Hurricanes can devastate your business. Last year, Hurricane Ian hit the Southwest coast of Florida on September 28 as a Category 4 storm, packing winds of up to 156 mph, heavy rainfall, massive storm surges, and coastal flooding. In the hardest hit areas, nearly 4,000 people were rescued days after the storm, and dozens lost their lives. It's crucial that your business stays informed and AccuWeather's Hurricane Warning Service can get real-time insights to decision-makers when they need it most.
As we head into peak hurricane season, here are a few quick suggestions for thawing out your company’s hurricane playbook:
1. Update leadership and emergency call lists
If the forecast changes dramatically or the storm rapidly intensifies, you will need to be able to reach key stakeholders and act quickly. Updating your call lists and ensuring that all key leaders have offline copies of these lists is a simple step that can dramatically impact your early response activities.
2. Identify major asset, infrastructure, or personnel changes
One of the many keys to effective hurricane business impact analyses is an accurate and comprehensive awareness of where your organization could be vulnerable to storm surge, inland flooding, or strong winds. We highly recommend coordinating with your organization’s facilities and human resources groups so that you know how the storm will impact your facilities and your staff.
3. Communicate your briefing cadence
Hurricane forecasts are updated at specific times when new observations and new weather model runs have had time to be received and evaluated by meteorologists. Take time now to remind leadership and emergency planning groups of the time of day they should expect to receive updates so incident response briefing times can be set alongside expectations for new information.
>> READ MORE: Hurricane Facts vs. Fiction: What You Need to Know
Superior Accuracy™: Better informed, Better protected, Better prepared for hurricane season
If preparing for a hurricane is outside of your organization’s footprint and you have time to go over your hurricane response procedures, AccuWeather For Business recommends performing a tabletop exercise of your current plan, as well as talking with an AccuWeather meteorologist to ensure that you are making the best use of the weather enterprise’s forecast tools.
Take advantage of our hurricane forecasts this season. Request a consultation to learn more about AccuWeather's Hurricane Warning Service.
Join AccuWeather Long Range and Hurricane Meteorologist Alex DaSilva, on Thursday, August 31, 2023, at 11 a.m. ET for our Be Prepared: 2023 Hurricane Season Update. He and our experts will bring you the latest update on this year's hurricane season and provide invaluable insights to help you navigate the potential challenges.
