In This Time of Uncertainty, It's More Important than Ever to Have a Partner You Can Rely on to Guide You Through Developments in a Crisis.

Hurricane Damage Response

Hurricane Laura struck Texas and Louisiana on August 27th, 2020 and caused widespread damage, including extensive flooding, destruction of property, and disruption to vital services like healthcare. In 2005, 97 hospitals were immediately impacted by Hurricane Katrina and similar impacts are expected in the aftermath of Laura. 

In September, Hurricane Sally caused severe storm damage across the Southeast, and hit Alabama, Florida, and Louisiana particularly hard. Sources expect the aftermath of Sally to cost anywhere from $2–$3 billion. 

A Comprehensive Response to the Disaster

With communities and healthcare impacted across three states directly in the path of Laura, it's important to know what options are available if your business is disrupted and how you can respond. 

Stay Up to Date

We regularly update this section with recent articles and insights relevant to disaster response, including coronavirus and disasters like Hurricane Laura.

Check back here for new articles, downloads, and videos curated from central sources of information in the industry. 

Federal Funding Resource Links:

• Paycheck Protection Program
• SBA Disaster Response Loans
• SBA Express Bridge Loans
• IRS Economic Impact Payments

Best Practices for Remote Work During a Disaster

Whether you have a part-time work-from-home policy or not, few of them will have ever worked 100% from home before, and the transition can be jarring. 

Policies and procedures should be implemented as quickly as possible at the management level to keep employees engaged and teams in sync. That means:

1. Overcommunication - Implement tools that facilitate constant communication between everyone, wherever they are working. You won’t realize how much teams rely on a quick jog down the hall for a 10-minute standup until they can’t do it. Encourage an abundance of communication, and provide guidance on which tools should be used for which forms of communication. When everyone is remote, it’s easy for messages to cross paths on different platforms. Determine now if you’ll primarily use email, Slack, Teams, or project management tools to track messages on your current projects. 
2. Facilitate Down Time - Remote work can lead to loneliness in normal circumstances, but it’s worse when your employees quite literally cannot leave the house. Setup channels in your communications tools for fun, non-work related conversations. Kick-off meetings with lighter fare. Loosen up and allow employees to stay engaged with one another now that they can’t directly interact. 
3. Understand Work Styles - Everyone works differently. It’s difficult to see that in the office when everyone is working in the same ecosystem. But online, it will become more apparent as some people grow much quieter on conference calls, others provide scarce details in their emails, and others still go radio silent for hours or days before providing massive updates. Management should take these into account and not try to force everyone into the same structure if it’s not a good fit, while at the same time ensuring ample communication between team members. 
4. Turning Off - Work-life boundaries can be difficult to manage in normal times. Weeks and potentially months stuck at home could obliterate them. While you can’t make your employees turn off the computer, encourage healthy habits and downtime where appropriate.