With the rise of remote work, prepping your business for a tornado has become more than just securing the physical structure. We’ll share some tips on how to create a continuity plan that will minimize your downtime in the event of a twister.

Tips for physical infrastructure

Tornado-prone areas will often update their building codes to account for different types of damage. They may require certain properties to retrofit roofs, doors and configurations. However, even if you’re not required to do this, consider how the following steps would protect your equipment:

• Battening the roof. This step reinforces the structure by placing horizontal boards above the main materials, which may be slate, tiles or shingles, for example. You can also add fasteners or straps to the roof to keep it in place during high winds.
• Adding a safe room. A safe room can be used to either protect your employees or to store important equipment. Rooms built according to Federal Emergency Management Agency standards provide near-absolute protection.
• Secure doors and windows. Consider installing storm shutters because they’re built to absorb pressure on impact. Time permitting, board up the windows and doors for the best results. Experts recommend that you don’t tape your windows, as this is unlikely to result in any extra protection.
• Inspect the building components. Any damage or wear on the siding, soffit, brickwork or chimneys should be addressed before the tornado. This may help you prevent residual damage, such as flooding.

Tips for protecting your virtual assets

When so much of a business is tied up in its data, disaster recovery and business continuity have become more of a priority, even for smaller businesses. While backing up your work is still important, it’s typically not enough for businesses that can’t afford to be offline. If a tornado strikes, you ideally want to be back up and running within a matter of minutes. To do this, consider duplicating your machines in the cloud as opposed to simply storing everything in a database. Copying over your data not only takes time, depending on how much storage you’re using, but it can also result in lost data during the copying process. This tip can also make it easier for you to test your response times in the event of a natural disaster. The more you can run these simulated scenarios, the easier it should be to access your critical data during a tornado. Finally, a reputable cloud provider will store your data in more than one geographical location. So, if the tornado causes damage to a wide area, you can be sure that your data exists somewhere outside the zone of destruction.

The staff at National General knows just how important your livelihood is. If you're looking for commercial insurance policies that will cover you during a tornado, we encourage you to contact one of our agents today.