A complete hurricane preparedness checklist for businesses covers four things: protecting your people, protecting your property, protecting your technology and data, and keeping the business able to operate afterward. The best time to work through it is before June 1, when the Atlantic hurricane season starts — not when a storm already has a name. This checklist walks through exactly what to do at each stage, from the start of the season to the days after landfall.
A hurricane preparedness checklist alongside emergency supplies and a completed cloud backup helps businesses prepare for severe weather.Before the season starts (do this now)
- Write down your emergency plan: who decides to close, who contacts employees, and how you’ll communicate if phones and email are down.
- Build an employee contact tree: personal cell numbers and out-of-area emergency contacts.
- Review your insurance: confirm wind and flood coverage, business interruption coverage, and photograph the office and equipment for a baseline inventory.
- Verify your data backups actually restore: a backup you’ve never tested is a hope, not a plan.
- Move critical files and applications to the cloud so the business can run from anywhere.
- Buy supplies while shelves are full: plywood or shutters, tarps, plastic sheeting, flashlights, batteries, portable chargers, a battery-powered radio, first-aid kit, water, and non-perishable food.
- List every vendor you depend on (internet, payroll, suppliers) with account numbers and support lines, and store a copy off-site.
When a storm is 72 hours out (hurricane watch)
- Activate your communication plan: tell employees what to expect and when you’ll make the close/stay decision.
- Run a fresh, full backup of servers and workstations, and confirm at least one copy is off-site or in the cloud.
- Back up phone systems: forward business lines to cell phones or a VoIP mobile app so customers can still reach you.
- Fuel vehicles and any generators; test the generator under load.
- Bring in or secure anything outside: signs, furniture, dumpsters, equipment.
- Print hard copies of the checklist, contact tree, and insurance policies — they are useless on a server you can’t reach.
When a warning is issued (36 hours out)
- Shutter or board windows and doors; clear floor drains and check sump pumps.
- Shut down servers and computers gracefully, then unplug them from wall power and network jacks — surges travel through data lines too.
- Move electronics off the floor and away from windows; wrap servers and PCs in plastic sheeting.
- Take one verified backup copy with you (encrypted external drive) plus your printed documents.
- Shut off water, and follow your utility’s guidance on power and gas.
- Send everyone home early — traffic and last-minute prep take longer than you think.
During and immediately after the storm
Nobody returns to the building until authorities say the area is safe. When you do, photograph everything before touching it — insurance adjusters want to see the damage as the storm left it. Do not power on wet electronics, even if they look dry; water inside a PC or server that is energized usually turns a recoverable machine into a dead one. Our companion guide on what to do with water-damaged computers covers this step by step.
In our experience supporting Tampa Bay businesses through multiple hurricane seasons, the plans that fail rarely fail on plywood and bottled water. They fail on technology: a backup that was quietly erroring for months, a phone number nobody can forward, or a server sitting on the floor of a ground-floor office. If you only do three things from this checklist, make them: test a restore from your backup, get one backup copy out of the building, and have a way to forward your business phones.
When to bring in help
If you don’t have in-house IT, a managed service provider can run pre-storm shutdowns, verify backups, and get you back online afterward — usually for less than the cost of one day of downtime. It’s worth a conversation before August, when the season historically peaks. See how a longer-term plan comes together in our hurricane business continuity plan template, and how local business IT support can run this checklist for you.
MetroTech’s earlier guide, Hurricane Season IT Preparedness for Florida Businesses, covers the broader seasonal picture alongside this checklist.
Frequently Asked Questions
How can businesses prepare for hurricanes?
Prepare in four areas: people (communication plan and contact tree), property (shutters, insurance, photos), technology (tested backups, cloud access, phone forwarding), and operations (a continuity plan for running the business afterward). Start before the season begins on June 1.
What are the 5 P’s of disaster preparedness?
People, Prescriptions, Papers, Personal needs, and Priceless items. For a business, translate that to employees, critical supplies, documents and insurance, operating essentials, and irreplaceable data.
What should be in a business hurricane kit?
Water (one gallon per person per day), non-perishable food, flashlights and batteries, first-aid supplies, a battery or crank radio, portable phone chargers, tarps and plastic sheeting, duct tape, and printed copies of your emergency plan and insurance policies.
When should a business close for a hurricane?
Decide early — ideally when a hurricane warning is issued, about 36 hours before expected impact. Closing early lets employees prepare their own homes and keeps them off the road during evacuation traffic.
Your growth is the mission.
MetroTech provides managed IT services, data backup & recovery, cybersecurity, and on-site business IT support across Tampa Bay. If you’d rather have professionals verify your backups, shut systems down safely, and bring everything back online after the storm, visit mettec.net or contact us for a free consultation.
