Some of us are nervous about spring, knowing that it brings tornados and floods. Some of us are in hurricane areas, where summer and fall are the most dangerous seasons. For some, summer is the troublesome time of year because of its droughts and fires. For others, winter's blizzards and ice storms make it the season to get through. Wherever you live, it's time to start thinking about catastrophe planning.
Here in Florida, predictions of another active hurricane season are making everybody-homeowners and businesses-think about planning for a catastrophe. Although there's a wide range of factors to review in your disaster planning, consider three major areas:
- Employees in the office
- Communications with insurance companies
- Telephones
EMPLOYEES
Review the following areas with your staff:
- List of other areas or offices for staff relocation before a storm to handle claims afterward
- Additional supplies each employee should take to the other locations
- Special instructions for evacuating handicapped and non-English-speaking employees
- Contact list of employees who live in walking distance of the office, so they can evaluate the office after a catastrophe
- List of employees trained in first aid
- Short contact list of employees' out-of-state relatives
- List of emergency services and resources, as well as evacuation routes, coordination, and transportation needs for employees
- Head-count procedure in case the office is evacuated
- List of shelters
- Employee checklists of personal items that should be taken care of at home
Other measures and procedures to consider include:
- Employee home phone-number phone tree
- Communication with employees through a radio station
- Emergency information packages
- Food and beverage supplies in the office
- Child care coordination
- Coverage review workshops and status meetings
- Personnel duties
INSURANCE COMPANIES
Before a disaster, prepare your staff to deal with insurance companies:
- Make sure to contact companies to review and determine how they'll respond to a disaster.
- Discuss ways of keeping lines of communication open.
- Assign one place in which to keep faxes and memos on binding authority.
- Compile a list of companies with phone numbers and contact people.
- Review special catastrophe information: restrictions on binding authority, and confirming procedures such as who's coming, where they'll be working, and so forth.
- When reviewing adjuster information, find out ahead of time if there will be a pool of adjusters, with one for each area, or if claims will be assigned to one adjuster. Determine how soon the adjusters will respond.
- Create procedures for draft authority assignment, status reports on claims handling, and claims tracking.
- Make sure to keep your companies up to date on the backlog and status of your agency.
TELEPHONES
When looking into telephones:
- Record the name and location of your current phone system vendor, with a list of contact numbers. List the inside and outside maintenance vendor phone numbers.
- Assess the phone vendor's ability to perform in an emergency.
- Designate isolated/dedicated lines.
- Consider manual telephones with long extension cords.
- Coordinate the forwarding of lines to other numbers. Remember, if the switching station is out in the area, only an 800 line can be forwarded.
- Receive and review faxes prior to a catastrophe, and discuss and coordinate cellular phone use. Again, remember that some companies will be designated as having priority access in the event of a catastrophe, so check out the priority access program.
Agencies often ignore planning for a catastrophe until it's too late. Employees, insurance companies, and telephones are just three areas to review. There are many other areas to consider when developing procedures. Plan ahead and make sure the agency does not become a statistic!