When it comes to flood risks, you can never be too prepared

Does it seem like there have been many more floods than there used to be? Viewing it from the standpoint of the last 40 years or so, the answer is a big and worrisome “yes.” From 1980 to 1999, there were approximately 1,389 major floods globally. From 2000 to 2019, there were around 3,254.¹

The rises and falls in year-to-year statistics sometimes cause people to underestimate the frequency of floods, but flooding is also the most common natural disaster in the U.S.² Climate change is definitely impacting flooding, but so too are the management of waterways and infrastructure, and increased urbanization.³

Long-term solutions for our collective increased flood risk are clearly needed, and governments, industry and communities must all play a part in that. As a business owner or manager, though, the most immediate action needed is an Emergency Response Plan (ERP), which takes into account flood mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery efforts.

Once your mitigation strategy is in place, it’s time to address the preparedness phase.

Weather and water-level awareness

Keeping tabs on weather conditions is important for all parts of an ERP, but especially in the preparation phase. Stay informed on expected heavy rainfall and major storms in your area via the National Weather Service as well as state and local authorities. If conditions that could create or exacerbate flood risks are present, the water levels for major bodies of water should also inform actions to take. These actions should include, but are not limited to:

• Ensuring workplace management and emergency response teams receive notifications of weather and water level warnings issued by the National Weather Service and proper authorities.
• Determining conditions (water levels or rain intensities) at which warnings are issued by those relevant authorities and, if possible, the time/distance expected until adverse conditions reach your business sites.
• Setting actions to take for each warning level and documenting and communicating them to any teams responsible for implementing these actions, as well as resources required, for each individual water source.

Protecting your supply chain

Flooding can prevent needed goods and resources from getting in and out of your offices and facilities. To help prevent this from occurring:

• Identify as many alternative, accessible supply routes as possible and ensure all employees, contractors, suppliers and vendors know these routes as needed for their respective roles.
• Have business relationships with alternative suppliers and vendors in case the entities you normally work with are unable to provide their services.
• Identify storage areas within or near your business sites that are best for protecting water-sensitive materials. This might mean simply moving those materials to a higher floor level, but it could also mean procuring water-protective storage units or renting flood-protective storage units from an outside company. Critical paper documents should be stored away from basement and ground floor levels in flood-prone areas.

Keeping the lights (any everything else) on

As in many natural disasters, power outages are common during flooding events. Aside from the many ways a power outage can adversely affect your normal course of business, it can be especially dangerous if the outage impacts dewatering pumps or other equipment used to help control or limit flood damage. Be ready for power outages by:

• Conducting regular testing of:
• Pumps
• Generators or other backup power supplies
• Emergency lighting systems
• Back-flow valves and closures
• Any other essential equipment
• Ensuring adequate fuel is available for emergency equipment. Store fuel safely according to fire safety requirements and ensure it will not be impacted by flood water.

Roofing and structural precautions

We often think of basements and low-level floors of buildings as the trouble spots for flooding, but roof damage can also be a major area of inundation, especially in flooding caused by high-intensity rain, storms and high-wind events. Damaged roofing can result in lost or damaged equipment, supplies and structural harm, predominantly in the upper levels of the building.

Of course, many other areas in buildings have potential flood exposures. Make sure your company has regular inspection and maintenance plans for all building envelope areas, including:

• Roofing systems
• Wall panels
• Drainage systems
• Doors and windows

Have a digital defense

We live in an increasingly digital world, but if the computers, hard drives and server networks that store vital information are damaged in a flood, virtual assets are just as easily lost or damaged as physical ones. Important digital documents and data should be backed up regularly to a data center or storage area located offsite and not at risk from the same flood event.

Have the right tools at hand

Beyond major equipment and components, you want to be sure you are properly stocked to handle repairs and actions needed immediately in both the response and recovery phases of your ERP. Required tools can include but are not limited to:

• Shovels
• Mattocks
• Submersible pumps
• Personal protective equipment (PPE), including masks, gloves, hard hats, etc.
• Blowers and dehumidifiers

All these items should be stored in an easily accessible place.

Be ready for shutdown and tie-down procedures

During the response phase of your flood ERP, you may need to shut down some critical equipment and/or utilities. To ensure those tasked with this can do it safely, you need to have detailed diagrams and plans showing the locations of shut-off valves and levers and proper action levels for different stages of a flooding event. Shutdown diagrams, plans and instructions should be included for, but not necessarily limited to:

• Power sources, including gas and electric
• Water and backflow valves
• Other utilities

The same practice should be used in tying down equipment that can’t be moved during the event. When equipment needs to be tied down, it may need to be done very quickly. Provide detailed instructions and training to help expedite this process without compromising the safety of your people.

Be ready to be on the move

Depending on the type of business you have and where it operates, mobile flood protection systems may be important in helping your company respond to a flooding event. As with shutdown procedures, long before an event is imminent, you want to be sure employees assigned to implement mobile flood equipment know where it is and how to use it properly. Again, detailed diagrams, plans and instructions are key in effective planning.

Be ready to stay in place

The most extreme flooding events may demand evacuation of anyone working in your offices or facilities, but sometimes there is not enough advance warning of a severe weather event (such as flash flooding or a riverbank failure) to allow that. In these emergency situations, you need to ensure anyone forced to remain on work premises during a flood has the following essentials:

• Stocks of fresh water
• Stocks of non-perishable and canned foods
• Communication equipment which, in addition to cellphones and internet capabilities, should include two-way radios and spare batteries in case cellular reception or internet connections are not available

Train, learn ... and train again

You can never be over-prepared for a flood emergency. Conduct regular training sessions for everyone involved in your company’s ERP and — perhaps most importantly — update that training when needed based on recommendations from national and local emergency services and your company’s own learnings from documented past events. If a flood impacts your business, take a hard look at where your company needs to improve and incorporate those points into future training sessions.

Putting it all together

All of the steps above should be included in a formal company-wide plan that includes detailed responsibilities for all relevant members of your workforce, clearly defined tasks and frequency of those tasks, a schedule of inspections and documentation of those inspections when completed.

Find guidance on the other phases in a Flood Emergency Response at Zurich’s Flood Resource Hub.  

The guidance in this article was provided by the Zurich Resilience Solutions Risk Engineering team.

Resources

1. “Human Cost of Disasters: An overview of the last 20 years – 2000-2019.” UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction and the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters. 13 October 2020

2. Ready.gov. “Floods.” 23 September 2021.

3. Denchak, Melissa. “Flooding and Climate Change: Everything You Need to Know.” Natural Resources Defense Council. 10 April 2019.