With March 21 marking the first day of spring, winter, which has been long and grueling for most of the country, should be nearing its end.
Although many look forward to the warmer temperatures, spring can also bring some dangerous weather conditions. Nearly every region in the U.S. will likely experience some sort of severe weather as spring arrives. High winds, tornadoes and hailstorms are just some of the weather threats that come with warming temperatures and thawing snow.
Flooding, in particular, is a major hazard as winter's thaw begins, and since this winter has brought longer periods of deep freeze across the country, record snowfalls and severe winter weather extending further south than usual, commercial property need owners to take proper precautions to protect themselves from the threat of rising waters as temperatures warm.
“Flooding causes more damage in the United States than any other weather related event. It is critical that all businesses need to be prepared for flooding that will come with the spring thaw,” said Gregory Lanshe, Zurich Risk Engineering in North America. “Businesses need to understand their potential vulnerabilities and make sure they have either updated or created a flood emergency plan. In order to help protect their commercial property and avoid costly business disruption, they must have the appropriate resources in place to keep the water out when the time comes.”
Zurich's latest whitepaper, “Threat of Rising Waters: Steps to Take Hours Before a Flood,” urges commercial property owners to take action to protect their property from floods associated with warming temperatures. While Zurich acknowledges that there is no substitute for a flood contingency plan, the steps compiled by their research center serve as a checklist of items that can help reduce the impact of a flood on business operations if completed. Click through the following slides for Zurich's 9-step plan for commercial property owners who have less than 24 hours to prepare for an expected flood, and help your clients prepare for the worst-case scenario this spring. 
Utilities preparation
- Fill fuel tanks for emergency generators and fire pumps
- Isolate any low-level electrical circuits and equipment
- Close any manual sewer backflow prevention valves
- Verify indoor fuel tanks exposed to water inundation are secured against buoyancy
- Where boilers and emergency generators rely upon fuel pumps to transfer fuel from bulk storage tanks to day tanks, verify the fuel pumps and their power supplies are located above the anticipated flood water levels and supplied by emergency power.
Sump pump preparation
- Obtain portable sump pumps to back up fixed sump pumps that do not have installed redundant pumps. · Verify all fixed and portable sump pumps are working.
- Verify or provide emergency power for electric motor driven sump pumps that do not have engine driven pump backup.
- Verify that emergency power circuits for sump pumps will not be exposed to damage by the anticipated flood.
- Verify sump pump discharge lines have check valves if water backflow is possible when the pump is not running.
Outside preparations
- Clear flood exposed parking lots and other outside areas of vehicles, trailers, storage and portable equipment from flood prone areas.
- Verify outside structures such as fuel tanks, transformers, emergency generators and cooling towers are anchored to secure foundations.
- Remove debris and trash that could restrict or obstruct drain inlets, culverts and road underpasses that carry water drainage away from the site.
- Close perimeter gates to prevent debris floating onto the site.
- Sandbag ramps or access ways to basement entrances or loading docks. These ramps and access ways are notorious sources of severe flooding, especially when power fails and electric dewatering pumps stop working.
- Exercise any automatic-closing flood gates to make sure they are ready to operate if needed. If possible, leave automatic gates in the closed position.
- Install any manual flood gates.
Production process preparation
- Implement safe and organized shutdown of hazardous processes.
- Relocate high valued or critical machinery, computers, tools, dies, patterns, records and stock above anticipated flood levels.
- Raise the exposed materials above the floor, move to a higher floor, or move off site to higher ground.
Fire system preparation
- Inspect all fire protection systems to ensure they are in service.
Business data preparation
- Back up computer data to an offsite location that will not be affected by the flood.
Construction project preparation
- Review construction projects. Protect or relocate equipment and supplies, and temporarily brace new construction.
Emergency supplies preparation
- Obtain and store emergency equipment and supplies in a protected location. Equipment and supplies may include: Emergency lighting, luber, sandbags, sand or modern alternatives (flood gates), tarps, battery power and manual hand tools, nonperishable food and water
Staff preparation
- Personnel safety is the primary concern. Allow no actions to save property that jeopardize the health and well-being of personnel.
- Advise staff of concerns with potential flooding, and procedures to follow if an evacuation is ordered.
- Apply safe work procedures to all flood preparation work. This includes the use of all appropriate personal protective equipment and electrical safety practices for damp or wet locations.
- While it is always desirable to maintain appropriate personnel on site during a flood emergency to maintain care, custody, and control over the site, no personnel should be endangered in this effort.
- Plan safe work procedures for all actions taken after a flood.
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