Severe weather season is upon us, as a recent tornado outbreak in our area reminded us. As our community begins to recover, we want to take this time to say thank you to all of our first responders and community members who are stepping up to help our neighbors in need.

As several businesses were also affected, we thought it would be a good time to remind businesses throughout our area that emergencies can happen at any time. Whether it’s severe weather, a natural disaster, fire, or another unexpected event, businesses can be impacted with little warning. 

BBB has some tips to help you identify potential risks, create an effective response and recovery plan, and prepare in advance to protect employees, customers and company data.

Identify the potential risks

No matter the time of year, business can be disrupted by natural disasters. Understanding the risks can help you prepare. Some of the risks for our area include:

• Lightning can knock out power or damage networks through power surges.
• Severe thunderstorms are characterized by heavy rain, hail, high winds, and even tornadoes, all of which can damage property and disrupt operations.
• Flash flooding can occur quickly during storms, putting equipment, paperwork, and sensitive data at risk.
• Earthquakes can cause severe damage to buildings or infrastructure surrounding your business.

Knowing the risks can help you plan for them and minimize their impact.

Response and recovery

There are two critical components of a disaster plan: response and recovery.

Response plans should cover what you do during the disaster to keep employees and customers as well as business property safe. This part of the plan should consider:

• How will you communicate closures or reduced operations to employees and customers?
• Which systems can stay running, and which need to be shut down immediately?
• What protections do you have to prevent loss or theft of sensitive consumer and financial data?

Cybersecurity should also be considered as cybercriminals may use a disaster as an opportunity. Make sure to keep off-site backups, enable cloud storage, and maintain secure VPN access should remote work be necessary, if your office is inaccessible.

Recovery plans should be focused on restoring your business operations in full as quickly as possible. To do so, you may need to:

• Make temporary repairs to continue partial operations.
• Relocate employees to backup workspaces.
• Ensure off-site or cloud-based backups are restorable.

Recovery plans should be practiced regularly and updated at least once a year to keep is relevant.

Have a contingency plan

Business contingency plans help to prepare your business for long-term disruption should, for example, your office is severely damaged or destroyed. This plan should include:

• Temporary or alternative office space of employees or remote work solutions.
• Contact information for all insurance providers so that any claims may be processed efficiently. This may allow you to rebuild more quickly.
• Plans to maintain continuity of supply chain and vendor relationships.

Prepare in advance

Once you have assessed the risks and created your response, recovery and contingency plans, make sure you follow up with advanced preparations needed to put the plans into action. Examples of these preparations may include:

• Backing up important information like insurance documentation and computer hard drives
• Gather spare equipment and store it off-site (depending on the type of business you have)
• Communicate recovery plans to all employees
• Make arrangements for alternative workspace or backup locations.

This is not a comprehensive list. Your business needs will depend largely on the specific type of work you do, as well as the types of potential disasters that might occur throughout the year, and how much flexibility you have before recovering your entire company.

Rebuilding and moving forward

When recovering and rebuilding, always research before hiring contractors. Use BBB.org for a list of Accredited Businesses, including restoration contractors, tree services, and debris removal.

Also, consider strengthening your cybersecurity plan. Disasters can leave businesses vulnerable to fraud and cyberattacks targeting customer and employee information.

For more information

Stay prepared with BBB's storm resources and tips.

Learn more about winter storm preparedness.

For more information about BBB Accreditation, contact BBB, Evansville and The Tri-State at 812-473-0202.