With Hurricane Matthew set to hit the United States, you might be wondering how to best prepare your business. As you are part of our North American Bancard family, we want to encourage you to take every possible precaution to remain out of harm’s way. In order to help you minimize any potential damage to your place of business, we’d like to share the following hurricane preparedness tips:
- Secure all doors against damage from wind while sandbagging any areas that could be subject to flooding.
- If possible, anchor and brace any large furniture to wall studs.
- Relocate any valuable or fragile possessions.
- If possible, turn off all utilities prior to the hurricane making landfall.
- Store important documents in waterproof containers or relocate documents to a safe area.
- Keep a battery operated radio or television on hand.
- Stock a three-day supply of nonperishable food and water for you and your employees should you be stranded at your place of business once the storm hits.
- Also, make sure that you have a first aid kit, tool kit, flashlights, batteries, blankets and pillows at your place of business, as well as a camera or video camera to document any damage post-storm.
- Test any smoke alarms and fire extinguishers to ensure that they are functioning properly.
- If you have a gas-powered generator, make sure it is fueled up.
- Verify that your communications equipment is operational.
- Compile an emergency contact list with 24-hour telephone contact numbers for your essential employees.
- Keep FEMA’s hotline number handy: 1-800-462-9029
- Per the FTC, you’ll also want to be on the alert for charity scams (even if you live far away from the affected areas, you could be targeted). Urgent appeals for donations may not be on the up-and-up. Check the charity with the Better Business Bureau's (BBB) Wise Giving Alliance, Charity Navigator, Charity Watch or GuideStar.
For additional hurricane preparedness tips directly from FEMA, click here. You can also visit:
- Ready.gov.
- American Red Cross Community Disaster Education and download Red Cross Mobile Apps.
- Or download the FEMA Smartphone App.
So that you can be up and running again as quickly as possible after Hurricane Matthew subsides (with minimal disruption to your business), we also encourage you to batch out your terminal and store any credit card processing equipment in a safe, dry place. Should any of your equipment be damaged, please contact the North American Bancard customer service team.
