The Business of Preparing Your Business for Flooding-SERVPRO of Kingston/New Paltz

10/29/2019 (Permalink)

Having a flood plan in place for your commercial property is valuable no matter what!

For those who own businesses in Highland, Kingston, Saugerties, New Paltz or anywhere in Ulster County, practicing flood preparedness is a wise investment of time. The risk of flooding is underestimated, but 2018, it has been reported that the U.S suffered over $18.8 billion dollars in flood damages JUST from severe thunderstorms. Therefore, even those who do not think they would normally be at risk are wise to prepare.

Safety is the most important part of preparing for a flood, but it can also be helpful for your business continuity, too. By being prepared in a few different ways, you can work toward reopening much more quickly and getting back to business.

How Flood Preparedness Works for Businesses

Making sure your business is prepared might feel like a lot of pressure, which is why we’ve pooled some helpful tips and resources for you to access:

• Locate your business utilizing FEMA’s Flood Map tool, which will show you your average risk and historical flooding information.
• Take note of the list below to determine what documents would be helpful to preserve.
• Communicate the guidelines of your official Emergency Action Plan with employees so they are educated and prepared.
• Schedule emergency evacuation drills regularly and post maps of evacuation routes near exits.
• Discuss your insurance coverage with your agent—many business policies require flood insurance to be an add-on. Be clear of what is and isn’t covered, don’t assume a thing!
• Keep your emergency kit in the office fully stocked and up to date.
• Elevate routers, servers and computers if possible before evacuation. Even a foot or 2 higher can make a big difference.

Preserving Helpful Documents

Keeping the right documents secured in an offsite location will ensure you have all the paperwork you need once the time to reopen comes. Here are some wise ones to copy, take a photo of, back up on a zip drive, etc:

• An outline of every task that must occur for reopening to happen
• Phone numbers of any third parties you should check in with—staff, vendors, etc.
• Your insurance agent’s phone number, the emergency #, a copy of your policy (and flood policy, if you have it)
• The how-to’s of recovering backed-up computer files.
• Information about any outstanding loans, leasing agreements and other bank records
• The contact info for a damage restoration company, SERVPRO will work directly with the insurance company to get remediation going quickly.

SERVPRO of Kingston/New Paltz also offers a FREE all-in-one resource to help organize and easily maintain all the important info for everyone to access at their fingertips. Call us today and ask about our Emergency Response Plan, we'll take care of it for you!

If your business has experienced a flood, we are always here to help. Call us ²⁴⁄₇ to get our team of professionals to your business quickly so you can get back on track.