With this year’s hurricane season poised to be “extremely active,” experts say it pays to be prepared.
On Thursday, Colorado State University researchers released their annual hurricane forecast for 2024, which anticipates a total of 23 storms. Among these, 11 are expected to intensify into hurricanes that could have a significant impact on local business owners.
According to the CSU researchers, there is a “well above-average probability” that these 11 hurricanes will make landfall along the U.S. coastline and in the Caribbean during the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to November 30. Florida, Texas, and Louisiana have the highest probability of being hit by a major hurricane.
Hurricane activity has risen in recent years, but this year’s forecast marks a particularly notable surge and is, as Yale Climate Connections noted, the “most aggressive” forecast ever released by the CSU team.
This heightened forecast — which the CSU team attributed to warming waters in the eastern and central tropical and subtropical Atlantic — should raise concerns for small-business owners. According to FEMA, nearly 40 percent of small businesses affected by natural disasters never reopen, with an additional 29 percent closing within two years of the disaster.
Frank Russo, managing director of a disaster advisory business called Imperium Consulting Group, says the time for companies to act is now.
“It’s more important now than ever, for businesses to really take a look at their exposures [and] conduct risk assessments before hurricane season begins,” Russo says, “including any vulnerabilities to their facilities, their supply chains, their critical operations, and then figure out what the mitigation plans are.”
FEMA offers a toolkit that businesses can use to make plans for keeping staff and property safe, prepare emergency kits, and more. But not everything can be planned in advance. Wendy Schultz, founder of Venice, Florida-based vacation property management company Simple Life Rentals, told Inc. last year that she had to be flexible in the moment with employees who were managing the stress of dealing with Hurricane Idalia. She pointed to financial assistance, time off, and permission to work remotely as valuable resources to employees during a natural disaster.
Russo also recommends businesses take a proactive approach to forming strong relationships with insurance partners and adjusters, so that if damage does occur, a recovery plan is easier to execute.
“Have those conversations with those partners,” Russo says. “They’re dealing with risk and loss every day…so you should reach out and leverage their experience.”
States prone to natural disasters are starting to see the insurance industry limit coverage, however, so businesses in these areas are likely to see higher insurance costs.
Even if you and your business are fortunate enough to avoid any impacts this hurricane season, Russo says, you should focus on staying actively prepared — and should look to other business owners as an example.
“Let’s say other events happened to other businesses — keep an eye on what those realities were, how those businesses responded, and what challenges they faced,” Russo says. “It’s important to continuously learn from these events and embed that learning into the fabric of your business so that your business maintains that resilience to any disaster that may come.”