More than a year after “Superstorm Sandy” wreaked havoc along the East Coast, many communities throughout the region remain focused on recovery efforts. The storm was catastrophic and the ongoing media coverage highlights the fact that there is still a long road ahead to total recovery for many in our region. While Sandy was a storm unlike any we’ve seen in recent years the intensity of nature’s recent events is becoming a larger part of the dialogue for building’s Board of Directors and management companies throughout the region.

Keeping Everyone Safe

As seasoned residential property managers with a growing portfolio of buildings throughout New York, we attempt to predict all types of emergency situations and develop practiced plans to prepare our superintendents and residents for a variety of events. We want our boards and building residents to feel safe and prepared to deal with the increasingly frequent weather events that have faced the region in the past several years. As these conditions become more extreme we are committed to being proactive in our level of preparedness.

In the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy, we were dedicated to more than just the recovery. It was also about improvement. We are emerging from the lessons learned from the storm with better, stronger, more efficient and effective emergency preparedness systems in place to deal with Mother Nature’s changing conditions. We are not just stronger than the storm; we are a stronger property management company because of the storm.

As we find ourselves in one of the colder and snowier winter seasons in recent years, we are recognizing that the work we did following Superstorm Sandy has been instrumental to providing services to our tenants during this tough winter. Following Sandy, our company’s Emergency Task Force studied the storm and our response to it. While we are very proud of our performance (we had 42 buildings without power and six flooded by the surge), we still brainstormed ways we could have done more, been better prepared, or established new protocols to take the best care of our residents and their homes. Emergencies by definition don’t provide time for planning, but we believed we could strengthen our preparedness for the future.

We recently revealed our findings and future plans in a newly fortified Emergency Preparedness Plan and accompanying workbook. The workbook, designed for ease of use by all building staff outlines the purchase of supplies, preparations before an incident occurs, directions on how to respond to specific emergencies, and an appendix of additional resources that can be used.

Where families are advised to keep a “Go Bag” for emergencies, our firm has made sure its buildings will be “ready to go” in every situation.

Have a System in Place

It would be prudent for property management companies to have a system in place which ensures its building staff is familiar with all procedures and specifics for the property, and is able to obtain all the information they need for handling emergencies. Knowledge is one of the most important steps in being prepared—it means staff will have the tools to spring into action quickly, with clear objectives helping to ensure less confusion during an incident.

Another item vital to an emergency plan that property managers should establish is a recognized chain of command structure. Chain of command in an emergency situation is different from day-to-day work policies and should not be thought of in the same way. Factors such as who is immediately able to report for duty, who is physically able to perform the tasks at hand, and who can be relied upon to perform specific tasks should be considered. Also key is when situations result in the failure of electronic communication; staff should have plans in place for knowing how to communicate with tenants through other non-electronic channels.

From the more common occurrences such as an electrical outage all the way to a massive storm, man-made threat, or even an errant meteor, having an emergency preparedness workbook provides for solutions. At the properties we manage, preparing the building is just part of the equation. It’s ultimately about the residents who live there. It’s important to arm building staff with current resident information and meet regularly to review updates and changes. The information should not be limited to ‘who is currently where’ in the building, but also identify who may need special assistance should the building lose services or an evacuation order is given.

While it’s imperative that property managers have strategies prepared to handle all types of emergencies, Boards should also have a plan in place. Board members must take the time to become familiar with the property manager’s emergency plans and have an understanding of the building’s insurance policies. It is also helpful to have a list of contractors on hand in case an element of the building needs to be repaired.

Preparing for an emergency situation is not something buildings and staff should not be doing the week before a potentially damaging storm or reactively after a localized property situation. It needs to be part of the daily dialogue of how buildings run—if they are to run well and successfully. As a lifeline for our residents during an emergency—natural or man-made—the management community needs to be constantly challenging themselves to provide its building communities with the highest level of preparedness to deal with approaching and existing emergencies.

All buildings and managers should be prepared, and for us, it is an opportunity to recast a terrible tragedy into a brighter future.

Paul Gottsegen, CPM, is president of Manhattan-based Halstead Property Management.