"Be prepared" is not merely a motto of the Scouting movement; it is an essential outlook for commercial real estate professionals who are responsible for managing business, office, industrial or multifamily properties. That was the message from Charisse Earhart, training coordinator with BluSky, in a presentation entitled “When an Emergency Hits Your Multifamily or Commercial Property” for an April 12 meeting of the Institute of Real Estate Management (IREM)-St Louis Chapter at the Club House of Forest Park.
Earhart defined a disaster as “any incident that causes significant disruption and overwhelms normal ability to respond and control operations.” Recent experiences in the St. Louis region with unprecedented rainfall and severe hail, as well as the beginning of tornado season, are strong evidence of the importance of disaster planning. “You need to be prepared; as the saying goes, ‘it isn’t if, it’s when,’” Earhart said.
Weather is not the only cause of disasters. A factor in current building fires, whether residential or commercial, is the difference between materials used for furniture and fabrics: “The synthetic materials used today burn and spread much faster and are more flammable than natural ones,” Earhart said. “A fire can spread in less than two minutes and there can be three minutes before a flashover. That’s why everyone is told to ‘get out, get out, get out.’”
She warned that not having disaster recovery plans is a common issue among small businesses, with 75% lacking them. Recovery time from a disaster typically takes at least three months, and about 40% of businesses close temporarily after a disaster. Furthermore, only 25% of those that close reopen afterward.
The commercial sector loses more than $2 billion a year as a result of disasters.
“If the worst happens, you want to know what you need to know,” Earhart said, starting with whom to call or notify, and who is responsible for handling the incident at the moment and immediately afterward.
“Disasters don’t always happen during the work day, and you can’t assume how employees will react. Having a plan reduces the employee ‘freak out’ factor, and minimizes the impact.”
Earhart urged colleagues to create a disaster plan now: “It doesn’t cost money; it really only costs time”:
• Establish whom to call — use current cellphone and digital technology to reach everyone.
• Create an emergency contact list and make sure all employees have access to it.
• Consider setting up preferred agreements with essential vendors to be at the head of their list for response to a disaster.
• Create “what to do” guidelines for media relations. “Don’t say ‘no comment,’” Earhart advised. “Say ‘We don’t have updated information yet. Please check with the fire chief or police officials on site.”
• Create maps of every building layout with meters, shutoffs, phone lines, sprinklers, etc., clearly marked and accessible to leadership and maintenance crews.
• Have an evacuation and shelter-in-place plan and make sure all signs showing those guidelines are current, similarly to hotel systems.
• Develop a strategic relationship with a disaster recovery/resolution company before a disaster occurs and use them to develop a plan.
“Nowadays, all such information can be in an app than can be accessible at all times,” Earhart said. “Nobody has time to go to the computer and look for the information when disaster strikes.”
A disaster plan should address fire, water damage/losses, floods, earthquakes, tornadoes and wind damage, with special attention in Maryland Heights to hail, Earhart said — although even having a plan in place won’t save a business from the effects of handling such events.
“Water saves lives (in a fire), but causes the most damage in a fire. Smoke damage can occur even with small fires. Soot has to be remediated. A slow response to wind damage can make conditions worse.”
Mold can develop even after cleanup has occurred in areas where water damage isn’t visible. “You have to remediate water damage fully or it can cause mold and microbial growth,” she said.
Earhart outlined four stages for commercial real estate professionals to take before a disaster occurs at any of their properties: Mitigate, Prepare, Respond and Recover. Creating and refreshing a plan through these elements should be a continual process, which could be labeled risk management.
Mitigation includes preparation and involves identifying possible risks -- from materials to trees that could topple; roofs, downspouts, gutters, etc., that can clog and back up; outdoor furniture that could be tossed by high winds; storm drains that must be kept clear; fire-related equipment to update and maintain; water shutoffs to be managed; outdoor hoses and irrigation lines to winterize, etc.
“Determine the level of response,” Earhart said. “Hold regular safety meetings with all employees. Assign responsibility for who calls the insurance company and vendors. Put tasks and reminders on a schedule.”
Inspections can be critical to fending off certain disasters, she noted. “Don’t rely on your vendors or contractors to remember when to do inspections.”
Labeling utility shutoffs can be crucial to reducing damage during a disaster; make sure all maintenance workers know where those are and how to use them.
A Response should include the size or scope and extent of the incident, Earhart said, and a plan should say when to call for outside help, as well as what is in hand and what might be needed to handle the situation.
The Recovery element should include strategic relationships with essential vendors and contractors and guidelines for coordination. “Beware of contractor scams,” Earhart warned. “Never pay 100 percent upfront,” especially with unknown companies. She also noted that recovery might require permits, a process that can be “super-slow.”
Having a disaster plan in place well before it’s needed has several benefits, Earhart said: “a sense of security, minimizing the risk of delays in response and recovery, reducing ‘employee freak out,’ reducing decision-making time, saving employees and tenants from emotional roller-coasters, and getting back to normal operations more quickly.”
Essential elements of a disaster plan include, according to Earhart, “keep it simple, plan as if it will happen next week, look for ‘the one thing’ to make the plan better and get opinions from employees.
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BluSky provides commercial, industrial, governmental, residential, and multifamily restoration, renovation, environmental, and roofing services across the nation. For more information, visit goblusky.com/.