Preparing today to recover faster tomorrow

By Emma Peterson.

Learn how proactive planning can help contractors protect their people, assets and operations when disaster strikes.

With over a month left of hurricane season and storm systems cropping up left and right in the Pacific, understanding how to prepare for the next storm is still just as important as it was at the start of the season. To learn more about consistently navigating storms, Karen Edwards spoke to Chris Kane, a lawyer at Adams & Reese and the head of their disaster recovery and preparedness team, during an episode of Roofing Road Trips®.

Chris emphasized one thing that he considered the best thing we can do going into each storm season: preparing a solid storm plan. He explained, “Preparedness is key. From an insurance perspective, if you’re going to make a claim, you need to have baseline documentation of the assets you have. For contractors, this is everything from your tools to your materials.” And when you’re assembling that information, make sure it’s backed up outside of the office or home. Chris has seen firsthand how people struggle to piece things together after a storm due to the damage done to their office and storage.

Another preparedness point he made was to have a communication plan that is continuously updated throughout the year. He gave some examples of what should be included in this plan, saying, “The plan should outline who the decision makers are, who’s authorized to make decisions at certain levels and give autonomy to your leaders in your organization.” This is important because, when disaster strikes, you don’t want to be playing telephone trying to figure out who’s in charge of what!

And the last, but certainly not least, a critical necessity Chris brought up was checking your insurance plan. Many people don’t review their insurance plans every year; they just renew for the same amount. And while having any insurance in place is great, this leaves them exposed. Chris explained why, “A lot of times people just go through the renewal process for their insurance and they just do the same thing they did last year. The issue with that is that inflation has impacted everything.” He went on, “Think about replacement of materials alone, not even facility replacement. Costs for materials have gone way up and if you’re doing the same plan from five years ago, that’s not going to cover the modern cost.”

Want more insight into preparing your business for success in a storm season? Listen to the whole episode or Watch the recording!