Businesses need safeguarding plans in case of flooding. Without any plan or preparations for securing your building, your chance of flood damage increases. If you’d protect your home against floods, imagine doing the same for your company. Here are four flood safety tips every business needs.
Prepare Your Building for Flooding
An immediate action to take is to inspect your building. If you aren’t sure how to check your structure, bring in a professional—they can pinpoint places to look for risks while helping find areas currently susceptible to flood damage. Performing a flood inspection prevents any severe damage from occurring, including giving you knowledge of how to prep your structure for heavy rainfall and other impending weather conditions.
Work With Your Team on an Emergency Plan
If your business stays open in inclement weather, ensure your team and customers are ready to vacate if the time comes. Create safety routes to get around areas easily caught in floods, like confined spaces, heavy machinery, and windowless rooms.
During your inspection, mark the hazardous areas on a map to share with your team later to build your emergency plan. Don’t forget to perform other routine tasks, such as backing up paper documents into the cloud and placing water-absorbent bags around highly vulnerable equipment.
Check Your Insurance Policy for Flood Protection
There might still be a chance of flooded spaces in your business. If you have found flood water or water damage of any kind, make sure to contact your insurance company about flood coverage and protection. When you don’t know your policy or don’t have one at all, you’re expected to pay more out of pocket to restore your building. Ensure your policy covers things like backed-up sewers and storm and flood damage.
Inspect the Business for Potential Risks
When flood season comes around, you should perform routine checks for flood risks. A flood risk is an increased chance of water damage from flood waters. Look at the ground floors and check for cracks, holes, and insulation—if there are any issues, you need to fix them, such as improving insulation and filling gaps.
You should always assume the worst will happen during flood season. Following these tips to prevent flood damage in your business can keep you proactively inspecting your building and protecting it as much as possible from inclement weather. Stay aware, create a plan, and keep everything in your business safe.
