When Chana Daniel packed up to evacuate from the New Orleans area just before Hurricane Katrina hit last year, she had no idea she would never be able to return to her business. As a hair stylist with her own salon, Daniel’s business was completely wiped out after the hurricane made land. Not only was the salon located in one of the hardest hit areas, Daniel’s customer base was suddenly non-existent.
“My livelihood depended on those clients, and suddenly those clients were gone,” Daniel said. “It’s a scary feeling to not know if you’ll ever get back to where you once were.”
Like most Katrina victims, Daniels was unprepared for the vast devastation that the hurricane caused. Thousands of businesses failed after the disaster simply because they lost contact with employees and customers. Many small companies either don’t have an emergency plan or has one that is outdated.
Daniel was forced to relocate for months while she got her business and personal affairs in order. Thanks to a loan from the Small Business Administration, she was eventually able to return home and open up shop again, but trying to drum up business was still a daunting task given that many of her regular customers were scattered across the country.
“Every time one of my customers comes back to town, it’s a blessing,” Daniel said. “I do have some new clients now also because a lot of the other hairdressers in town aren’t coming back.”
According to the Red Cross, as many as 40% of businesses do not reopen after major natural disasters. No business should operate without a disaster plan.
PLANNING
Your employees are your most valuable asset. Get your employees to think ahead. Create a contact list and keep the information up-to-date and accessible to everyone. Include emergency numbers for local agencies such as the fire and police departments, hospitals and government relief agencies. Offer staff training in CPR and first aid. Make sure key employees have access to cash, generators, batteries, food, water and a fully stocked first aid kit.
Designate a command person in your absence. No one likes to think about their own demise, but if you were seriously hurt, who would run the business? Designate a member of your management team as the point person if you are unable to lead and clearly communicate to other staff members who is in charge in the event of such an emergency.
Revisit your insurance policy. If you don’t have business interruption insurance, consider upgrading your policy to include this type of coverage. Interruption insurance would continue to pay salaries, utilities and possibly rent for a temporary office.
Back up computer files on a regular basis. Anything you cannot easily replace should be backed up. This may include personal projects, financial information, employee files and your e-mail address book. There are many software packages available that are reasonably priced to create a separate copy of all important files.
Protect the office and equipment. If possible, unplug computers and other electronic equipment and store in a high place. Stock up on plywood, tape and other items needed to shield the windows from flying debris. If you and your employees have to evacuate, consider leaving the office lights on to discourage looters. Consider finding emergency office space ahead of time in the event that your office or building is damaged.
Related posts:
- Hurricanes & Intranets
- Get Ready for Florida Hurricane Season
- How One Small Business Trumped Hurricane Katrina With Help from the Local High School
Hurricane Katrina video from Slidell, LA as a 15 foot storm surge battered the area. TornadoVideos.net storm chasers were trapped on a second floor balcony in Slidell before catching a ride on a fishing boat, and hitch-hiking back to Oklahoma City. Check out TornadoVideos.net for more insane tornado and hurricane footage.
Related posts:
- Hurricane Gustav from Houma, Louisiana
- Your Boat and the Hurricane
Most of the people in Houston have their power back. Hard hit areas in the suburbs and surrounding rural areas where many trees and poles are down are next. And then there’s Galveston Island. What can one say about the destuction and catastrophic hit that it and Bolivar Peninsula took. It’s not power that’s missing on the coast but some 400 people who are not accounted for two weeks later.
Gail Ettenger is not one of those 400 missing persons.
Gail Ettenger made her last phone call at 10:10 p.m. She was trapped in her Bolivar Peninsula bungalow with her Great Dane, Reba. A drowning cat cried outside. Her Jeep bobbed in the seawater surging around her home. Ettenger, 58, told her friend she was reading old love letters by flashlight. “I think I really screwed up this time,” she said, according to Monroe Burks, Ettenger’s neighbor who had evacuated to Houston.
That was Friday, Sept 12. On Wednesday — 12 days later — her nearly nude body was found face down by a huge debris pile in a remote mosquito-ridden marsh in Chambers County, about 10 miles inland from where her gray beach house once stood.
The some 400 people that remain missing are mostly from Galveston County, according to an analysis of calls logged to a hot line set up by the nonprofit Laura Recovery Center to assist local authorities. About 60 of the missing lived on the Bolivar Peninsula, stripped bare by the storm surge that felled beach houses like a bomb. More than 200 were listed as missing on Galveston Island itself, according to a city-by-city analysis of the data conducted for the Houston Chronicle by Bob Walcutt, executive director of the recovery center in Friendswood.
Hot line and rescue workers hope that many people, especially on Galveston Island, will be reunited with family and friends as hurricane recovery efforts continue. More than 145 already have been located through blogs, media Web sites, Red Cross shelter lists, endless phone calls, welfare checks and sometimes dramatic rescues led by the Galveston County Sheriff’s Office and other agencies.
Missing power for a few days or wo weeks is nothing compared to having a loved one missing for more than two weeks now. That’s a real SOS!
Related posts:
- Hurricane Ike - Day 5 Aftermath
- Hurricane Ike- Black-n-blue Monday
- Hurricane Ike- One Week Later in Houston
Is it me, or does it look like something fishy is goin on? A tropical depression was about to form in the tropics recently, then all of a sudden it broke up and became disorganized. Do you think the government would secretly test a method of destroying hurricanes? It would be worth it to them, after the damage done by Katrina and all… If someone has a scientific explaination as to why the depression broke up, you’ll have answered my question too.
Related posts:
- What is the furthest north a hurricane has traveled?
- Hurricane Gustav
- Hurricanes: are They Getting Worse?
Hurricane forecast 2008 - Hurricane Preparedness and What We Can Do to Avoid a Disaster Like Hurricane Katrina.
What is in our hurricane forecast for 2008?
The following hurricane preparedness article is very forward thinking and an open mind just may play a critical role in saving us all someday.
Glen B. Stewart has a far reaching yet proven perspective on preparing for deadly hurricanes. This evolutionary approach will rewrite history. In fact his global team will peacefully interact with as many turbulent and destructive forces of nature as possible. From now on.
This is where he needs your help ñ Read on
A typical hurricane is a force of nature equal to the energy of thousands of nuclear explosions. Mankind has finally experienced a breakthrough in peacefully dissipating deadly hurricanes throughout the planet.
For today again the Stewart principle will be a peaceful guardian angel in reducing another hurricane. This remarkable process has saved as many as tens of millions of lives in the past three years alone.
Shockingly enough - Mankind now has the capability to peacefully turn the deadliest category five hurricane into a windy storm. Amen to that!
What can a general public to prepare themselves to fend off a deadly hurricane in 2008?
Remain calm and have total confidence that you now can be part of hurricane reduction meditations. Picture this - using law of attraction principle to attract calming peaceful hurricane dissipation throughout the storm.
Do What?
Hurricanes are massive bundles of spinning turbulent energy. Knowing that our goal is to attract peaceful stillness over the hurricane. Picture your intentions being a serene blanket of peace for example. This type of approach is far more effective when you’re meditating.
A positive focused intention throughout the day will fortify your focused meditations. The best approach is to meditate for 45 minutes or so the positive healing intention directed towards the oncoming hurricane. The management team and so limited though perhaps take a walk to something that clears the mind.
Glen personally contributes at least three or four of these concentrated meditation sessions for each day of a known hurricane crisis. He meditates with healing energy intentions at random times along with his students globally.
This will act as like a healing energy blanket harmonics by overlapping positive intentions globally ñ This is the Stewart principle of synergistic energy healing.
Imagine that you’re sending focused peaceful intentions to the divine. The divine in return magnifies your intentions. These positive energies are part of a life-saving spiritual contribution extending deep from within your soul. Imagine that these positive healing energies are combining globally to manifest a healing difference.
The best way to develop these abilities is to meditate for 20 to 45 minutes daily. A new daily meditations that focus with a single intention that is strictly actionable. This focused healing intention can be applied with a fair amount of training.
Energy healing additionally has been used for healing a person or even positively changing weather patterns. Both the practice in a healer have roots in all ancient cultures have been called many things. Names like shamans, medicine men and seers described these sacred, finally enabled healers.
Fast-forward back to today ñ Energy healing is very much alive in a totally unanticipated yet urgently needed way. Besides the quest to share with the Western world values of holistic health and energy healing. Energy healing is about to receive the award of uncommon valor ñ for saving lives globally with hurricane reduction abilities.
This evolutionary approach will free mankind once and for all from deadly forces of nature. Local national and global disasters such as hurricanes tornadoes tsunamis and violent storms will now be within our grasp. As more One With The Winds students become trained our abilities to protect ourselves at the local level will now enhance the preparation against our toughest challenges.
The hurricane forecast for 2008? The first time in modern history we have control over the deadly Hurricane disasters. For the person is capable of believing in his abilities of connecting to the Spiritual Divine ñ this is precisely what God had in mind…
For those who realize the importance of this information click on the links in my resource box below.
Related posts:
- Hurricanes - How Can Mankind Possibly Avoid A Deadly Hurricane Season In 2008
- Law Of Attraction - Is Hurricane Reduction The Next Utopia For Mankind?
- Hurricanes 2008 - Can Glen B. Stewart Save Mankind Again From Deadly Hurricanes?
Hurricane Bob was the last hurricane to directly strike the New England Coastline in August, 1991. Video from the Weather Channel. Toward the end of the video you can still see the eye off of the New Hampshire coast on its approach to a final landfall in Brunswick, Maine.
Related posts:
- Hurricane Ike - The aftermath - Galveston Island, TX
- The Red Cross and XM Team up for Hurricane Victims
- Hurricane Andrew 1992 Landfall
The Hurricane attempts to chokeslam The Big Show in an European title defense on the September 3, 2001 episode of SmackDown!
No related posts.
One of the most underrated and under appreciated artists out there today. ‘Hurricane Waters’ off his second album, ‘The Clarence Greenwood Recordings’.
No related posts.