Hurricane Florence may not be headed directly toward the DC region, but will certainly impact association and nonprofit operations across the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic United States. Wherever you are, it’s never too soon to be prepared for similar potential disasters.
Here’s a rundown of resources to help your association or nonprofit weather the storm—now or in the future.
1. Is your data safe from floods or other environmental disasters? If you subscribe to IaaS, make sure your cloud host provides built-in geographic redundancy. If you’re in the path of Hurricane Florence, there may be little you can do at the last minute. Act now (or as soon as you can) to prepare for the next storm, tornado, earthquake, etc.
2. Make sure staff can work, even if they can’t get to work. Check out our guide to working remotely. Again, you’ve got to be prepared—do this before the office closes or the waters rise.
3. Your MSP (managed services provider) may be able to help you keep IT operations running with limited interruption. Check with your MSP to see what they’re doing to provide support and ask if they’re taking any extra steps on your behalf.
4. With all those employees working at home (or wherever they can find power), make sure your association or nonprofit is practicing good BYOD management.
5. If you don’t already have a backup plan, natural disasters demonstrate why you should. Double-check that your backup plan is in order or get to work creating one.
6. Keep an eye on your regional and local weather. Capital Weather Gang is a good resource here in the DC region—in addition to the forecast, you’ll get a weather education!
7. Last but not least, make sure you are personally prepared:
- Follow guidelines on ready.gov.
- Follow the National Hurricane Center.
- Sign up for local government alerts, Metro services updates, etc.
- Heed this advice from someone who’s lived through a hurricane.
- Learn what associations and nonprofits are doing to help communities prepare.
