Prepare as individuals and the community

To alleviate the pressure on emergency services and ensure that your HOA is prepared for a natural disaster it’s important to assess what everyone can do as individuals, as well as what the association can do. While we are all concerned about COVID-19, we still need to remain focussed on other emergencies that can occur at any time.

Walk the site

Have a review of the site, check around the community and identified any areas needs to be cleared, such as any deadwood build up. Is there anything that you community can get involved with, as a community activity; carried out safely?

Remind residents of their own personal plans

Residents need to have their own plan when inside their condo, so remind them to practise any emergency plans. Particularly at the moment, when there are members of the family at home, who might not normally be so.

Residents need to figure out where they can take shelter in their house should a quake hit, to remember emergency drill training and aftershock advice. They should keep a pair of shoes by their bed to protect their feet and keep floors clear of trip hazards.

Heavy furniture should be secured to a wall or removed from the property to avoid further accidents or risk.

Residents should keep an emergency pack of clothes and items to keep them going for 3-5 days. At the moment, they need to include items that might help them if social distancing were still in place. So hand sanitisers, face masks and to remember to remain 6ft away from other people; as much as is this is possible in an emergency. They should also have a cash fund available, in case they need to buy supplies and comms are down.

Assessing the HOA emergency plans

This is a good time to reassess your HOA emergency community plan (see our post about things to consider here). Residents should be aware of any changes and ensure that they have a copy as well as contact details.

Stay safe

We hope that you are all keeping safe and well at this challenging time. Should you like to find out any more about Scott Litman Insurance Agency and how we can help, drop us a line today to: customerservice@sliains.com