Disasters happen. What’s your recovery plan?

September is National Preparedness Month for your property or business – a time to think about everything, from what Mother Nature can throw your way to mechanical failures that cause floods or fires. The object of being prepared is to be sure you can recover as quickly as possible with as little damage as possible. So, what does an Emergency Ready Profile look like?

ServPro has produced an Emergency Ready Profile that walks you through the information you should have in order to limit damage and recover from a disaster. They are more than willing to share it with you. For businesses, they’ll even help you complete a survey to gather all your site-specific critical information.

For example, do you know where your water and gas shut-off valves are? Is your data in the cloud or on a vulnerable server? Where’s the master electrical panel and is it clear of anything that could impede accessing it? Are there hazardous materials on premise?

Even more important, do you have a central list of all your vendors (e.g. internet provider, water utility, power utility, preferred contractors,etc.)?

For commercial operations, have you shared your vital information, including a floor plan, with the local fire department? Every minute is precious when shutting down systems that can be damaged or cause damage. For example, emergency responders didn’t know where to valve off a broken sprinkler at a restored mill building in New Hampshire where losses nearly doubled because of the delay.

The fire department also should have after-hours contactinformation on-hand to alert you or your property management company should theneed arise.

Finally, you should document your property in your Emergency Ready Profile – equipment, mechanical systems, hazardous materials, etc.and note their location so responders have a clear understanding of where to go should disaster strike.