Nearly 70 percent of businesses will lose power sometime in the next 12 months. Know the steps to take before and during an outage so you can resume critical operations as quickly as possible. The following checklist highlights some of the steps that should be taken in order to effectively recover from any power outage.
■ Ensure your emergency preparedness kit includes the following items:
□ Flashlight with battery
□ Battery or handcrank powered emergency weather radio
□ Avoid candles due to inherent fire hazard.
■ If possible, have a wired landline (not cordless) telephone in your office that does not operate on a VoIP network. Often, a fax line can serve this purpose.
■ Create a personal policy that dictates which staff members should report and those that should remain home. Make sure all employees are aware of the policy.
■ If security at your location is a concern, ensure that your security system has proper battery backup systems and that telephone connectivity to your monitoring service isn’t reliant on power from the grid.
■ Ensure all sensitive electronic equipment is protected by a power surge protector.
■ Ensure all uninterruptible power supply (UPS) devices are functional and tested regularly.
■ Inspect all critical equipment such as sewer ejector pumps, HVAC condensate drain pumps and any pumps that provide protection from flooding in low lying areas. Ensure those pumps are part of the emergency power plan.
■ Fuel up any critical equipment including company vehicles, back up generators, etc.
■ Turn off and unplug all electrical equipment to avoid damage from power spikes when electrical service is resumed.
■ Leave one light turned on so you’ll know when the power comes back on.
■ Never run a generator inside and never connect a generator to the electrical wiring unless prior steps have been taken to ensure it is safe to do so.
■ Know your generator’s fuel consumption rate and set up regular fuel deliveries ahead of time to ensure you do not run out.
■ Do not touch any downed electrical power lines and keep your employees away from them. Report downed lines to the appropriate officials in your area.
■ Leave doors closed on office refrigerators and freezers as much as possible during outages. Food will keep much longer if the doors are left closed.
■ If renting a generator, make sure you receive the following:
□ Transportation to your building site
□ Appropriate amount of Cam Lock Cabling (standard
is 50 feet unless more is requested)
□ Pigtails to connect the generator
□ Starter fuel for the first few days of recovery
□ Set of operating instructions
□ Walk through of the basic operating instructions with your vendor.
■ Follow these steps to prevent generator theft:
□ Place the generator in a well-lit area
□ Install security cameras at the generator site
□ Consider running a metal ring into the ground and securing the generator with a chain
□ If you store the generator on its trailer, secure the trailer by chaining the wheels, surround it with other vehicles and removing the hitch
□ Chain or padlock the generator to other heavy equipment.
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