Skip to content
MENU

Beyond Hurricane Preparedness Week: Your Checklist to Achieve Preparedness in Two Months

Identify achievable actions to take this week, this month, and next month to prepare your family, business, and community.

Amy Courville, an Emergency Management Accreditation Program Trained Business Consultant, brings over 20 years of experience in emergency management to lead APTIM’s Emergency Preparedness team.

THIS WEEK’S CONTRIBUTOR:
Amy Courville | Director of Preparedness
APTIM | Emergency Management & Disaster Services
Amy.Courville@APTIM.com

Amy brings 23 years of emergency management experience, thoughtful leadership, and disaster science acumen to prepare for, plan, and manage large-scale emergency management projects. Providing comprehensive and cost-effective solutions, she directly manages the oversight of complex disaster programs to help communities maximize reimbursement funding and navigate complex federal requirements.

 

Beyond Hurricane Preparedness Week: Your Checklist to Achieve Preparedness in Two Months

This week (May 4–10) is Hurricane Preparedness Week! Now is the time for everyone to be aware of which actions to take. Residents and visitors in North Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee—far away from coasts typically impacted by tropical weather—learned in 2024 that they too could suffer catastrophic impacts from hurricanes. Let’s identify achievable actions to take this week, this month, and next month to prepare your family, business, and community.

Why is Preparedness Important?

Hurricanes are often seen as a threat to coastal communities well-versed in hurricane preparedness. However, Hurricane Helene had devastating impacts deep inland, in addition to coastal impacts by it and other tropical weather in 2024. These communities now face multi-year recovery challenges due to catastrophic effects of wind, flooding, and landslides. During Hurricane Preparedness week, make an action plan to resource your team for a coordinated hurricane response and update hurricane plans.

Hurricane Preparedness Week: Jumpstart Preparedness

The fastest route to accomplish a preparedness plan is to identify a first step and take action. This week, jumpstart preparedness through:

  1. Identify stakeholders.
    1. Identify the team members, partners, and external parties who have a role in your response and recovery.
    2. Issue a request for lessons learned from stakeholders who were part of your team last year.
  2. Set a schedule for preparedness.
    1. Schedule time this month to engage stakeholders in discussions to confirm that they understand their roles and responsibilities—and that you understand their capability and capacity.
    2. Schedule initial training this month for new stakeholders.
    3. Schedule comprehensive training next month for all stakeholders.

May: Commit to Preparedness

Keep momentum going throughout May.

  1. Hold initial training for new stakeholders to introduce them to your hurricane preparedness strategy.
  2. Review current plans.
    1. If your plan is not documented, now is the time to get it in writing. Too often teams think they know the actions they need to take but do not have a document to follow in the chaos of a disaster. Having a written document helps to identify discrepancies, reduce coordination issues, and memorialize the great ideas and best practices of your team.
    2. Identify sections that warrant updates such as contact lists, vulnerabilities, and capabilities. Assign a primary and secondary person responsible for leading updates of the sections.
  3. Hold engagement discussions with stakeholders.
  4. Conduct vulnerability and capability assessments.
    1. Vulnerabilities change over time, warranting periodic re-evaluation.
      • If you have recently conducted a comprehensive vulnerability assessment, now is the time to review and re-confirm there are no significant changes.
      • If you have not, a comprehensive look at vulnerabilities is well worth the time.
    2. Capabilities are linked to resource availability and training. Periodic evaluation is necessary to identify if your capabilities status is strengthened by adding resources, diminished by loss of resources, or deconflicted by evaluating competing needs for the same resources.

June: Put Preparedness into Play

June 1 is the official start of Atlantic hurricane season. Take final actions and identify ongoing activities.

  1. Update your hurricane plan. Integrate the current information on stakeholders, lessons learned, vulnerabilities, and capabilities into updated plans.
  2. Solicit pre-disaster contracts.
  3. Procure services to address capability shortfalls. Pre-disaster contracts allow time for negotiation of terms and rates outside the chaos of a disaster event.
  4. Strengthen capabilities by increasing known stakeholders and compatible resources.
  5. Remain vigilant.
    1. Maintain contact lists and awareness of stakeholder and resources availability.
    2. Stay aware of potential tropical and subtropical forecasts.

Conclusion

I’ll continue to say it: it is not if but rather when you will be impacted by a disaster. Once a disaster occurs, your moment-to-moment decisions and available resources will impact its short- and long-term effects. Your level of preparedness will directly increase the success of response and can decrease the time of recovery.

APTIM envisions a time when communities have a culture of preparedness and equity, in which the immediate need of all is addressed while the impacts of future emergencies, disasters, and catastrophic events are mitigated. APTIM crafts resilient communities by providing full lifecycle emergency management and disaster services. Our team of experts partner with communities to preserve the environment, plan for emergencies, restore essential services and business functions, avoid damage and loss of life, and support whole-community and economic recovery.

Contact APTIM today to help take hurricane preparedness actions today!

APTIM. In Pursuit of Better.

Connect with APTIM

    Subscribe to the APTIM Xchange Newsletter

    APTIM's newsletter, The APTIM Xchange, provides industry news flashes, regulatory updates, service spotlights, and topical columns from our subject matter experts.