How small businesses should prepare for natural disasters

Part of our series on the future of Main Street

Damage from Hurricane Sandy
(Image credit: Scott Olson/Getty Images)

After a long summer of employee vacations (and, let's face it, scant motivation to stay inside and work), September is an exciting time for small businesses ripe with renewed energy. But in some parts of the country, September brings a dark reminder, too: hurricane season.

To give you a sense of a worst-case scenario: Hurricane Katrina, among the worst storms in U.S. history, wreaked $21.1 billion in business-related losses, excluding flood claims, according to Property Claims Service. The odds of a small business getting back on its feet after such a storm is not good: FEMA estimates nearly 40 percent of small businesses won't reopen after enduring a natural disaster.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Julie Kliegman

Julie Kliegman is a freelance writer based in New York. Her work has appeared in BuzzFeed, Vox, Mental Floss, Paste, the Tampa Bay Times and PolitiFact. Her cats can do somersaults.