At Danburg Properties of Boca Raton, we’re in touch with commercial property tenants who take heed of advice encouraging disaster planning and preparation. A month into the 2013 Atlantic hurricane season and companies still find themselves getting plans in order. In any season, it’s vital to be prepared; a hurricane threat is no time to start preparing.

We’ve been looking at some tools and plans from the past that help minimize the vulnerabilities and maximize how ready a business may be for any storm. Some of the advice and tools include…

Talk to your insurance agent or provider. Making sure coverages are updated and in order is essential to minimizing exposure. From windstorm coverage, property insurance, flood coverage and even business interruption, discuss your levels with your agent.

Create “cheat sheets” of key team members’ and clients’ contact information. Post storm periods are rife with chaos. Simplify (as best you can) the task of tracking down or staying in touch with key contacts by placing all those contacts on one card or sheet, and distributing to employees or executives. Before a storm strikes, reach out to important clients or contacts and tell them your situation. Promise to reach out when the thread has subsided or the business has suitably recovered.

(All paper documents, including financial records, insurance paperwork and the like, should be stored securely in a waterproof safe or scanned and saved in the cloud – see below)

Use VoIP Phones to take talk global. Those companies that use Voice over Internet Protocol phones know that staying connected via phone is as simple as finding an Ethernet or Wifi connection. When storms hit in the early 2000s, many companies grabbed their handsets and relocated to unaffected areas. Business hardly missed a beat.

Tap technology. The cloud is your friend in storm season. Not storm clouds, but the Internet cloud. Backing up data, files, contacts and the like to the cloud protects all your vital information – and makes it accessible from anywhere you can get Internet access with your computer. Whether a laptop, a tablet, a smart phone or a desktop computer in some remote location, business can continue – even if the office is not accessible.

Stay atop the weather news and keep the phone powered. Some businesses and residences have full- or partial-facility generators to ensure power remains on – even if a storm brings down the power company’s service. Another alternative: Hand-held power. Devices like the Eton FRX3 Hand Turbine AM/FM/Weather Alert Radio provides a source for many of the powered services and tools you need – with the crank of your hand. The Eton’s NOAA weather radio provides constant updates and alerts. It has a flashlight for seeing in the dark. A USB plug will connect to a smart phone so the user can turn the hand crank to provide power to the device (whether cell coverage remains available is another issue). An aux input allows MP3 tunes to be played through the unit, too.

Have an idea or tip for hurricane or storm season planning? Let us know and we’ll add it to our list.