Hurricane Preparedness Week (April 30-May 6, 2023) is whipping our way. What could be a better time to review how well your extreme weather protocols stack up against recent trends in the threat landscape?
Historically, the average hurricane season produces 14 named storms with seven hurricanes and three major hurricanes, according to NOAA. Is your organization ready for storm surge, flooding and gale-force winds? Now’s the time to prepare so your people and operations will remain safe in the coming months.
Rising Risks and Emerging Issues
As a risk management professional, keeping up with weather predictions is second nature. While you’re always testing the wind, from June to November it may feel as if you’re constantly going against it. Major decisions are affected by which way El Niño and La Niña blow and how much water they bring.
This is a theme for organizations in every industry during hurricane season and beyond. In fact, almost every CEO recently surveyed said they had to deal with at least one physical crisis in the last three years, according to the 2023 OnSolve Global Risk Impact Report.* None of the CEOs surveyed believe their organization will avoid a physical threat in 2023, so it’s not surprising that more CEOs (38 percent) are making preparation for physical threats a top priority – even more than those prioritizing economic inflation (30 percent). And extreme weather clearly poses an increasing risk, rising by 72 percent globally and by 42 percent within the U.S. from 2021 to 2022.
So how does this bear on your organization’s operations?
For businesses, a crisis is not a matter of if, but when. Organizations need the right technology so they can access fast, accurate information and respond and adapt quickly and effectively. Are you asking the right questions?
Risk Is on the Rise: Your 2023 Readiness Checklist
Growing Costs and Spiraling Implications
As you’re following the weather, it’s also practical to follow the money. Examining where the dollars have blown (and how many) can demonstrate the overall impact of severe weather. Notably, last year in the U.S. there were 18 weather-related disasters with losses exceeding $1 billion, and the damage from weather and climate disasters rose nearly 10 percent, from $155.3 billion in 2021 to $169.8 billion in 2022.
A significant portion of this cost is due to the dynamic risk of severe weather. Dynamic risk results in damages that are different from what was expected. It’s unpredictable in when, how and where it strikes, as well as the degree of impact.
For example, during Hurricane Ida, one global hotel chain braced for operational impact and physical damage in the New Orleans metro area. However, when major flooding hit their operations in New York, they were completely unprepared.
A volatile path isn’t the only component of dynamic risk. Particularly for hurricanes, there’s more than the threat of direct damage caused by wind and flooding. When operations are delayed or halted by a storm, business continuity is often interrupted. This can quickly spiral into a range of cascading problems, each resulting in interrelated costs. Long-term repercussions can include everything from supply chain delays to customer dissatisfaction and reduced profits.
So how can organizations prepare more proactively?
Better Technology and Improved Outcomes
Undoubtedly, a hurricane will test your strategy for critical event management. In our fast-paced and digitally connected world, one thing is clear: No plan is complete without the right technology to support it.
To be effective during crisis, the solution has to deliver relevant and accurate information in real time, via an intuitive interface. When every minute counts, you need:
- Risk Intelligence: To make more informed decisions based on accurate and actionable intelligence.
- Critical Communications: To keep everyone informed and connected with on-demand alerting.
- Incident Management: To optimize crisis response with convenient and sophisticated automation and task orchestration.
When these capabilities come together, organizations have a reliable way to detect critical events and deliver timely warnings to protect staff and other stakeholders. You’re better positioned to shift operations and reroute distribution channels. You can prepare for potential maintenance and media relations. This approach saves lives while minimizing costs in dollars, time and effort.
If you’re not ready, a hurricane can quickly set your operations adrift. The Hurricane Preparedness Kit from OnSolve will help your organization hold its ground.
*2023 OnSolve Global Risk Impact Report physical threat data spans 50 risk categories across 159 countries where OnSolve customers operate.
