5 tips from Tampa insurance institute on how business owners should prepare for a storm
By Margie Manning, Finance Editor
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Sep 6, 2017

Shutting inside doors can go a long way to keep your building safe.

That's according to new research from the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety, a Tampa-based organization that found that closing interior doors can reduce pressure on roofs and help structures stand up to high-wind events.

Small businesses often put off developing a business continuity plan.

IBHS tested a full-scale, 1,400-square-foot single story home in its laboratory and found that wind entering the home through an open or broken window creates strong upward pressure on the roof. Closing interior doors - along with all windows and doors to the outside - gives the roof a better chance to stay intact.

Roof integrity is key in many Florida homes and buildings, especially those built during the 1980s and early 1990s, before Hurricane Andrew hit in 1992, said Julie Rochman, IBHS president and CEO.

While building codes called for straps and clips to hold roofs in place, enforcement was lax before Andrew and a lot of roofs were ripped from their structures, Rochman said.

Building codes and enforcement have since been upgraded, but closing windows to keep roofs in place is especially important for those homes that haven't been upgraded since Andrew.

The same advice is true for commercial buildings: "If you are leaving, close the doors,” Rochman said.

IBHS rushed to get out the results with Hurricane Irma bearing down on the eastern United States and the Caribbean islands, and said it would release more data next month.

Here are four other tips from the organization.

Have a business continuity plan and practice it.

Irma put a rush on the plans for IBHS' storm drill. The organization had scheduled its annual business continuity planning exercise next week, but with Irma bearing down on Florida, the practice was moved up to Tuesday, Rochman said.

Small businesses often put off developing a business continuity plan, or don't think they need one, but that leaves them vulnerable to risks that could disrupt operations or failure, according to IBHS.

The organization offers a business continuity toolkit, called OFB-EZ, available here. Another business continuity planning tool from the U.S. Small Business Administration is here.

Make sure you have copies of critical records.

That includes payroll records and key vendors.

"We made sure to process our payroll early, so if we had to evacuate our employees would get paid,” Rochman said.

Stay in touch with workers and customers.

Set up a phone tree, so you know where employees are and can tell them if the office is open or closed. If a customer is expecting a big delivery, reach out to that customer to let them know what's going on.

Work remotely.

For companies with a secure network and laptops set up to use off-site, let workers take their laptops home so they can do their jobs from there.

Margie Manning is Finance Editor of the Tampa Bay Business Journal.