IBHS: Risk Management in a Disaster-Filled Time
Businesses face a diverse set of risk exposures today, from data breaches to slip and fall lawsuits. Yet sometimes their most serious exposures stem not from people, but Mother Nature. No matter the size or location of a business, the threat of a disaster looms large year-round. Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS) offers several important services that can help you prepare for and mitigate damage caused by these disasters.
OFB-EZ
OFB-EZ (Open for Business-EZ) is a free business continuity planning toolkit offered by IBHS. The program is designed to hasten recovery from a disaster, so that companies do not fall behind on their operations.
Here are some benefits of employing OFB-EZ
- Free service
- Easily navigated layout
- Adaptable to any business type
- Simple steps and explanations
OFB-EZ comes in two main forms. There is a downloadable toolkit guide, which is divided into eight modules. There is also a free mobile app available at the Apple App Store, Chrome Web Store and on Google Play. The app has all the features of the downloadable guide.
Safety Recommendations and Guidelines
IBHS offers guides detailing safety standards for building and maintaining a facility that incorporate tactics to assist in mitigating risk down the road. They outline each disaster type and offer recommendations depending on location. Guides are available for:
- Floods: IBHS provides five simple options designed to minimize flood damages. They recommend sealing all cracks using urethane-based caulk, connecting sump pumps to a generator, installing backflow valves on waste drain pipes, placing water absorbent barriers and shields over doors and windows that are 12 inches above the flood level and making sure that the ground surrounding the building slopes away from it. They also offer building standards that are designed to lessen flood risk.
- Hail Storms: They created maps that show hailstorms over the last 55 years to highlight at risk areas. IBHS also recommends several damage reduction measures, such as hail guards, and has roofing guidelines that will significantly limit hail damage.
- Tornadoes: They conducted an analysis of tornadoes from 1957 to 2006 and created a map based on that information that outlines the most at-risk areas. They recommend starting preparation by assessing tornado likelihood using their map. Then depending on the likelihood, developing a corresponding emergency plan and testing it with employees would be the next step. They also state that removing trees and weakly structured parts of the building that could fall would help prevent unnecessary damages.
- Wildfires: IBHS offers the Best Practices Guide for Wildfire—Commercial Properties, which is designed to reduce risk depending on the threat level of the commercial property. They also provide specific guides, such as a vegetation management plan, designed to minimize the potential spread of a fire.
Roofing
IBHS also has important information regarding roofing. They partnered with the Roofing Industry Committee on Weather Issues (RICOWI) and other roofing associations to create the “best practices” field guide for roofing systems. The guide is intended to assess the condition of a roof and provides actions to take based off that assessment. Successful use of this guide could prevent the need to replace a roof, as only occasional repairs would be necessary.
For more information from IBHS on weather concerns and disaster planning, please visit their handy website at https://disastersafety.org/.