Business/commercial Insurance

Disaster Preparation

Does your business have a disaster plan in place? What would you do if your property was flooded or burned to the ground and you could not operate your business? Do you have another facility to use for a short time until you can get back into business? What if a tornado or fire strikes and wipes out your business? How would you begin to recover?

All of these are question you need to research and develop a plan to get you back in business. Many of you cannot afford to be out of business for the time it would take to rebuild. Another critical issue is that business interruption may not help if your policy doesn’t include coverage for the disaster that caused the loss (like Flood and Earthquake. These are two frequently excluded perils in property policies.).

So, what are your options? Take a look at your worst-case scenario. Where can you relocate? What are the minimum things you need to operate your business and are these items easily obtainable in the event of a disaster? Don’t forget how hard it is to find a dehumidifier, a wet/dry vacuum or a gasoline power generator after severe storms hit the area? Or how long it took to get a roofing company to even get you a quote on repairing your roof after the hailstorm in May of 1996! Having something as simple as a typewriter and access to a mobile phone can be a big help. But what about all the data on your computer? Do you have a backup that is stored off site? Are you storing duplicate records offsite? Do you have paper backups of important client phone numbers? Can you arrange mutual agreements with a competitor to supplement production in the event of a disaster?

I think you get the point. Theses things can happen to any of us! Developing a disaster plan can mean the difference of surviving a disaster. Just talk to the people who had to deal with the results hurricane Andrew or the flooding that hit many areas of the country in the past few years. It just takes time to plan! Can you afford not to?