City of Largo, Florida
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June 22 Story of the Week
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June 22 Story of the Week
Get Your Business Ready for Hurricane Season
Although hurricane season is here once again, it's never too late to start putting together your business' continuity of operations plan in place. A continuity of operations plan (COOP) is a set of a management approved procedures and preparations to take place before, during, and after an incident to ensure that an organization's essential functions are maintained.
It's essential to develop a COOP, as the statistics of failing to prepare for a natural or man made are staggering:
15 - 40 percent of businesses fail following a natural or manmade disaster.
94 percent of small business owners believe a disaster could seriously disrupt their business within the next two years.
51 percent of Americans have experienced at least one emergency situation where they lost utilities for at least three days, had to evacuate and could not return home, could not communicate with family members or had to provide first aid to others.
Only 2 in 10 Americans feel prepared for a catastrophic event.
Close to 60 percent of Americans are wholly unprepared for a disaster of any kind.
The statistics may be scary, but there is good news - there are many resources available to help your business or organization get better prepared for emergencies. The American Read Cross has a free 123-point Assessment tool grounded in scientific research, and best practices consisting of five cornerstone preparedness actions.
Commit to preparedness - This step indicates your commitment to increasing your business' level of emergency preparedness all throughout the year. Your business can start this process by getting senior leadership involved and appointing a staff person to this project.
Conduct a Hazard Vulnerability Assessment - Gather information about possible emergencies that could impact your business and capabilities to respond when faced with a disaster. Know the type of disasters that could affect your region and obtain a Hazard Vulnerability Assessment from your local emergency management agency. Its important to know what your business capacity is for preparing for, responding to and recovering from a disaster. If you provide products or rely on products take time to assess your supplies, equipment and human capital to resist damage during a disaster.
Develop an emergency response plan - Develop steps that your business or organization will take to protect your business and employees before, during and after an emergency. This step involves identifying an emergency planning committee responsible for developing and implementing an emergency response plan, putting the plan in writing and encouraging staff to adopt it.
Implement your emergency response plan - Take this step to continue to work with your committee to education and train employees and by making preparedness a part of the corporate culture. Take time to show employees how to be prepared at work and at home to better equip your business respond to and recover from an emergency. Conduct drills and regular exercises to get your employees accustomed to the plan.
Help your community get prepared - The last step in the process doesn't mean your job preparing is done. Rather it means making an additional commitment to ensure that your overall community is prepared for a disaster. This may mean adopting a local school or school district to support their disaster programs or by contributing supplies or services to emergency response efforts.
To utilize the American Red Cross' free 123-point assessment, visit www.readyrating.org
For other resources, visit www.fldisasterkit.org for a free Business Disaster Survival Guide.
Obtain hurricane preparedness materials at the following links:
For more helpful information, click on the links below:
For past stories of the week, click here.
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