Heavy rain can significantly impact businesses, causing logistical issues, business disruptions, and employee safety concerns. It is essential for businesses to prepare for weather-related impacts. Here are some of the problems heavy rainfall can cause, what your business can do to prepare, and how AccuWeather's SkyGuard® Warnings can help you stay ahead of severe weather.
The impacts heavy rain can have on your business
Heavy rain can cause several problems with your business. It can cause project delays, increase costs, and even lead to safety hazards for workers and customers. Here are some of the ways that heavy rain can impact your business:
- Flooding: Heavy rain can cause flooding, damaging buildings, equipment, and inventory. Floodwaters can also disrupt transportation and make it difficult for employees to get to work.
- Power Outages: Heavy rain can cause power outages, which can disrupt business operations and cause data loss.
- Logistical Issues: Heavy rain can cause transportation delays, making receiving shipments or delivering products to customers difficult.
- Employee Safety Concerns: Heavy rain can create hazardous working conditions, such as slippery floors and reduced visibility, leading to accidents and injuries.
>> READ MORE: Don't be caught off guard: Protect your business against flash flooding
Ways heavy rain can impact different industries
Heavy rainfall can significantly impact all industries, including construction, agriculture, and transportation, often leading to delays, increased costs, and potential safety hazards.
In the construction industry, heavy rainfall can cause significant delays in project timelines, damage to materials, and worker safety hazards. Wet conditions can make pouring concrete, laying bricks, and handling other building materials difficult, leading to delays and increased costs. Water can also cause damage to pre-existing structures, leading to costly repairs and setbacks. Heavy rain can also turn the ground on construction sites into mud, posing safety risks for workers and causing problems with excavating for utilities or basements.
In agriculture, heavy rainfall can harm crop health and productivity. Excessive rainfall can wash pollutants, debris, and chemicals from urban and agricultural areas into streams, rivers, and reservoirs, affecting drinking water quality. It can also increase pests and diseases, create a favorable environment for mosquitoes and other insects, and increase mold and other diseases that can damage crops. Heavy rainfall can cause soil erosion and wash away valuable topsoil, harming crop production.
In the transportation industry, heavy rain can decrease average speed by 3 to 16 percent, reduce visibility, increase braking distances, and increase the likelihood of wheel spinning or hydroplaning. Heavy rains also pose the risk of roadways flooding, leading to dangerous driving conditions, detours, and increased travel times. Flooding reduces roadway capacity by limiting or preventing access to submerged lanes, and most weather-related crashes occur on wet pavement and during rainfall.
What can you do to prepare your business for heavy rainfall
To mitigate the impact of heavy rain on businesses, it is important to have a plan in place and to be prepared for severe weather. Here are some actions that businesses can take to prepare for heavy rain:
- Develop a Severe Weather Plan: Businesses should develop a severe weather plan that outlines the steps to be taken in the event of heavy rain or other severe weather events. The plan should include procedures for employee safety, business continuity, and communication. You should also have a trusted weather provider like AccuWeather to raise awareness of upcoming events, keep you up-to-date on forecasts, and even help you develop a severe weather plan with an expert understanding of weather impacts.
- Monitor Weather Conditions: Businesses should monitor weather conditions using AccuWeather's most accurate forecasts. This will make businesses aware of potential weather threats and take appropriate action.
- Protect Property and Equipment: Businesses should take steps to protect their property and equipment from heavy rain and flooding. This may include installing flood barriers, moving equipment to higher ground, or securing loose items that floodwaters could sweep away.
- Ensure Business Continuity: Businesses should have a plan in place to ensure business continuity in the event of heavy rain or other severe weather events. This may include having backup power sources, remote work capabilities, or alternative transportation options.
How AccuWeather For Business can help your business best prepare
Be proactive with AccuWeather's SkyGuard® Warnings, which will deliver site-specific alerts and offer warnings well before severe weather hits, giving you much-needed time to be prepared.
Benefits of SkyGuard® Warnings:
- Proactive, site-specific alerts offer warnings well before severe weather impacts occur
- Live one-on-one or group consultation is provided by our weather experts anytime, day or night
- Alerts delivered in a format that aligns with your organizational emergency management plan
- All-clear notifications are sent when a threat is over, minimizing weather-related downtime
- All alerts are delivered via push notification from the SkyGuard mobile app, available on Android and iOS
Want to learn more about how we can help you? Demo SkyGuard® today and protect your business, employees, and assets.
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