Disasters can happen anywhere, often with little or no warning.
Is your business prepared?
What can you do to protect your business, employees and customers?
Where should you begin?
Why bother?
Disasters don’t happen here.
Even if you think you are not in a disaster-prone area, something like a chemical tanker truck overturning can prevent you and your employees from getting to your facility. Even if a flood doesn’t put your business under water, customers and supplies may not be able to get to you. Power outages, brown-outs or surges can affect your daily business operations. Many disasters, like wind storms, tornadoes and earthquakes, can strike quickly and with little or no warning.
What can I do?
Find out which natural and technological hazards can happen in your area. Get information about how to prepare your employees and clients to respond to possible hazards and provide help. Disaster
safety information and CPR/first aid training are available from your local Red Cross chapter.
Network with others who have or need to develop risk or contingency management plans.
Attend seminars and get information from local risk management associations or chapters.
No business should risk operating without a disaster plan.
While reports vary, as many as 40 percent of small businesses do not reopen after a major disaster like a flood, tornado or earthquake. These shuttered businesses were unprepared for a disaster; they had no plan or backup systems.
When you start to develop your disaster plan, consider three subjects: human resources, physical resources and business continuity. Think about how a disaster could affect your employees, customers and workplace. Think about how you could continue doing business if the area around your facility is closed or streets are impassable. Think about what you would need to serve your customers even if your facility is closed.
