How Businesses Are Preparing For A Crisis As Hurricane Ian Heads Toward Florida

Some crises, such as Hurricane Ian which is now heading towards Florida, provide more time for businesses to prepare than others. What companies do before the storm hits the state, and how they do it, could be critical to their survival.

The hurricane “is expected to emerge over the southeastern Gulf of Mexico and continue churning toward Florida, passing west of the Florida Keys late Tuesday, and approaching the west coast of Florida late Wednesday into Thursday,” CNN reported. “It is expected to bring life-threatening storm surge along much of Florida’s west coast by mid-week, as well as hurricane-force winds,” according to the news organization.

Planning Responses To Crisis Scenarios

The actions companies are taking to prepare for the hurricane’s impact depends on the nature of their business, where they are located, and whether they have a crisis management plan in place.

Sean Ferraro owns Madison Avenue Pizza, a 152 seat restaurant in the Tampa Bay area, The eatery, which employs 31 people, is located about 300 feet from the water. “We are in one of the predicted direct hit areas,” Ferraro said via email.

He has taken several steps to brace for the impact of the hurricane on his business.

“For us, it's been mostly planning out the different scenarios that we might face after we return from the mandatory evacuation and planning for each one,” he noted.

‘Our Food Inventory Is A Huge Concern’

“Our management team has been monitoring the weather reports from several different sources and discussing them to adjust [our] plans as needed. We have been coordinating with our food suppliers and staff to come up with plans for each scenario. Our food inventory is a huge concern for us due to the possibility of loss of power, so we have been working to run down our inventory to eliminate possible waste,” Ferraro observed.

Setting Up Lines Of Communication

“We have set up many different lines of communication between our team and our vendors so that we can move quickly to reopen after the storm passes. We also have been working with our neighbor businesses around town to offer support and assistance. Other than that, it's been mostly standard hurricane preparations such as window boarding, removing irreplaceable items, preparing for the storm surge with sandbags, etc.,” he commented.

“After the storm passes on Friday, we will either be able to return to full service, limited service, or no service at all due to combinations of loss of power and damage from the storm,” Ferraro speculated.

‘We Had To Cease Operations’

OnlyOptionsTrades is a financial education company in downtown Tampa with 15 employees and 10 independent contractors who work from home.

“We were told to evacuate by 2 pm on Sept. 26. Our offices are located directly on the Tampa Bay, and Hurricane Ian seems to be on a direct path towards us,” Anthony Degalbo, company founder and CEO, said via email.

“We, unfortunately, had to cease operations inside our office during the hurricane and have allowed employees to work from home, if it’s safe, or take a few days off (if traveling away from the area),” he said.

Although “we will suffer minor revenue losses from ceasing operations in-house, however, the safety of our team of 15 workers is much more important to us than risking our lives working during a storm,” Degalbo observed.

Structural Damage Could Be Widespread

“Since the Tampa Bay area has not been struck by a major hurricane in recent times, the structural integrity of buildings in the region has not been tested against high winds and storm surge. Structural damage and damage to buildings that allow rain and wind to penetrate the interior of buildings could be widespread,” Clifford Oliver, a former assistant administrator of FEMA, said via email.

In his previous roles as an engineer and manager, Oliver managed FEMA’s building science program and led over a dozen field investigations of building performance following hurricanes, floods, and tornadoes.

Preparations Should Focus On Potential Impacts

“Preparations for the hurricane should focus on the specific impacts the storm will provide at that location,” Jonathan Porter, chief meteorologist of AccuWeather’s AccuWeather for Business division.

“Coastal locations may see severe storm surge, damaging winds, flooding rainfall and local infrastructure damage. Inland locations may see structural damage from strong winds, flooding and localized tornadoes,” he observed.

“Hurricanes are not just coastal hazards. The heavy rainfall, flooding, and localized tornado risk will move well inland. Business continuity leaders should be looking at the entire impact of the storm, not just its landfall. Execution of crisis management plans should be looked at multiple times a year,” Porter recommended.

‘There Are Many Resources Available’

“There are many resources available to assist business to prepare for a natural disaster. At FEMA, any multi-state private sector organization may volunteer to take part in the National Business Emergency Operations Center. This includes large businesses, chambers of commerce, trade associations, universities, think tanks and non-profits. [that] can subscribe to the Center. State and local governments, chambers of commerce, and other trade groups offer disaster planning and recovery guidance,” Oliver noted.

Business Continuity

Preparing for an oncoming crisis is one thing. But taking steps to ensure the continuity of a business afterwards is something else.

“The basic steps are to conduct a risk analysis of the major departments of a business, [then] determine [its] vulnerability to risk in each,” Erika Andresen, a business continutiy expert and professor of emergency management at the University of Texas at El Paso, said via email.

Next, determine “whether or not there are controls in place (backup generators would be an example of a control). Then create a plan in conjunction with the crisis management team, so they are responding to the impact [of the crisis] as it happens while you [try] to restore and return to operations.”

Time is critical when preparing for any crisis. For companies who are scrambling to prepare for Hurrican Ian, Andresen advised they should “figure out quickly what the critical functions are and see if you have anything already that will allow you to continue with as little downtime as possible.

“And then hope those things are available to procure right now…Then plan better, in advance, for next time,” she counseled.