WEB EXTRA: Don't let your business be blown away this hurricane season

Employees from Horizon Horticultural Group lay trees on their sides to protect them in preparation for an oncoming hurricane.

Between hurricanes Katrina, Wilma and others, last year’s financial loss due to hurricanes was in excess of $100 billion, and this figure does not account for the inconvenience and life changes, which many people are forced to endure as a result of hurricane damage.

Hurricanes also wreak havoc on businesses, often causing financial losses so great that business owners are not able to recover. For instance, if turf areas are flooded and can’t be mowed, your receivables will suffer. It is very likely that the plant material you need to finish and bill a project may not be available and if they are available the costs will rise because of the limited plant supply. These cost increases may be difficult to pass on to a client if you have a contract for a fixed price.

The best solution to reducing the damaging financial results is good preparation.

Before the storm

First order of business is to protect your
buildings and structures as you would your
home. Board up windows, raise office equipment
and computers off the ground to avoid potential
flood damage and once disconnected, seal the
electronic equipment in plastic garbage bags.
Even better would be to remove them to a secure
area, along with any important papers or project
plans after backing up files.

As landscapers, we work outside and liability
for damage due to flying materials and tools
is great. It is imperative that all job sites
you are currently on are tightened up. Collect
and remove all empty plant containers, remove
all empty sod pallets, water and then lay down
all plants and trees that have not been planted,
and remove garbage. If pipe cannot be removed
and stored elsewhere, it should bundled together
with tape, rope or straps into large enough
bundles to prevent it from being tossed around
like pick-up sticks.

Take pictures of completed work in progress and be sure to have a date stamp on the photos. Chances are there will be some loss, and photos could sway a dispute over who is to pay for the repairs in your favor. 

Once your jobs are secure it’s time
to secure your own construction yard. Garbage
should be collected and removed, pipe bundled
and containers collected and secured.

If you have fuel tanks, order a delivery for prior to the hurricane so you have a full tank, and pre-set another order for delivery soon after the hurricane, as fuel will be in short supply.

All plant material should be watered thoroughly
a day or two before the storm. Power failures
cause pumps or other water supplies to be down
for a longer period than plants can go without
water, and rain form the storm may not help
much. Once watered, trees and shrubs should
be laid on their sides and drip irrigation
systems should be disconnected. It is likely
that the plants will be blown down in the storm
so doing it by hand in a gentle manner will
lessen damage.

Your equipment is a potential target for flying
debris and can be severely damaged, but there
are some precautions you can take to lessen
the chance of this happening. Before parking
your truck and equipment, top off the fuel
tanks and fill any fuel cans you have. All
trucks should be parked in a row as close as
possible to each other. Windshields are particularly
vulnerable to flying debris, but one effective
method used to protect them is to stack bags
of mulch across windshields and tie them
securely with straps.

Horizon Landscape & Design employees secure bags of mulch over the company trucks' windshields to protect against flying debris.

After the storm

Once the storm passes, you will want to get
back up and running as soon as possible. So
make plans for a back-up generator. Do this
before the storm hits or you will be searching
for those last few available units along with
thousands of others. Electricians suggest a
minimum sized unit would be 25,000 BTUs for
a 2,000-sq.-ft. office.

Even with back-up power, your phones and Internet may be inoperable. Cell phones will have intermittent signals and may not work for several days or weeks. If you have several locations that need to contact each other, one option would be to pre-arrange with a local ham radio group to relay messages among branches. Most of these guys spring into action during a crisis and are interested in helping.

When workers are finally able to start
back to work you will need to have an action
plan. To begin with, all trees and plants that
were laid down will need to be stood up and
hazardous debris should be collected.

Customers will want your services fast so their projects can get going again, and stores and offices will want to open for clients and customers as soon as possible.

The primary damage that affects us as landscapers is that damage done to trees and shrubs. By working with maintenance clients during budget time, you can be proactive in your damage control by expressing the need to incorporate the cost of tree pruning to reduce the wind load and lessen the sail effect, hopefully preventing the need for both clean-up costs and replacement costs. You can also guide your clients during the design phase to use more wind-tolerant trees. The Florida Agricultural Department has a listing of trees that can handle high winds that should be consulted when designing. 

One trap many landscapers fall into is responding to the requests made by clients to supply labor for clean-up efforts. Keep this work to a minimum and get back to laying pipe and planting shrubs and trees as soon as feasible or raise your cost to a level where overhead is captured. The revenue from this “labor only” work will not replace the money that material markup contributes to overhead and costs which do not go away during a hurricane, such as rent, insurance and expenses for salaried personnel.

Horizon’s emergency plan

At Horizon Landscaping and Design, based in Vero Beach, FL, they have a workable plan. At sunrise of the first day that it is safe to drive the roads, employees are instructed to meet at their operations yard. The Horizon plan has several steps, but in general they are:

1. Inspect your facility for hazards.
2. Pick-up all trees and plants in the nursery and holding areas.
3. Clean-up yard and pile debris.
4. Remove protective materials from trucks and building windows.
5. Send crews to employees’ homes in need of clean-up.
6. Send crews to current job sites.
7. Provide clean-up labor to crucial clients only.
8. Get back to work on contract jobs.

After each storm, Chris Smith, owner of the Horizon Horticultural Group, assembles the company's managers to hold a post hurricane review. “Every time we experience a bad storm, we learn something new,” Smith says. “Our goal, in every aspect of our businesses is to continually improve, and a review of or hurricane plans is part of that overall philosophy.”

With 2006’s Hurricane season predicted
to be strong, you need to be prepared. Be proactive
and develop a plan and relay it to all employees
and clients. Remember to take photos of your
operation and your job sites. Insurance companies
will process your claims faster if you have
documentation of your loss.

Above all remember to be safe. For more information
on hurricanes and preparation, check out the
National Hurricane Center Web site at www.nhc.com.