What to do immediately after a disaster

Within the first two days

• Contact all staff. Confirm their location and if they’re safe and well. Find out if they’ve been affected, if they can return to work and, if so, when.
• Conduct an initial damage assessment. If you can safely access your premises, create an inventory of destroyed and damaged items with an estimate of replacement costs. Include photos of damaged items if possible. Don’t clean up until you have contacted your insurer.
• Contact your insurer and discuss your damage assessment, level of cover, how quickly your claim can be processed, how much and in what form a claim will be paid and when an insurance assessor will visit.
• If it’s safe to do so, salvage any remaining equipment and stock.

Within a week: Begin recovery

• Begin actions that will assist you re-open your business when you are ready. Make a list of key equipment, stock or activities required  for the business to become operational. If any key equipment or stock has been salvaged, store it in a secure location.
• Contact your key customers and suppliers so they know your business has been affected and if existing orders will be affected. Work with your customers so they can continue to receive the goods or services you usually provide. And contact them again when you’re ready to resume trading.
• Contact your lender and accountant.
• Assess if you can trade temporarily. Do you have forward orders you can complete or sales you can complete from salvaged stock?
• Access any business information held in cloud-based software.
• Consider contacting government agencies that may help affected businesses, such as the Australian Government’s Disaster Assist website.

Within a month: Further steps to aid recovery

If necessary, look for alternative business premises. It will need to be safe and you need to consider whether your staff, customers and suppliers will be able to access the alternative premises.

Collect all business records that have been salvaged and decide if off-site copies are retrievable. Where there are gaps in records, consider alternative sources to help you reconstruct your financials. You may like to talk to your accountant at this stage for assistance.