Zurich offers hurricane guidelines for businesses

Zurich HelpPoint in action delivers valuable insights when business owners need it most: before a hurricane hits.

Zurich, one of the leading property and casualty insurance providers globally and in North America, is offering businesses guidelines for actions that can be taken in the 24 hours before a hurricane hits.

The detailed guidelines, which can be found in Zurich’s whitepaper “Easy-tough guide to starting a hurricane emergency action plan,” are complimentary and available for download.

“Between the time a hurricane watch is issued and a hurricane warning is issued, businesses in Hurricane Earl’s anticipated path should make sure they have the time needed to secure their property and evacuate personnel that will not be remaining on site,” said Armand Fernandez, chief risk engineering officer, Zurich Services Corporation. “These so called ‘tough’ actions can be completed in the 24 hours leading up to impact, and we encourage businesses within the regions under hurricane watch or warning to begin these preparations now.”

These tough actions include but are not limited to:

• Protecting or relocating vital business records
• Removing all loose outdoor storage or equipment
• Anchoring portable buildings or trailers to the ground
• Securing outdoor storage or equipment that cannot be moved
• Starting the installation of manual protection systems (e.g. shutters, plywood covers and flood gates)
• Raising critical equipment off floors (e.g. PC towers) and moving critical equipment from below grade areas
• Covering critical stock and equipment with waterproof tarpaulins
• Initiating an orderly shutdown of production equipment and systems that rely upon normal power
• Turning off fuel gas services and non-essential electrical systems
• Verifying all fire protection systems are in service (e.g. water supplies, fire pumps, sprinklers, fire alarms and special extinguishing systems)

For businesses not within striking distance of Earl, but still within a hurricane-prone region, it is not too late to implement a hurricane emergency action plan, Fernandez said. “This should be a living, breathing document that is reviewed and updated at the outset of each hurricane season.”

Zurich has prepared a brief interactive audio and visual presentation that outlines why hurricane emergency action plans are important, what they should entail, the costliness of being unprepared, and other important considerations for businesses in hurricane-prone regions. To view the presentation, click here: Hurricane Preparedness

After a storm, Zurich customers in Canada have several ways to report a claim:

• Internet – go to the main page of www.zurichcanada.com and click on “Claims”
• Phone – 1 866 345 3454
• Fax – 877 977 8077
• E-mail – claims@zurich.com
• Mail – Zurich, Claims Department, Attention: New Claims, 400 University Ave., Toronto, ON M5G 1S7