26 Oct Is Your Business Protected Against Hurricanes and Other Storms?

Hurricane season can be bad for business for any number of reasons. Not only can high winds and flood waters damage your building, but you could also face a lack of business due to the weather. Look at it this way: if your business is based off of tourism, then there’s nothing like a hurricane to ensure that those tourists migrate to a different part of the country.

In addition, your office, store, restaurant, or other commercial business may end up being closed for some time due to damage, leaving your clients and customers to go elsewhere. How can you recover from this? Having proper insurance coverage helps.

Business Insurance

In general, business insurance is designed to cover anything that happens to your business. It will pay for repairs to the building, losses in your warehouse, and more. However, this insurance usually only covers certain types of damages, such as those caused by a fire, high winds (but not hurricane-strength winds), theft, and more.

As you can see, there are three things missing from that list: hurricane damage, flooding, and storm surges. If you do business in a hurricane-prone area, you’ll need to have a special supplement or rider on your insurance that covers these things, or else you could be in trouble should a hurricane hit and damage your business’ property.

Business Interruption Insurance

It’s important to have business interruption insurance if your business is located in an area prone to hurricanes. This coverage will help you should your business need to shut down for a period due to hurricane wind damage or flooding. For example, if high winds tear the roof off of your business’ office building, obviously no one will be able to work there, and your business may have to entirely shut down while the repairs are in process. In order to prevent monetary losses due to this lack of business, your business interruption insurance will kick in and provide the help that you need.

What About Home-Based Businesses?

There are plenty of businesses that are run out of the home or another building on the property, such as a garage. What happens to them if a hurricane damages the home and outbuildings? Unfortunately, standard homeowner’s insurance usually doesn’t cover your business’ property, so those computers, printers, and other things may have to be paid for out of pocket, unless you have a special commercial business rider in place.

Vehicles Need Their Own Policies

In addition to having special policy supplements in place for hurricane damage, don’t forget about your commercial vehicles. A standard business owner’s policy doesn’t cover them, so your hurricane insurance may not as well. You’ll need to have commercial vehicle insurance in place, along with a separate insurance supplement for hurricane damage to ensure that these vehicles will be repaired or replaced should they be damaged by high winds, flooding, or any of the other things that come along with a hurricane.

Need help ensuring your business is protected should a hurricane roll through your area? Call Spivey Insurance today. Our knowledgeable agents will help walk you through every step of the coverages available to keep your business safe.