Thursday, March 28, 2024

Crisis Planning

12 tips to get businesses and homeowners through a utility emergency

By Victoria Davis

Crisis PlanningWhile shopping for apparel, groceries and home goods, Target customers were surprised when the store lost power for nearly three hours. As a result, customers were frantic and many food items had to be thrown away once they reached room temperature, resulting in a significant loss for the store, at the very least, its insurer.
Every once in a while the unexpected happens: A family finds itself without power due to an outage, and even a big business that relies on generators to stay in operation may find its alternative power sources sometime fail.

Whether small or large, a business always should have an emergency plan for restoring power.
Here are some tips businesses and homeowners can follow if they happen to lose temporary use of their utilities.

ELECTRICAL
1. Locate power switches and turn them off.
2. Group foods together in the freezer to help them stay fresher longer.
3. Let faucets drip to avoid pipes from freezing.

NATURAL GAS
1. Do not attempt to operate gas valves on the meter or tamper with the meter in any way.
2. If you suspect a gas leak, do not attempt to find the source of the leak or to repair a leak.
3. Meet with employees and take action. Each business should have an emergency gas outage plan.

WATER
1. Turn off the lead.
2. Only use boiled or bottled water to clean and/or drink.
3. Once water is restored let it run for a few minutes to filter.

SEWER
1. If you have a back-up, do not flush the toilets.
2. Contaminated carpets, rugs, and upholstered furniture should be discarded.
3. Turn off central heat and air system and prevent flow from reaching floor vents.

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