[Business Operations] Prepare for a Disaster NOW

Since natural disasters occur suddenly, advanced preparation is essential. Here are some lessons our company, Bill Clark Pest Control, learned about preparing for a disaster from our experience with Hurricane Rita, which traveled through Beaumont, Texas, in late 2005.

Understand your community’s emergency plans, warning signals, evacuation routes and location of emergency shelters. Whether the threat is a hurricane, tornado, earthquake, flooding or any other disaster, you should be familiar with your community’s plans for each.

Establish a written two-part communication plan for your company. Set up a system for contacting employees and communicating information to them. Also, make a list of employee phone numbers (and keep it current) so you can contact them and don’t have to rely only on memory or speed dial.

In addition, set up a way for employees to contact the company to obtain updated information or to report their situation. A business needs and wants to know if employees are alright or if they have emergency needs. Designate a person whom employees should call to report their location and condition.

Determine what items are essential to evacuate in case something bad happens to your building. You should make a list ahead of time so important items are not forgotten during the rush to leave. For example, you could have multiple computer backups of important business records and send the records with several different key people.

Plan on being gone for at least four or five days after the storm. You probably will not have access to your company immediately after the storm has passed. Many times, cities will remain closed for safety reasons, to take care of those left behind and to restore utilities.

Designate someone to be the first person to check on the building after the disaster to determine what clean-up steps need to be taken. This will help get essential business operations back in order quickly so the company can reopen as soon as possible.

AFTER THE DISASTER. You never can plan for everything, but having a plan will allow you to have a solid idea of what you should do in the midst of the crisis, as well as after it is over.

Bill Clark Pest Control, a Copesan Partner company, was able to reopen about a week after the storm because of the efforts of its employees and a little bit of luck in having electrical power restored early during the recovery. Customers welcomed the company’s quick return because pest management services were badly needed.

The worst initial problem was the huge number of hungry mosquitoes. The mosquitoes pestered residents, as well as those trying to help, such as the people restoring utilities. Another pest problem the area faced was a huge abundance of roaches and flies due to the large amount of spoiling food from restaurants and homes without power.

There were so many pest problems that customers had to be prioritized according to urgency of need. The first order of business was attending to customers who had immediate, critical needs, such as hospitals, health-care facilities and food-services facilities.

We contacted all of our customers, asked how they were doing, what they needed and what we could do to help. We wanted to help people because we all had gone through the same experience. Some of that goodwill in the community has carried over — and that has been a positive outcome of the disaster.

The author is technical and training director, Bill Clark Pest Control, Beaumont, Texas. He can be reached at bfoster@giemedia.com.