Every business has to prepare for the worst. Those that don’t may never fully recover from a disaster. But not all disasters are created equal. And not all businesses are at risk for every kind of disaster. This reference guide is to help you ensure that your business can keep operating even if it’s struck by a flood.
Floods typically result from excessive upstream precipitation and/or runoff. They can range from flash flood, which typically occur on smaller rivers, to slower rising floods across large low-lying areas.
Potential Impact
Floods can have their greatest catastrophic impact on business facilities located in basements and first floors. Floods can also significantly interrupt business functions through power outages, loss of communications, and road flooding that prevents employees from commuting to and from work.
Businesses should be especially cautious about asking employees, customers, or suppliers to drive when an area is under the threat of a flood since this is a leading cause of personal harm.
Risk Factors
According to the NOAA, damage due to flooding in the U.S. amounts to an average of almost $8 billion annually. Flood risk varies considerably by both probability and likely severity. The FEMA Flood Map Service Center (MSC) is the official public source for flood hazard information produced in support of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP).
Warning Times
The National Weather Service and other agencies typically issue three types of alerts: flood advisory, flood watch, and flood warning. Advisory and watch alerts can give businesses 24 hours or more to prepare for an event.
Technology Continuity
As noted above, businesses with any computer equipment located in basements or ground floors should take special precautions to protect their investments by getting them up and off the floor, if possible. Other appropriate precautions include:
- Increasing the frequency of off-site backups for data, applications, and server images.
- Preparation of an alternative worksite — including any necessary network/Internet connectivity, desktops/laptops, printers, routing of incoming calls, etc.
- Emergency posting for the company website, along with timely updates as the extent and impact of the flood unfold.
People Continuity
Assuming an alert has been issued, businesses should not have employees report to work. Instead, arrangements should be made to have employees work from home, from the home of a friend or relative (if their home is within the projected flood area), or from an alternative facility well beyond the potential reach of flooding. If for some reason employees are on-site when a warning is issued, the facility should be quickly evacuated. Information about suggested evacuation route(s) should be shared with employees. Again, under no conditions should employees be encouraged to commute through a flood-prone area.
Process Continuity
Because floods can have extensive regional impact lasting for several days, businesses may need to make alternative provisions for customers and supply-chain partners:
- For customers within the flood area, businesses should obtain necessary information about their own flood preparations. This may include alternative worksites, key contacts’ mobile phone numbers, etc.
- For customers not within the flood area, businesses should pro-actively communicate about the potential for a disruption and the steps being taken to avoid that disruption. Alternative plans should be made in the event that the business is still interrupted — such as direct servicing of customers by supply-chain partners, where appropriate.
- For supply-chain partners, plans should be made for emergency situations such as power outages and road closures. For example, decisions can be made not to ship goods to the business facility in order to avoid potential damage to inventory.
Insurance Considerations
Flood insurance is a highly specialized category within the broader property and casualty (P&C) market. Business owners should review their policies carefully to make sure they are covered for all potential types of loss at a fair price. In some cases, it may be necessary to obtain a flood policy from a separate underwriter specializing in flood-related business coverages.
Learn more via Datto’s Natural Disaster Survival Guide.
Contact us today to learn how our Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) can help protect your business.
President / Network Architect
Mark Kolean always had a fascination with technology from the time he was 3 and his gift of the Atari 2600 to current. In 1990 at the age of 14 Mark got his first job in customer support for a mail order business supporting Tandy TSR-80 computer software shipped on cassette tape. A few years later Mark was building hundreds of 286, 386, and 486 computers for the new emerging DOS & Windows 3.1 computers that had exploded on the market.
After a college career studying business and technology Mark Started Shoreline Computer Systems in 1999 at the height of the dot.com boom with the looming crisis of the year2k bug just around the corner. In the early 2000’s a lot of work was done with early network systems including Lantastic, Novell, and Windows NT Server. Mark became a community contributor to the Small Business Specialist community that revolved around Small Business Server 2000-2011 which focused on single or dual server environments for businesses up to 50 in size. Networks during this time frame mostly had a break fix relationship in which work was billed only when a problem occurred.
In the 2010’s Microsoft released their first cloud based software called Microsoft BPOS which would in later become known as Microsoft Office 365. This introduced a new model in technology with pay as you go subscription services. Starting in 2013 Mark’s team at Shoreline Computer System rebranded as Shoreline Technology Solutions to focus on the transition to become proactive and less reactive to data backup and security needs. Starting in 2018 all customers are required to have a backup management plan in place as a center point with the full understanding that if STS isn’t watching the customer’s data, then no one is.
Now in Mark’s 22 years of business he is building a company emphasis of how to help customers retire servers and build networks completely in the cloud.
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