As the National Weather Service is reporting of Hurricane Joaquin intensifying to an extremely dangerous category 4 storm, I wanted to reach out to you to let you know that our team is here and ready to help. Whether you need to understand coverage or need assistance in preparing a contingency plan, the ALS team is here for you.
Here are some useful links to sites that provide some simple tips to help you maintain your safety and minimize the potential for damage to your home and/or business.
I would also like to share a very important lesson I learned from my own experience during Hurricane Sandy, sump pumps run on electricity, so if the power goes out, the pump stops working which can pose a significant problem to those of us with basements prone to flooding. Getting a back-up generator is one way to mitigate that risk.
As both a life-long risk manager and a business owner, I would be remiss if I didn’t bring up the importance of having a comprehensive disaster recovery plan in place as part of your business strategy.
- Make sure your employees know what to do in case you need to close your office due to lack of power, flood or other hurricane related issues
- Confirm your network has backup power or applications are accessible if the building loses power
- If your office is inaccessible, forward office phones to mobile devices
- Ensure email is stored and accessible if the company servers go offline
As we all are I am hopeful that the storm will pass us by, but while being positive and optimistic is good, being proactive and prepared is much more effective.
Stay safe!
