Library Card Series: Hurricanes

In our weekly Library Card Series we highlight a selection from our resource library to help introduce the content to our industry partners.

For this post of our Library Card Series we will be reviewing another guide prepared by Ready.gov on Hurricane Toolkit for businesses. This resource allows users to take action to protect employees, protect customers, and help ensure business continuity. The guide is broken down into four key areas:

1. Identify Your Risk– Complete the Back-to-Business Self-Assessment to determine the specific areas your organization needs to address to prepare, mitigate risk, and return to operation following a disaster.
2. Develop a Plan– Based on the Self-Assessment, complete the Ready Business Preparedness and Mitigation Project Plan for Staff, Surroundings, Space, Systems, Structure, and Service to identify actions needed to ensure safety and business continuity.
3. Take Action– Verify your plan with your building owner and perform the activities identified in your Project Plan.
4. Be Recognized and Inspire Others– Complete the application at the end of the program to be recognized as a Ready Business.

Hurricanes pose a threat to cannabis businesses across the American Southeast, Gulf Coast, and Mid-Atlantic regions, to both cultivators as well as retail establishments as hurricanes can have negative impacts on crops as well as physical facilities. An article written by MJBizDaily talks on how extreme weather patterns are forcing growers to rethink their strategies for cultivation. The article lists Louisiana as an example, where cultivators are starting to grow on higher ground to avoid their crops being washed away and destroyed by flooding and storms. Hemp Benchmarks outlines some of the impacts of lost crops caused by Hurricane Laura. Below we list a few pre-storm check-list items to help ensure the physical resiliency of your facilities, and the smooth transition to resuming operations after the storm. Finally, all cannabis businesses should consider what are the impacts to their supply chain if their region is cut off for several days or a week at a time after a storm. This article in SourceToday outlines some of the impacts hurricanes can cause on the supply chain. Utilizing these resources and preparing for the worst will only increase the resiliency of any cannabis industry business.

A few tips for hurricane preparedness:

• Review and take recommended actions within the Ready.gov Hurricane Toolkit.
• Download the FEMA app.
• Read the CDC article on Hurricanes.
• Encourage employees to prepare an emergency kit for hurricane protection.
• Review your cannabis property insurance policy, especially the “declarations” page, and check whether your policy pays replacement costs, or actual cash value for a covered loss.
• Inventory your business, not only your merchandise, but computers, electronics, office furniture, display cases, point of sale systems, and all items of value. Take pictures and or video of all of them and keep all in a safe place.
• Protect your property by covering all windows and doors with plywood or shutters if possible.
• Keep all receipts of any repairs after the fact so you can be reimbursed by your insurance company.
• Contact your insurance adjuster for referrals to professional cleaning services, salvage companies, restoration companies, if these additional services are needed.

To find more valuable resources covering a wide variety fo topics, visit the resource section of our website, and check back to our blog every Tuesday for our Library Card Series where we highlight different resources from the library.