This hurricane season (2026): NOAA is forecasting a below-average Atlantic season, with a developing El Niño expected to hold activity down. A quieter forecast does not mean there is nothing to worry about. Two named storms have already formed, and both have taken aim at South Louisiana. Arthur brought heavy rain through last month, and Bertha is in the Gulf and headed our way now. Seeing both track toward us this early is unusual, and the season is just getting started. As NOAA reminds everyone in a hurricane-prone area, it only takes one storm in the wrong place. If your plan is not current, this is the week to fix it.
Businesses along the Gulf Coast know hurricane season is a standing operational risk. Every storm is different, but they often test the same business continuity issues: whether your team can stay connected, whether customers can still reach you, and whether you can keep working when the power or the internet goes down.
When severe weather hits, having a solid preparedness plan is what separates a short disruption from an extended business outage that drags on your bottom line. Keeping your essential operations and communications running through power outages, circuit failures, flooding, and the other curveballs a storm throws is the top goal.
Since 1949, ESC has helped Gulf Coast businesses stay connected and operational through more hurricanes and tropical storms than we can count. Those experiences taught us one thing above all: the right preparation is the difference between a short-term headache and a serious business interruption. We built this checklist to help you plan, prepare, and recover.
Before The Storm: Essential Communication Preparations
Clear communication becomes your most valuable tool when severe weather hits.
Many businesses focus on physical preparations but overlook the need to establish and test their communication systems first. The right protocols keep your team informed and coordinated. Good emergency and backup communications protocols also reassure customers that you are prepared and professional even in trying conditions.
From helping businesses across the Gulf South Region weather countless storms, we have found that the organizations that prioritize communication planning keep better operational control and recover more quickly.
Keep Your Customers Informed.
When a storm is coming, customers need to know how your business is operating. Update your customer-facing messages across every channel you use, not just the phone line:
- Voicemail and auto-attendant greetings for before, during, and after the storm, with your hours, any closures, expected response times, and how to reach you.
- Email blasts or auto-replies carrying the same information, plus text messaging if you use it.
- A short notice on your website and social channels if you use them.
Keep Your Team Connected.
Your team needs one clear plan for reaching you and each other when the office is closed or unreachable. Agree in advance on:
- The channels you will use, with a backup for each. Most teams run on a collaboration platform like Microsoft Teams, with group text and email as fallbacks.
- Who contacts whom, and in what order, so nothing depends on one person being reachable.
- Where the current status lives, like a dedicated Teams channel, so everyone checks the same place instead of chasing or missing updates.
A modern cloud communications system makes this far easier. Your business number, voicemail, chat, and video follow your team to a laptop or mobile app, so calls and messages reach the right person wherever they are. You are not counting on anyone sitting at their desk, and there is no physical phone line to reroute by hand.
Test Before You Need It.
- Confirm your team can make and take business calls, send emails and messages, and join meetings from remote devices, not just from the office.
- Check that emergency greetings and email auto-replies trigger correctly.
- Make sure everyone can actually log into the tools they will rely on, before they need them.
Remote Work Readiness
The ability to shift seamlessly to remote operations can keep your business running even when your physical location is inaccessible. Doing it well takes more than sending everyone home with laptops (and power cords/chargers…Someone always forgets theirs!). Your plan should cover technology, security, and communication tools together. We have seen many businesses that invest in remote work capability for their teams maintain productivity and customer service through extended disruptions.
Equipment and Access
Make sure every employee has:
- Laptops or tablets with necessary software installed and updated
- VPN access configured and tested, if needed
- Mobile devices with critical business communication apps installed and logged in
- Written instructions for remote access procedures
- Emergency contact information saved locally
Security Considerations
Verify all remote devices have:
- Updated security software
- Encrypted connections
- Multi-factor authentication (MFA) enabled
- Secure access to company resources
Plan for MFA Failures
Multi-factor authentication (MFA), the second login step that texts you a code or prompts an app, is one of the strongest protections you can put on an account. It can also lock you out at the worst possible moment if the phone running it loses signal, gets damaged, or goes missing in a storm. Two steps prevent that:
- Store backup codes for every MFA app in a secure, retrievable location. Better yet, set up a “break-glass” admin account that can override and reset MFA when someone is locked out.
- Favor authenticator apps over text-message (SMS) codes. If someone on your team loses a phone, moving their number to a new device means going through your carrier, which can take far longer during a disaster. Re-establishing an authenticator app on a new phone is usually faster, as long as you have those backup codes saved.
Communication Tools
Test and confirm access to:
- Cloud-based phone systems
- Video conferencing platforms
- Team collaboration tools
- File sharing systems
- Project management software
Watch for Scammers During and After the Storm
Disasters are a gift to criminals. They thrive in chaos. When everyone is stressed, moving fast, and focused on getting back online, attention spent on phishing detection drops and normal security habits slip. Bad actors know this, and they plan for it.
During and after a storm, expect a spike in phishing emails, fake vendor and insurance messages, bogus FEMA or utility notices, and urgent requests designed to pressure your team into skipping the usual checks. Aside from the volume, the real danger is lowering guardrails in the name of speed and convenience. A lowered guardrail is exactly what an attacker needs to take over an account or reroute a payment.
A few habits keep you protected when it matters most:
- Train your team to slow down enough to take a beat on any urgent requests. Verify unusual requests, especially any involving payments, credentials, or account changes, through a known phone number rather than simply replying to the message.
- Keep your security controls on. This is the moment people are tempted to disable MFA or loosen access to move faster, and it is precisely when you need those controls in place.
- Remind your team before the storm that scam activity climbs during emergencies, so they are expecting it.
Do not let a weather emergency become a security incident stacked on top of it.
Infrastructure Considerations
Your physical infrastructure is the backbone of your operations, and it is often the most vulnerable part during severe weather. You cannot control the weather, but you can build in the redundancies and backups that keep critical functions alive.
We have built resilient business continuity setups across the Gulf South Region, including critical services like medical facilities, that have kept them running through hurricanes and other severe weather. The key is identifying your most critical systems and giving them multiple layers of protection.
Power Management
- Test all UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) systems.
- Verify generator functionality and fuel levels. Pro Tip: Don’t just think of fuel for generators. You will need to change your oil and filters after a long run, so make sure you have backups of those as well.
- Review battery backup runtime calculations.
- Ensure critical systems are connected to backup power.
Network Redundancy
Having a secondary internet path used to mean paying for an expensive secondary circuit year-round. Now satellite service like Starlink gives you a portable, affordable backup internet provider that sets up in minutes and can sit on a shelf until you need it. Any business with a generator or battery backup can keep working from the office or remotely. A satellite connection can keep you online even when your primary provider goes dark. It is one of the highest-value, lowest-cost additions to a business continuity plan we have been able to recommend in years.
- Confirm backup internet connections are operational.
- Consider a portable satellite backup, such as Starlink, as a low-cost on-call secondary internet provider.
- Test automatic failover systems.
- Verify cellular backup systems where applicable.
- Review bandwidth allocation for critical services.
Data Protection
- Verify all critical data is backed up.
- Test backup restoration procedures.
- Ensure offline copies of essential documents are available.
- Review and update disaster recovery procedures.
The Cloud Advantage in a storm.
The single most effective way to make storm season easier is to host your systems and applications in the cloud. When your data and software live in the cloud instead of on a server in your office, much of a preparedness checklist no longer applies to you. There is no on-site server to protect or relocate, and no scramble to stand up a temporary host and get everyone connected to it. As long as your team has internet and a device they can carry, it does not matter whether they are at the office, at home, or three states inland.
That lightens all three phases of a storm:
- Before: Far less for you to prepare, since much of the backup, relocation, and “where will we work” planning falls away.
- During: You keep running from anywhere and can shift with the storm instead of being tied to a specific building.
- After: You have far less to recover, so you get back to normal faster.
The real payoff is peace of mind. A cloud-hosted business carries a fraction of the stress when a storm is bearing down, because the hardest questions are already answered. A few things may still live on-site, and anything not in the cloud still needs its own backups, but for most businesses, the more you move to the cloud, the lighter every storm season gets.
Multi-Location Business Strategies
Organizations with multiple locations face extra challenges during severe weather, but they also hold a real advantage. With some extra planning, having multiple sites lets you shift operations and keep going even when one location is knocked out. With coordination and clear protocols, every location understands how to execute shifts fast. Our work with multi-location businesses, including retail banking, has shown how much effective cross-location planning protects during a disaster.
Call Routing
- Configure automated call routing between locations.
- Set up overflow call handling procedures.
- Test location-to-location communication systems.
- Establish backup communication protocols.
Resource Distribution
- Identify critical functions that can transfer between locations.
- Cross-train staff on essential operations.
- Document procedures for shifting operations between sites.
- Establish clear decision-making protocols for resource allocation.
Coordination
- Create a central communication hub for all locations.
- Establish regular check-in procedures during emergencies.
- Define roles and responsibilities across locations.
- Document escalation procedures for various scenarios.
Post-Storm Business Recovery
The hours, days, and sometimes weeks right after a storm are critical for recovery. The instinct is to rush back to normal, but a methodical approach prevents new problems and gets you to business as usual more smoothly.
From decades of helping New Orleans and Gulf Coast businesses recover, we have learned that documenting the recovery is as important as the recovery itself. That record helps with insurance claims and government grants and gives you real insight for improving your plan before the next event.
Immediate Actions
- Assess infrastructure damage and safety.
- Implement system restoration procedures.
- Execute communication recovery plans.
- Begin employee return protocols.
Documentation
- Record all incident-related actions and decisions.
- Document lessons learned.
- Update emergency procedures based on experience.
- Review and revise business continuity plans.
Hurricane preparedness protects far more than physical assets. It protects your ability to keep serving customers and supporting your team, no matter what the season brings. Every step you take now to strengthen your communications, IT, and security is an investment in your resilience and your long-term success.
ESC has guided countless businesses through severe weather preparation and recovery. The pattern is clear: businesses that prepare thoroughly and keep flexible, resilient communication systems are the ones best positioned to weather any storm.
Need help preparing your business for hurricane season? Contact ESC today to make sure your team, communication systems, and IT infrastructure are ready for whatever comes your way.
