Creating a Flood Emergency Response Plan for Your Business

According to data from FM Global, organizations with a structured flood emergency response plan (FERP) experience 70 percent less damage than unprepared businesses. These establishments can also re-open sooner, with less destruction to contend with following an incident.

Company owners are expected to develop a business continuity plan that factors in flooding and other natural disasters, how these events could affect operations, and what needs to be done to resume business.

A flood emergency response plan requires business owners to anticipate these incidents and create a detailed response. Learn more about building a FERP.

What Is a Flood Emergency Response Plan?

The main focus of a FERP is to reduce flood-related losses for your facility and operations. It’s recommended to review and revise your FERP annually and conduct periodic drills to assess your team’s preparedness.

Floods have the potential to damage equipment, merchandise, your building and other property. To mitigate these risks:

• Cover all the possible ways that flood waters could infiltrate your facility.
• Get your team involved, assigning specific roles to carry out your response.
• Understand the resources needed to properly prepare your team and facility.

Developing a Flood Emergency Response Plan

Your FERP will be unique to your operations, including your business sector, regional flood risks, facility equipment and staff. Beyond an emergency response checklist, your plan should take into account:

• Warning time for floods in your region, how quickly waters could rise, and how long before they recede.
• Your region’s flood warning system and timing for heavy storms, hurricanes and other weather phenomena to cause damage.
• Which aspects of your business could be affected and the degree of damage.
• How you plan to shut down your facility ahead of a potential flood.
• Changes to reduce the effects of a flood on your facility and operations.
• Available resources for conducting your response and potential cleanup.

Having a detailed strategy for each area helps formulate and test your FERP, and train your workforce. Along with the structure you create:

• Designate a leader who determines when to shut down the facility and go through the full FERP.
• Outline internal procedures for shutting down all equipment and redirecting production resources.
• Consider alternative scenarios and other factors that could impede your plan’s full effectiveness, and how your team should respond.
• Understand the conditions under which your FERP is no longer effective and the impact on damage, losses, and delayed operations.
• Make sure your fire protection system will remain active during a flood.
• Avoid storing equipment and resources below grade.

What to Do Before a Flood

To follow your FERP more efficiently during a flood, take the following steps ahead of time:

• Relocate valuable equipment, vehicles, documents and resources to areas less likely to be exposed to flood waters.
• Keep electrical, flammable liquid and gas equipment isolated to minimize fire hazards, and drain and shut down pipes carrying similar substances.
• Install barriers around sprinkler risers, yard valves, hydrants and critical equipment to shield them from floating debris.
• Secure outdoor equipment that is unmovable, and fill both above-ground and buried storage tanks to prevent them from floating.
• Coat your equipment with a water-repelling, anti-rust substance to preserve its integrity if exposed to flood waters.
• Throw plastic covers over your equipment to anticipate condensation.
• Reduce backflow through faucets, floor drains and other plumbing fixtures by keeping manual valves closed.
• Keep all drains clear to make sure flood waters can quickly and efficiently flow out of your facility.
• Fully seal all window openings and install flood doors, outdoor barriers, and flood abatement pumps to fully prevent water from entering your facility.
• Increase security and surveillance for better response time and team coordination.
• Prepare to alert contractors, equipment repair companies, and other supply chain partners to the incident.
• Have sandbags ready to place in front of entry points and near equipment.

Following a Flood

Once flood waters retreat, continue following all FERP protocols. For most businesses, these steps include:

• Starting your salvage processes to dry out equipment and remove moisture from your facility.
• Assessing all potential losses to make cleanup and repairs more efficient and begin operations as soon and safely as possible.
• Cleaning and repairing your most essential pieces first, followed by all other electrical equipment and components.
• Repairing or resetting and testing any fire protection systems to ensure they remain active during your full cleanup.
• Taking care to prevent fires by safely managing combustibles and flammable liquids.
• Removing all flood-damaged debris, and separating wet and dry materials.

Remember to adjust insurance coverage limits in response to changing flood risks. To update your suite of commercial policies, contact HUB International today.