Disasters are Inevitable: Are You and Your Clients Ready?
This article, written by attorneys Thomas Burack and Megan Hilson, was originally published by the New Hampshire Bar News.
Natural disasters of seemingly increasing intensity have been hitting New Hampshire hard over the past 45 years, and attorneys have important roles to play in helping their clients address them. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has cataloged 21 disaster events during that period whose total damages exceeded $1 billion, some of which was experienced in New Hampshire, including 2 floods, 11 winter storms, 1 drought, 4 tropical cyclones, and 3 severe storms. But that’s not all. In recent decades, NH has also experienced tornadoes, flash floods, wildfires, ice storms, earthquakes, oil spills, widespread groundwater contamination due to atmospheric deposition, and even an anthrax outbreak – variously causing financial losses, property damages, illnesses or injuries, and even loss of life.
Disasters – whether natural, technological, or human-caused – can have devastating impacts. And although not all disasters can be prevented, a focus on preparedness offers the best way for communities, families, businesses and organizations of all kinds to be resilient so they can minimize the damage, respond, recover, and bounce back.
Preparedness is all about planning for those hazards that are reasonably foreseeable and taking measures to prevent those hazards from doing damage in the first place. Something as simple as having an evacuation plan for safely leaving a building during a fire or a property during flooding can prevent serious losses. Properties can be protected with flood walls, and electronic data can be protected with remote storage and access control. And, for example, damages can be mitigated or reduced through land use ordinances that limit construction in low-lying, flood prone areas.
The first step in preparedness is conducting a risk assessment to understand the greatest hazards. For example, a homeowner may focus on whether nearby tall trees could fall on their house, a business may be concerned about the loss of electricity, and a school may want to protect against an array of risks, including potential physical threats to its students. Once the key risks or hazards have been identified, the next step is developing a response plan that sets reporting protocols to local emergency responders, identifies key actions necessary to protect human life and property, assigns responsibilities, establishes communication protocols and evacuation and sheltering strategies, and puts in place emergency supplies – bottled water, food, first aid equipment, and other necessities. Once the plan has been developed, drills and practice sessions can help make sure everyone knows how to respond in the event of an actual emergency.
Depending on the context, these plans go by various names, including Emergency Operations Plans, Emergency Action Plans, Business Continuity Plans, or Continuity of Operations Plans. Some types of organizations and businesses – such as schools, hospitals, dams, and many manufacturers and employers — are legally required under federal or state laws to have certain plans.
If there’s advance warning of an impending disaster, such as with a hurricane, the emergency plan can be quickly implemented to move people to emergency shelters and protect property from high winds and heavy rain to help minimize the potential damages. Even if there is no warning, the basic elements of an emergency plan should be capable of providing protections during the first hours or even days of a wide range of incidents.
Once disaster strikes, the immediate response phase begins and typically includes local emergency responders putting out fires and performing rescues, other local, county or state personnel removing hazardous materials or dangerous structures, and the collection and disposal of debris. After the immediate threats of the incident have subsided, community stabilization begins – restoring utilities, clearing roads, and then moving to more sustained operations over the course of a month or so. After this, the recovery phase commences — long-term cleanup, rebuilding, and trying to get life back to normal again.
If the Governor requests and the President issues an emergency or major disaster declaration, various forms of federal assistance may be made available to assist communities with debris removal, emergency protective measures, as well as permanent repairs. If there is overwhelming damage to private residences, individual assistance may also be authorized.
Even in the absence of federal funding, many families, businesses, and organizations look to their insurance coverage to help them bounce back. Securing insurance that adequately addresses the risk to property, equipment and operations is a key element of disaster preparedness. Regular consultation with an insurance professional to discuss assets, operations and risk exposure will go a long way toward avoiding crippling financial loss from a catastrophic event.
While flood insurance is typically only available to homeowners and businesses located in designated flood-prone areas, there are other kinds of insurance that can help rebuild homes and keep store and factory doors open. For example, policies of all kinds may provide business interruption coverage which can compensate a company for lost income due to a disaster. Property, general liability and specialty environmental policies may provide coverage for weather-related damages or cleaning up spills of oil or hazardous materials. Cyber insurance policies can provide critical financial, legal and operational support when digital disaster results in data destruction, theft, hijacking and misuse.
When an insured loss occurs, notifying the insurance carrier of the claim as soon as practicable is not only required under most policies, but may also enable the insured party to maximize the benefits available under the policy. For example, many property policies offer policyholders assistance with finding temporary shelter when displaced due to a catastrophic event. Although an insured party can and should take reasonable steps to minimize harm in the immediate aftermath of a disaster which causes damage to property, allowing the insurance company the opportunity to inspect the damage and otherwise investigate the claim before permanent repairs are undertaken is typically necessary. Documenting the event and the damage sustained through photographs, videos, written records and safekeeping of important physical evidence is recommended to obtain the most compensation available under the policy.
Disasters will happen – it’s only a matter of time. By assessing and understanding the risks, planning for those hazards that are most likely to occur, putting equipment and supplies in place ahead of time, and ensuring appropriate insurance coverage is in place, households, communities, businesses, and organizations of all kinds can make themselves resilient in the face of whatever the disaster may be – natural, technological, or manmade.