How to Protect Your Storage Facility Against Storms
Storms are one of the most damaging acts of nature. Alongside floods and earthquakes, they can cause massive damage in a matter of minutes. Some of them even caused deaths, with the deadliest one being the Great Galveston Hurricane in 1900. So, with all this in mind, how could you protect your storage facility against storm.
Take the necessary steps
The following guide will outline an idea of how to protect your storage facility against storms. It’s hard to cover all of the necessary steps in one article. So, if you feel that your storage facility could need some extra protection, go for it.
Dealing with insurance
Ideally, you should sit down with your lawyer and go over various scenarios and how covered you are. You really don't want to go through a massive storm only to find out that you don't have the necessary coverage. There are ways to prepare for storms provided you have enough time and resources.
Also, you want to go over the contracts that you signed with your tenants. A single badly written clause can end up costing you a lot of money. So, try to make your storage facility legally bulletproof before you go about dealing with storms.
Inspecting your facility
After that, you should go about inspecting your facility. If there are any trees or branches nearby that can fall on your facilities, consider getting rid of them. Furthermore, you need to check if there is currently any damage to your facility, especially if you are maintaining it remotely. Keep in mind that small damage in structure can present a weak point causing a chain reaction that will destroy your entire facility. So, you need to ensure that your facilities are in tip-top structural condition before the storm comes.
"Make sure that the roof of your facilities is in good condition, as it usually gets damaged during a storm."
Dealing with utilities
No matter how much you protect storage facilities against storms, the power supply and water will go out. Therefore, if you have any climate-controlled storage units, you might want to find backup power generators. If you already have them in place, make sure that they are working properly.
Documentation backup
You never know how severe or damaging
the next storm will be. Therefore, if you want to protect your business properly, you need to backup your important information on a regular basis. If you have paper documents, make sure that they are stored safely to prevent damage. You should save digital information on a cloud server so even if your computers get destroyed, you will still have your vital info saved. Do what you can to ensure that a really damaging storm will only harm your facilities, and not put you out of business.
"upload your important files to trusted cloud servers every two months"
Dealing with the incoming Storm
The first 4 steps are dealt with months in advance. Now let's say that the news forecast a storm in the upcoming two weeks. If you've done all that we've outlined, you are pretty much good to go. But, there are still a couple of steps that you need to take.
Informing tenants
Notify your tenants about your working hours and advise them on how to protect their most valuable items as best as they can. Help them figure out how to relocate their items from storage units, if need be, with sites like preferred-movers.com. add no follow attribute They should get any valuable items out of the storage unit, and keep them until the storm passes. If they plan on keeping them inside storage units, they should at least wrap them in plastic and make sure that they are off the ground.
"Storing items in plastic bins will make them much safer from water damage."
Preparing for the incoming storm
Go through your facilities one more time and make sure that they are as safe and secure as possible. This includes:
- Cleaning out the gutters and bringing down anything that can easily get blown away. Things like signs, banners, flags, plants, garbage cans, etc.
- Check your drainage system.
- Make sure to check that alarms and fire extinguishers are working properly.
- Cover your electronics and computers with plastic cover to prevent water drops.
- Place a protective cover over glass windows in order to reduce the chance of them breaking.
- Close down your facility and make sure that everything is locked and protected.
- Take photos of your facilities before the storm. They might come in handy when dealing with insurance.
- Make sure to manually lock up your storage facilities. That way, even once the power goes out, your storage units will remain safe.
What to do after a storm
Depending on how damaging the storm was, there might be a plethora of things you will need to deal with. But, if you've taken the necessary steps to protect storage facilities against storms, you should be able to go through an average one without much trouble.
"Don't neglect the safety of your facilities, especially after the storm has blown over."
Once it has passed, you should first take photos of the damage so that you can compare them with those you took before the storm. You should also update your tenants about what they should do and about the damages, or lack thereof, to your facilities.