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Tropical Storm Michael Upgraded to Hurricane, Approaches Florida

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The National Hurricane Center classified Tropical Storm Michael as a category 3 hurricane Monday morning as it passed through Cuba and approached Florida.

Over the weekend, Florida Gov. Rick Scott declared a state of emergency for several counties from the Gulf Coast to Navarre on the Panhandle to the Suwanee River. Gov. Scott also directed the state’s National Guard to activate 500 guardsmen to assist with planning and prepare for response in impacted areas as the state monitors the storm.

Michael is currently located in the Yucatan Channel about 600 miles south of Apalachicola, Florida with maximum sustained winds of 75 mph. The storm is moving to the north at 7 mph and is expected to continue strengthening as it accelerates northward across the Gulf of Mexico. It is expected to make landfall as a Category 3, with maximum sustained winds of 120 mph, in the Florida Panhandle or Big Bend on Oct 10.
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Storm surges are expected as well, with eight to 12 feet possible. Homeowners and business owners who might be in its path are encouraged to visit floridadisaster.org and FloridaDisaster.biz and register to receive updates as the storm progresses.

Hurricane Irma hit Florida in August 2017, and that category 5 storm caused an estimated $64.76 billion, causing 134 fatalities and affecting several crops and agricultural producers. With Florida still recovering from the damage wrought by Irma, Hurricane Michael may provide major challenges for businesses caught in its path.

Business Continuity Plans
In January, Risk Management Monitor reported that 62% of large U.S. companies with operations in Florida, Texas or Puerto Rico said they were not fully prepared for major storms and hurricanes in 2017.

“These candid admissions drive home a fundamental truth about catastrophe,” Louis Gritzo, vice president and manager of research at FM Global said in a statement in conjunction with the company’s findings. “People routinely fail to understand or acknowledge the magnitude of risk until they’ve experienced a fateful event.”

FEMA’s business disaster continuity plans can be found here, and a Hurricane Ready Business Toolkit can be found here. According to FEMA and the Department of Labor, 40% of small businesses will not reopen immediately after a hurricane hits, 25% more will close about one year later, and 75% of business without a continuity plan will fail within three years. In the aftermath of Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria in 2017, Risk Management Monitor provided critical tips for small businesses preparing for the next natural disaster.

The first step for any small business is to prepare internally. Here are three best practices that small-business owners can adapt to prepare for a future hurricane or any other natural disaster.

  1. Establish a recovery plan: Often, disaster recovery plans fall to the bottom of small-business owners’ to-do lists, especially if their business is located in an area that doesn’t typically experience high-risk weather. However, no business is immune from a harmful storm’s impact. Disaster preparedness starts with a formal plan that’s comprehensive and allows the company to quickly restore its normal operations following an emergency.
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  2. Discuss your plan with all employees: It is crucial for your entire staff to be on the same page when it comes to what your disaster plan involves in order for it to be effective. So once small-business owners have a plan in place, they need to ensure that their employees know what’s included and what their responsibilities are should a natural disaster strike.
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    Owners can share this information by emailing a copy to all employees and discussing the plan in detail at the next all-hands meeting.

  3. Back up your business’s data: Small-business owners should ensure their data is backed up both virtually and physically in a secure location. Doing so can prevent a natural disaster from turning into an even worse data loss debacle.

The last October landfalling hurricane in the Florida Panhandle was Hurricane Opal in 1995. Throughout the storm’s path from Central America into the Ohio Valley, 63 people died in storm-related events. Losses attributed to Opal exceeded $4.7 billion, much of which took place in the United States.

Hurricane Florence Losses Estimated at $2.5 Billion

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Now a tropical depression, Florence hovered primarily over North and South Carolina over the weekend, dumping record-breaking rainfall in those states and killing at least 17 people. Remnants of the system are heading north, bringing rain through Tuesday.

The storm made landfall near Wrightsville Beach, N.C. on Sept. 14, causing more than one million power failures and at least 16 deaths over the weekend, according to the New York Times. Tropical Depression Florence slowly flooded cities, endangering communities from the coastline to the mountains, and requiring more than 1,000 rescues.

Karen Clark & Company (KCC) estimates that insured losses from Hurricane Florence will be $2.5 billion, which includes the privately insured wind, storm surge, and inland flooding damage to residential, commercial, and industrial properties and automobiles, but does not include National Flood Insurance Program losses.

KCC reports:

On Sept. 14, Florence made landfall in North Carolina with maximum sustained wind speeds around 90 mph. As the storm slowly passed southwest over South Carolina on Sept. 15, the hurricane weakened to a tropical storm and made a wide turn to the north. By Sept. 16, Florence had become a tropical depression in northeastern South Carolina.

Peak surge from Hurricane Florence reached 10 feet in New Bern, North Carolina, and other areas of the state including Beaufort and Wilmington had significant storm surge impacts. Locations at the heads of shallow bays, where the water is more easily pushed ashore by a hurricane’s high wind speeds, experienced the most coastal inundation.

Although this storm is winding down, there may be more to come. “We’re now in the peak of hurricane season, and the season still has a long way to go,” Dr. Gerry Bell, lead seasonal hurricane forecaster for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration told the Times. He added, “There will be more storms—that’s a definite. Where exactly they track, and when or if they’ll make landfall—that’s what’s not predictable this far in advance.”

Florence Highlights
▪Made landfall near Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina, with Category 1 wind speeds

▪Reached peak intensity of 140 mph on Sept. 10, but weakened before impacting the U.S. coast and spared the Carolinas from major hurricane impacts

▪Expected intensification to a Category 5 hurricane did not occur

▪Slow forward speed decreased to 6 mph prior to landfall and reached as low as 2 mph once inland

▪Brought heavy precipitation in excess of 30 inches to parts of North Carolina

▪Peak storm surge reached 10 feet in New Bern, North Carolina

RIMS Legislative Summit Focuses on NFIP Renewal

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WASHINGTON, D.C.—The menacing presence of Hurricane Florence turned the focus at the RIMS Legislative Summit to the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), an ever-important issue for business owners across the country.

The NFIP has been extended several times since September 2017 and the next deadline to reauthorize the program is Nov. 30. The summit’s timing was especially relevant as Hurricane Florence approached the Eastern Seaboard just 300 miles south of the summit, expected to make landfall on Friday.

An Industry Perspective of Federal Legislative Issues
Moderated by Whitney Craig, RIMS director of government relations, a panel discussion, “NFIP & Beyond” featured insight from Jennifer Webb, counsel for the Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of America, and Joel Wood and Blaire Bartlett of the Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers and its CouncilPAC.

The panelists came to a consensus that a reauthorized NFIP was critical, and that upcoming midterm elections would influence the amount of time an extension would be granted. They acknowledged that a gap in coverage is certainly not ideal and said their offices are working on a bi-partisan resolution.

Bartlett said that improving NFIP through privatization will be a give-and-take process.

“To its credit, FEMA has done what it is able to do as far as claims processing goes. They have taken a multiyear look. If you want to open up the private markets, that will have to be balanced with some claims legislation—we’re going to have to give in some on claims language,” Bartlett said, noting that, “If Hurricane Florence does hit the Carolinas, some of the members may not be willing to call out the federal government the way New Yorkers did after Hurricane Sandy in 2012.”

And while there were some civil disagreements, the trio did find some common ground. For example, FEMA’s flood maps were rebuked for failing when put to the test by a real flood as seen in Houston in 2017 following Hurricane Harvey.

“I think we can agree that NFIP needs some modernizations, but there’s a way to do that without closing down a program that is being used by 5 million people,” Webb said.  “We didn’t see that in Texas but we could see it in the Carolinas.”

Congressional Staff Panel
This panel featured two senior congressional staffers for the U.S. House of Representatives – John Y. Hair, financial services committee designee for Congressman John Duffy (R-WI); and Lucas West, legislative director for Congressman Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO).

Discussions largely centered on NFIP reauthorization, Hurricane Florence and the upcoming elections.

“We have just over two months to get it through before the expiration and it’s really on the Senate. We’re putting pressure on the Senate for a long-term, five-year bill that actually makes some reforms,” Hair said.

Also discussed was the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA), which created a temporary federal program that provides public and private compensation due to terrorism-related losses, which is set to expire in December 2020. And while the traditional issues of insurance were discussed, cybersecurity, data breaches and even autonomous vehicles were also included.

Regarding autonomous vehicles, Hair said, “Certainly, access to data is going to be important on decisions regarding ‘who’s going to take the liability [in the event of a crash]?’ This could lead to a huge push to reform our liability system. We’re engaging in the risk of [commercial and taxi driver] licenses right now.”

Midterm Election: Insider Update
Mike Gula, co-founder of Gula Graham, the largest Republican fundraising firm in the U.S., discussed how attendees, members and their companies can strategically position themselves with upcoming midterm elections in November.

Gula said that because dozens of congressional seats are up for grabs in the election, companies and insurers may need to prepare for changes to laws that will impact their policies and coverage.

On day two of the summit, dozens of RIMS members descended on Capitol Hill for meetings with congressional leaders. The goal was to share RIMS priorities for a long-term, reauthorized NFIP via H.R. 2874, the 21st Century Flood Reform Act, and funding for non-regulatory maps that project future flood risks. Later, in the Rayburn House Office Building, Florida Congressman Dennis Ross spoke to RIMS members and echoed their sentiments about NFIP and how flood maps were in desperate need of a thorough update.

Access RIMScast coverage of the summit.

Looking Back at the Big Flood: Time to Examine Your ‘Human Supply Chain’

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The devastation left behind after Hurricane Harvey is a reminder that people are a critical link in the effort to build community storm resilience. We often remind our customers that to prepare for a disaster, they need to consider their supply chain risk—will they be able to access goods and services in the aftermath of a storm.

One area that is often overlooked is what is often called the human supply chain, which consists of your employees, customers and others members of your community.

Beyond ensuring that your employees are safe, business owners may need to consider other concerns: Do you have a plan that will allow your employees to continue working during the recovery? Can they work remotely? Are your employees trained in disaster preparedness? If your business relies on local customers, are they able to access your goods and services? What about rescue personnel and other business owners that provide goods and services to support the community?
Think of the human supply chain as a network of individuals who help your business to survive and continue to thrive after a disaster, like Hurricane Harvey, which dumped trillions of gallons of water on Texas a year ago.

Ensuring that this living, breathing supply chain remains connected is one of the recommendations culled from 13 in-depth studies that Zurich has produced on the impacts of natural disasters around the world. The latest report, “Houston and Hurricane Harvey: a call to action,” was released at the start of the 2018 hurricane season.

Zurich has developed a methodology called the Post Event Review Capability (PERC), which is an approach to understanding why a hazard becomes a disaster, and then from that, identifying entry points for building resilience.

A report released earlier this month highlights some of the lessons learned from these PERC studies and encourages businesses and communities to focus on resilience to prepare for future storms.

The report identifies some common truths about major storms:

  • Every dollar spent on disaster preparedness saves four dollars in future losses;
  • Early warnings paired with contingency and emergency planning can save lives and protect businesses; and
  • Risk managers and communities must “build back better” to strengthen resilience after a disaster strikes.

The report also emphasizes the human element in storm preparation and recovery. For example, one of the central lessons that emerged from the PERC studies is that successful response operations are mostly reliant on institutions. Providing equipment, access to food and showers, assisting with cleanup and offering paid time off for employees can go a long way towards supporting a community and creating a culture of assistance.

Business leaders should provide employee readiness training, the report concludes. Some companies already do this, making preparedness a part of business as usual. One such company regularly schedules “disaster recovery days.” The company will randomly announce, “It’s flooding today, work from home,” to practice employee readiness for the real thing.

This recognition that humans play a critical role in the recovery process is partly why Zurich continues to support SBP, an organization that seeks to shorten the time between disaster and recovery.

Zurich has worked with SBP since 2009, helping the nonprofit bring hundreds of families back home after Hurricane Katrina. SBP has remained in Southeast Texas since Harvey to help aid in the recovery efforts there.

Recognizing the need for home and business owners to identify and mitigate their risks prior to disasters, Zurich in 2014 committed a $3 million grant to SBP through its Z-Zurich Foundation. The grant helped fund SBP’s Disaster Resilience & Recovery Lab, an initiative through which SBP trains home and business owners in 30 communities at risk for disasters across the United States over the course of three years.

In the future, hurricanes will continue to wreak havoc, destroying homes and lives, damaging critical infrastructure and shuttering businesses, but it’s important to remember that humans are the key to resilience. Keeping people safe, engaged and part of the recovery process can help ensure that communities remain resilient in the face of major storms.