When viewed from above, an off-shore hurricane is a beautiful sight with its swirling white clouds dancing around a black, empty eye. When a hurricane hits the land, however, it causes terrible destruction, flattening cities and taking lives.

As hurricane Matthew approaches the Florida coast, residents and businesses alike need to be prepared for the worst. You won?t be able to stop the hurricane, but you can take preventative action to limit the amount of damage your business and your people suffer.

Protect Your Property

• Install shutters or plywood to protect doors and windows from heavy flooding and airborne debris.
• Have the roof inspected to make sure it can withstand high winds. Some roofing materials are more storm-resistant and durable than others. If you need to update your roof, don?t hesitate to have a new one installed.
• Have branches and trees close to your building removed, particularly those that may fall and damage your property.
• Place sandbags in areas that are susceptible to flooding, like the basement.
• Remove or brace large furniture like filing cabinets and bookcases.
• Secure utilities like gas tanks and water heaters. If possible, raise them higher up to avoid water damage.
• Remove or secure electronics with straps.
• Shut off all utilities.

Protect Your Documents

• Back up insurance documents, tax returns, and legal contracts.
• Place important paperwork in waterproof containers.
• Move copies of important paperwork to an off-site location.

Protect Your People

• Update employee directory and contact information.
• Install incident communications software or an emergency notification system.
• Instruct all employees on how to use mass notification systems.
• Send out a test mass text message alert to make sure the system works.

If you?re not taking full advantage of the technology available to you, like mass text message alerts and other emergency alert systems, you may be putting yourself, your business, and your employees in danger. In the midst of a violent storm, you will need clear methods of communication so that you can coordinate response and recovery as well as alert colleagues, customers, partners, and families of what?s going on during each critical moment.
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