Following clients and vendors with presence in the Carolinas, I notice quite a bit of thoughtful preparation in advance of the storm. Very useful. Here's a handy OSHA checklist of hazards to keep in mind. In any disaster clean=up situation, one ought fully evaluate beforehand, look for fall risks, assume power lines to be live, break out protective gear, and use ladders and chain saws properly.
While we don't get involved in much major disaster clean-up (we concentrate on our core business, commercial janitorial), we keep a pretty fair rolodex of firms that do. And we're always ready to provide immediate relief to clients experiencing day to day floods and biohazard situations (often from the same toilet): wet-vacs, blowers, hospital grade disinfectants, fungicides, and protective gear - from goggles and latex gloves up to surgical masks and bunny suits.
Our office went up in 1914, and is thus one of very few buildings in Phoenix graced with a basement. So we keep a couple of (immersable) sump pumps on hand - a high volume one, and a smaller one that can remove standing water down to about a quarter inch. Handy during a really major rainstorm, or when we leave the hose running too long in the planter. We also looked pretty hard, a couple of years ago during the Ebola scare, at potentially having to do major medical clean-up. We formulated procedures, bought a stock of full face masks and bunny suits (when they were cheap, not when disaster hits), and a few related items. We also prepped for potential power and service issues, and picked up a gas-powered generator, lots of batteries, a chain saw, emergency radio, and so on.
In passing, we've fully restored our 1914 building, mostly doing our own work. That involved some of the same precautions as a disaster might. For instance, we've learned that it is not a good idea, when stripping many layers of paint from 100-year old woodwork, to use a flammable paint stripper in the vicinity of a heat-gun.....
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