Restaurant Disaster Preparedness, Response & Recovery Guide

From hurricanes to heat domes, landslides to lockdowns, floods, tornadoes, wildfires, and Arctic freezes, restaurants have dealt with every disaster imaginable. And those are just the weather-related catastrophes; there’s also everyday accidents like kitchen fires and wayward vehicles plowing through your front door. This can all sound terrifying. But a little bit of preparation can go a long way.

I consulted with Nathan Weller, our resident insurance expert. This list includes both of our tips to help you manage your restaurant’s recovery, whether you’re facing a landslide, wildfire, or bear intrusion.

Key Resources for CA Wildfire Restaurant Recovery

The Independent Restaurant Coalition compiled a list of resources for restaurants and staff impacted by the Los Angeles wildfires.
Airbnb has partnered with Los Angeles 2-1-1 to offer one week of free housing to people who evacuated or lost their homes.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) list of wildfire recovery resources from federal agencies and partner organizations (including the Small Business Administration).

Tips for Preparing for Your Restaurant for Disasters
Tips for Responding to a Disaster
Tips for Making an Insurance Claim after a Disaster
FAQs
Last Bite

Tips for Preparing for Your Restaurant for Disasters

The best disaster preparedness starts before the catastrophes happen. Since you never know when one will strike, any day can be a good day to create a disaster response strategy for your restaurant.

1. Complete a Self Inspection

Walk through your restaurant with disasters in mind. If there were a fire, are all exits clearly marked and accessible? Are fire extinguishers readily available and recently charged? Has your kitchen fire suppression system been serviced at least once in the past year?

Consider the likely disasters in your area. If floods are common, are your storage locations designed to easily move products above flood waters? If you are in a tornado-prone area, do you have a safe space for staff and customers to shelter in place? If yes, do you have clear signage indicating how staff and guests should evacuate?

2. Take Pictures

During your walk-through, take pictures of your entire location, from your kitchen cooking equipment to your dining room furniture. Save these photos in the cloud or email them to yourself so you can easily access them in the future.

Anytime you replace a piece of equipment, take pictures and document the date you made the purchase. If you can get model numbers in the photos, that’s even better. Having detailed pictures will help in the event you need to make an insurance claim.

3. Check Your Insurance Coverage

Most local laws require restaurants to have some form of liability insurance and worker’s compensation coverage before they can open their doors. But depending on your restaurant type and the risks in your location, you may want more robust coverage. In most cases, your policy must explicitly state the types of losses you are covered for.

Flood insurance is a great example. If your restaurant is in a flood-prone area, you need flood insurance to ensure any losses you suffer in a flood are covered. Same for tornadoes, hurricanes, and fire.
If you need to close your business for an extended period, associated losses are only covered if you have business interruption insurance.

Contact your insurance agent to walk you through your policy. Ask explicit questions about specific loss types you’re likely to encounter and make sure they are all covered. Ask your agent to clarify any “exclusions”– risks that are explicitly not covered. If anything important is excluded from your policy, find out if your insurer offers endorsements to extend your coverage. Update your policy to add additional coverages if you can.

Need more information on restaurant insurance? Check out our full guide to restaurant insurance coverage, written by a former insurance adjuster.

4. Keep Inventory and Business Records Close

Make it easy to access current sales and inventory data. If your restaurant has a catastrophic loss due to a fire, flood, or storm, this information will document your lost product and lost sales. Since you can’t know what type of disaster may happen, storing this information in a cloud-based system is best.

If you back up your point of sale information in the cloud, you can access your sales history from any internet-connected device (same if you use cloud-based inventory management software). If you’re more analog, store copies of your sales reports and inventory spreadsheets in a cloud-based drive like Google Drive or OneDrive. Or regularly email yourself a weekly (or monthly) sales report and inventory count.

5. Make an Emergency Plan

Your emergency plan should cover two essential types of emergencies; emergencies that happen when you and your employees are on-site, and the emergencies that happen when the restaurant is empty. You need to outline clear procedures for your staff and managers to follow in both instances.

For onsite emergencies, consider:

Where will staff and guests go in specific situations (fire, flood, storm, etc.)?
Who will take charge in the event of an emergency that happens during the course of service?
Who will contact emergency services if needed?
What routes will staff and guests take to exit the restaurant or to get to a safe location?
What locations will your staff meet at if they need to evacuate the building in an emergency?
Who will ensure that your business systems (point of sale, payments, cash on hand) are secured?
Who will secure the premises if necessary?
Who will communicate with guests, and what will they say?

For emergencies that happen when the restaurant is empty, consider:

Who will secure the premises?
Who will decide if closing the business is necessary?
How will you communicate closure or changes in operation to staff and customers?
How will necessary operational changes be made? By whom?
Who will turn off the power, gas, or water when necessary?

In either scenario, determine a plan for if you lose power and the ability to safely store food. Will you purchase coolers or generators for short-term outages? How will you document the loss of food that needs to be destroyed?

Ask for feedback: Get your managers and experienced staff involved in the emergency planning process. They may see risks or challenges you haven’t considered. Asking for their feedback before finalizing your emergency plan is a great way to get their buy-in and start the training process.

6. Train Staff

Once you have made an emergency plan, share it with your staff in as many ways as possible.

Add the emergency plan to training manuals.
Practice walking evacuation routes with your team
Role play how to handle evolving situations so staff are prepared in the event of an emergency.
Ensure the appropriate staff know where the shut offs for your water, power, and gas are located, and that they know how to operate them (and when to operate them).
If your location is prone to seasonal severe weather, refresh everyone’s memory of emergency procedures during daily staff meetings.

Know when to do nothing: During your training procedures, ensure that your staff knows when an event is out of their hands. The last thing you want is one of your team members risking their safety. The hardest thing to do is to do nothing. But if a fire is burning out of control, or a tornado is raging outside, doing nothing but ensuring your own personal safety is the right move.

7. Communicate With Customers

Let customers know about your disaster preparedness plans by posting relevant signage, or mentioning it when conversationally relevant.

I once managed a restaurant nestled between two glass towers in downtown Los Angeles. All of our regular customers knew that, in the case of an earthquake, we were advised to evacuate the building and wait out the shaking at a nearby public park. The many stories of glass from the two adjacent towers would barricade us in our building if it shattered.

Angelenos are pretty incurred to shaking, but on the few occasions we experienced dramatic rumbles there, the evacuation process went smoothly. Because earthquake preparedness was a regular topic of conversation.

8. Organize Your Insurance Paperwork

Organize all of your insurance information so it is easy to locate when you need it. In this case, it is good to have both hard copies and digital copies. You’ll be able to access the hard copy if you are without power, and access the digital copy if you cannot get into your restaurant. Take care to include:

Your carrier
Your policy number
Policyholder’s name
Address of the covered location
Your local agent (if you have one)
Your insurer’s claims phone number (if they use one)
Your insurer’s claims website (if they use one)
A summary of the claims process (usually available on your provider’s website)

It is a good idea to keep a hard copy of this information both in your restaurant and at an offsite location. If there is an emergency that leaves your restaurant inaccessible (like a hurricane, flood, or wildfire), you’ll want this information close at hand.

9. Build an Emergency Kit

Assemble a few kits with essential items like first aid supplies, flashlights and batteries, phone chargers, a basic tool kit, and important phone numbers. Keep these kits in a few easily accessible locations throughout your restaurant. Ensure your managers and key staff know where the kits are. Make it a habit to check the kits quarterly to ensure everything is stocked, batteries are charged, and everything is in good working order.

Starting and running a restaurant requires an incredible amount of effort and energy. If you didn’t put together a disaster plan before you opened, don’t be hard on yourself. Any day that you start looking at your risks and planning to protect your business is a good day to do it.

Tips for Responding to a Disaster

All the preparation in the world can’t prevent all disasters. But that preparation will help you recover more quickly. These are our tips for regaining control when the worst-case scenario happens.

10. Make a Checklist

In the immediate aftermath of a catastrophe, there are many moving pieces (and they’re usually moving pretty fast). Once you are safe, take a few deep breaths and start making a list. Include:

Every action you need to take: Include steps like assessing damage, securing product or premises, filing an insurance claim, contacting investors, communicating with staff, canceling deliveries, contacting your attorney, and moving funds from savings into your payroll account.
Every item that was damaged: Start listing everything you can think of that was damaged or that might be damaged. Locate photos of the items in undamaged condition (if you have them), and take photos of the damaged items (if possible).
Every person you need to contact: Depending on the event type, you may need to contact your insurer, your investors, your staff, your customers, your suppliers, your attorney, or all of the above.

In the face of a lot of unknowns, checking tasks off a list can make you feel you are regaining control. A list also helps you organize your thoughts and reduces the chance that things will fall through the cracks.

11. Delegate Tasks

Assign specific roles and responsibilities to your team. Designate someone to document damage, someone to communicate with staff, someone to communicate with customers. If your building sustained damage, you may also designate someone to oversee safety protocols for anyone onsite. Assign a team to oversee cleanup and sanitization.

12. Remove Damaged Food

If your food supplies were compromised due to power outages or flooding, remove them. Document the quantity of items if you can so you can later generate an accurate accounting for your insurance claim. Don’t second guess, especially in the case of flood damaged food. Floods can leave behind bacteria, microorganisms, and spores that you may not see for days or weeks.

It is better to remove any food that you even suspect might be compromised than create the additional headache of spreading food borne illness. Remove the damaged food as quickly as possible and deep clean your refrigerators and storage areas.

13. Connect With Your Community

Collaborate with other restaurants and nearby businesses, local civic organizations, and your local government to share information and shared recovery strategies. Accept help when it is offered. Offer help when you can. Your community will be a source of assistance, encouragement, and camaraderie. In the aftermath of a disaster, that type of support is priceless.

Connecting with your community will also speed the process if you need to organize efforts to lobby for an emergency declaration or create resources for mutual aid.

Tips for Making an Insurance Claim after a Disaster

Nathan Weller is a former insurance adjuster who writes most of The Restaurant HQ’s insurance guides. These are his tips for making an insurance claim after your restaurant encounters a covered event.

14. Stay Positive

No matter how bad things are, this isn’t the end for you or your business. You will recover, even if it feels overwhelming right now. Take a minute to remind yourself of that before you start the claims process.

15. Contact Your Insurance Carrier Directly

You may have purchased your insurance policy through a local agent. Local agents are great for in-person service during normal conditions. But in the case of a catastrophic event like a storm or wildfire, your local agent is living through the same events you are; they may be just as overwhelmed and stressed. So start the claims process by contacting your insurance carrier directly at their national claims line or via their website.

If you don’t remember who your insurance carrier is, it’s fine to contact your agent to get those details. Or, if you own your building, the bank that services your mortgage should also have your insurer information on file.

16. Prepare to File Multiple Claims

If you have multiple coverages– commercial property, business interruption, etc.– you may need to file separate claims for each type of loss. While you have a claims adjuster on the phone, ask detailed questions to fully understand your policy,what it covers, and your reporting requirements.

If you have business interruption insurance you may not be able to file right away; most policies require 72 hours of no business before coverage kicks in. So even though everyone in the world knows you won’t be reopening in 72 hours you’ll still need to wait and file that separately. Of course, that may not be the case with your specific policy; so ask lots of questions when filing the initial loss.

Basically, leave no stone unturned. It helps the adjuster as well as your business when you understand all the reporting requirements.

17. Be Patient

No insurance company has the staff to deal with catastrophic losses. They offer extra pay and meals to get adjusters to pull 20-hour work days. Even then processing times can still be slow.

18. Thoroughly Document Your Losses

While you’re waiting to speak with an adjuster (or waiting to hear back from one), create a list of everything you lost, including approximate age and value. If you don’t have detailed records of every work surface, piece of equipment, or light fixture, that’s ok. Check your social media posts. Maybe when you opened you or your staff took pictures of your shiny, new commercial kitchen because you were so proud. In an insurance claim, this can be evidence of exactly what type of stove you bought and how old it is. The more proof you can provide, the faster and more favorable your claim resolution will be.

19. Be Polite

Flex your hospitality skills and be polite to everyone you interact with. I know that sounds silly but I’ve worked in the call centers during catastrophes. Imagine being a person who makes barely more than minimum wage, seeing there are calls holding for an hour but you can’t do anything about it. Every person you talk to thinks their world is over and expects the person they are speaking to to fix it yesterday, even if they can’t.

Many people will get angry and even verbally abusive. I can tell you from first-hand experience, that if someone is nice to you, they’ll go out of their way to help you because it is so rare to encounter anyone who is understanding, nice, or patient in those moments. The nice person gets better customer service when there are losses like this.

FAQs

Here are some quick answers to the most common questions we hear from restaurant owners dealing with disasters.

A comprehensive disaster recovery policy should cover:

Risk assessment: Start with the likely risks based on your business and location. Full service bars have different risks than coffee shops. Restaurants in hurricane-prone areas have different risks than those in deserts. All restaurants have risks of fire damage.
Response plans for likely emergencies: Write an emergency response plan for each of your likely emergencies, from kitchen fires to wildfires, foodborne illness, earthquakes, severe weather, or cars driving through your front entrance.
Insurance information: Add your insurance carrier and policy information.
Communication plan: Write a clear communication plan detailing who is responsible for communicating with staff, customers, investors, suppliers, the media, and other stakeholders.
Expected recovery process: Create guidelines for assessing damage, documenting losses, and clearing the business to re-open.
Training materials: Include plans for training your staff and key management members to practice handling emergency situations.

Restaurant owners should include this plan in manager and staff training manuals. Hold regular drills and training conversations to keep your team on the same page and ensure everyone knows their role in an emergency.

An emergency response plan is a step-by-step guide detailing how you and your staff should respond to a specific crisis or emergency situation. An emergency response plan should include:

Immediate actions to take: Write the necessary actions for each type of emergency. In the case of a kitchen fire, those actions might be using a fire extinguisher, shutting off the gas, and evacuating the dining room.
Evacuation routes: If an evacuation is part of your plan, include a detailed route and designate the place where staff and customers should gather after an evacuation so everyone’s safety can be accounted for. Keep in mind that the evacuation plan may be different based on the emergency type; a fire and severe weather have very different risks requiring unique evacuation strategies.
Emergency contact information: Include contact information for the relevant emergency services provider; fire department, police, etc. Include the address and route to the nearest emergency room.
Roles and responsibilities: Clearly assign tasks to specific people or roles. In a fire, who shuts off the gas line, a chef or the front of house manager? Who guides customer evacuation, a manager or a server?

Make sure your managers and team members know where to locate copies of your emergency response plans. Keeping hard copies in tabbed binders in your kitchen and server stations is a good idea.

A recovery plan keeps you organized as you rebuild from a crisis. They help you get back in business with fewer delays and setbacks. There are few crucial steps:

Prioritize safety: Start from a place of safety. If any of the steps feel unsafe, wait to complete them until they can be performed safely.
Assess damage: Once it is safe to do so, walk through your space to assess and document damage.
Contact your insurer: Contact your insurer via their preferred contact method (usually phone or website claim form).
Outline necessary recovery steps: Create a list of all the steps you’ll need to complete before you can reopen. This might be necessary repairs, replacing equipment, or ordering supplies.
Build a timeline: Create a timeline based on your recovery steps. Are you expecting to re-open in six days? Or six months?
Communicate: Inform key stakeholders in your business about your plans and progress. These might include your business partners, investors, suppliers, staff, and customers.
Adjust as needed: Each time you recover from an unexpected event, you’ll learn something. Update your crisis recovery plan and emergency response plans whenever you find a new wrinkle in the process or encounter a new solution.

Last Bite

As long as restaurants have been around, they have faced disasters, catastrophes, and worst-case scenarios. And they have survived, rebuilt, and thrived.

I was working at a Hollywood restaurant when a car ran through the front door and into the dining room.

One of my dear friends lost his restaurant to a fire a few months after he bought it.

A favorite local restaurant closed for six months to repair flood damage from a broken water main.

These scenarios are all scary. The good news is that no one was harmed in any of these situations. All of the restaurants were rebuilt and recovered. When a disaster happens, the first important thing to remember is that no matter how bad things look in the immediate aftermath, you and your restaurant will recover, too. We’re here cheering you on. Stay strong. You’ve got this.