know September is Emergency Preparedness Month? To help you prepare for any situation, we’re spending this month diving into some of the most common emergencies: severe weather, emergency evacuation, emergency lockdown, and fire.

In this first article, we’re focusing our attention on preparing for a severe weather event. Whether your organization is manufacturing in Tornado Alley, distribution on the Eastern Seaboard, or teaching on the edge of a forested area prone to wildfires, here are the things you need to consider while crafting your plan.

How to Prepare for Severe Weather Events

An emergency preparedness plan may be one of those things you’ve had on the to-do list since you opened your doors but just haven’t gotten around to doing, or it might be something you’re consistently updating each and every year. Whether you’re just getting started or looking to round out your existing plan, there are three questions you should ask yourself:

1. What are the risks?

As severe weather events increase, understanding how your business facility and community could be impacted is important. There is an abundance of resources available to businesses of all sizes, including those from federal agencies. 

We highly recommend checking out the Back-to-Business Self-Assessment from FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The self-assessment portion on page 8 will take you through a variety of possible areas of impact and provide resources to help mitigate the risks and minimize damage and injuries. 

A few highlights from the resource follow:

• How would your business be impacted if forced to operate without utilities, such as electricity, water, internet, or phone service?

• If your business income is interrupted, how long could you continue to pay your employees and overhead costs?

• In the event of a disaster, would you still have access to your supply chain?

• If your business was forced to close, how long could your business survive?

2. How can you prepare?

In the face of COVID-19, many businesses were forced to look at their emergency preparedness plan in a new light. While a global pandemic might not be something anyone saw coming, weather events are a bit more familiar. 

The National Weather Service, Baltimore-Washington Forecast Office created A Guide to Developing a Severe Weather Emergency Plan for Schools, but the recommendations can also be adapted to other business organizations as well. In Section 2, “Designing Your Plan,” the guide recommends signing up for weather alerts from NOAA, the National Oceanic, and Atmospheric Administration. 

Once you better understand how to identify when an emergency may arise, the next step is deciding what actions will keep your organization the safest. The National Weather Service recommends creating a comprehensive notification plan, including public address (PA) and indoor/outdoor speakers, as well as two-way radios. In your notification plan, we also recommend including visual alerting alongside audible alerting for those who are deaf or hard of hearing

As your staff is notified of the situation, finding a safe place for your people to go until the weather threat has passed is most important. Tornados, hurricanes, winter storms, and wildfires all have differing needs, so your emergency preparedness plan should consider every plausible situation. 

3. What’s the first action step?

The third step in planning for a severe weather threat is implementing your plan. Purchasing necessary communication devices, basic disaster supplies kits, and employee training should all be on your immediate to-do list, as well as creating a post-emergency recovery plan.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, offers an abundance of resources for preparing for and training your staff to handle a variety of weather threats. In collaboration with NOAA, OSHA has created the Weather-Ready Nation Ambassadors™ initiative, which is a national program designed to create a more weather-ready nation. 

WRN Ambassadors get relevant information for becoming weather-ready, including preparedness toolkits, planning information, and invitations to collaborate with other organizations on emergency planning for severe weather events. 

Start Preparing for Severe Weather Today

No matter what industry your organization is in, preparing for a severe weather event is the best way to mitigate risk, prevent injury and catastrophic damage, and maintain business continuity in the event that Mother Nature decides to show off. Protect your business by taking more proactive preparation steps.

Want to learn more about preparing for severe weather threats? 

Check out Alertus’ webinar: Prepare for Severe Weather Threats with Alertus to learn about preventative maintenance to ensure the safety of your business community and how to leverage your Alertus System during a severe weather event. 

Additional Resources:

https://www.ready.gov

https://www.fema.gov

https://www.weather.gov