Business planning

Business tornado continuity

A tornado is more likely to permanently close a small business than a fire. FEMA data shows 40% of small businesses hit by disaster never reopen. Here is how to be in the other 60%.

The four categories of preparedness

People

Employee safety, family reunification, roles and responsibilities.

Property

Physical shelter, structural improvements, equipment protection.

Data

Off-site backups, cloud-based systems, paper-record protection.

Continuity

How to keep the business running from anywhere for weeks.

Employee safety plan

Designate a shelter area for each building. Ideally an interior room without windows on the lowest floor.
Post a printable evacuation map at every entrance.
Run drills twice per year, including one unannounced.
Establish a "family notification" protocol — employees can call/text families within the first hour.
Have designated "sheltering leaders" — trained on the plan.
Store first-aid supplies, water, and flashlights in the shelter area.

Data backup — the make-or-break

3-2-1 rule: 3 copies of data, on 2 different media, 1 off-site.
Cloud sync (Dropbox, Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive) as the off-site copy.
For accounting/POS/CRM systems: use cloud-based versions.
For paper records: scan and cloud-back critical documents (contracts, licenses, tax records).
Test recovery quarterly. Backups you have never tested are not backups.

Vendor and customer plan

Have a list of the top 20 vendors and top 50 customers on a phone-accessible spreadsheet.
Draft template messages for each: "We're operational but delayed" / "We're operational, no delays" / "We're temporarily closed but recovering."
Route your website to a static "we're temporarily disrupted" page during recovery.
Set up call forwarding to a mobile number in case the office phone goes down.
Establish payment continuity — how you pay bills without office access.

Insurance strategy

Business owner policy (BOP) with wind/hail explicitly included.
Business interruption coverage is the piece that saves you — pays lost income while rebuilding.
Extra expense coverage — pays for temporary relocation.
Have a photo/video inventory of every piece of equipment, updated annually.
Contact your agent BEFORE tornado season to review coverage limits.
For claims: document everything before touching anything. Photo/video walk-through.

First 72 hours after a hit

Account for every employee. Priority one.
Photo/video every angle of damage before touching anything.
Contact insurance carrier immediately, get a claim number.
Board up broken windows and tarp openings (documented emergency mitigation is reimbursable).
Contact top-5 vendors and top-20 customers with status.
Set up temporary business phone forwarding.
Contact bank about disaster relief loans (SBA offers low-interest disaster loans).
Do not sign contractor contracts under pressure. Get 3 quotes, in writing.

Government resources

SBA disaster loans — sba.gov/disaster
FEMA business recovery — fema.gov/business
State emergency management office
County business recovery coordinator
Local chamber of commerce disaster relief