Prepared, Not Scared.

That is the theme for this year’s National Preparedness Month. Annually, FEMA and other government organizations dedicate the month of September to educating individuals, families, businesses, and communities on the importance of taking action to prepare for emergency situations.The weekly themes include:

• Week 1 (Sept 1-7) - Save Early for Disaster Costs
• Week 2 (Sept 8-14) - Make a Plan to Prepare for Disasters
• Week 3 (Sept 15-21) - Teach Youth to Prepare for Disasters
• Week 4 (Sept 22-30) - Get Involved in Your Community's Preparedness

Though we hope you’ll consider disaster preparedness an important aspect of your risk management strategy all year long, this is a great time to check on your planning – both personally and in your organization. We’ve gathered a collection of resources to help you develop, implement, and test your emergency plans.

Most businesses wouldn’t think twice about investing in the safety of their employees while they are at work; however, if employees are your most valuable asset, shouldn’t you be concerned with their personal safety, risk management, and disaster preparedness?

Today we’re sharing a blog from Central Insurance Companies. We hope you enjoy it!

If the wind was strong enough to pick up Dorothy and Toto and pull her entire house into a tornado and send them to the magical Land of Oz, there is no telling what it could do to your property. Tornado season is just around the corner, so instead of getting your magical shoes ready, follow these simple steps to minimize the wind damage to your home.

Art Jacobs, Principal and Risk Advisor at Gibson, discusses fire suppression systems. Fire suppression systems are universally accepted as the best initial line of defense against fire. The key is to make sure that your system is properly designed and maintained to help you protect what matters most. To hear what Art has to say, check out the video below: 

National Public Health Week (NPHW) is an opportunity to celebrate the power of prevention, advocate for healthy and fair policies, share strategies for successful partnerships, and champion the role of a strong public health system. Despite advancements in public health, Americans live shorter lives and suffer more health issues than people in other high-income countries. Below are the pillars of public health:

Spring showers can include severe weather. This week is Severe Weather Preparedness Week. The focus is to better educate and prepare about the hazards of severe thunderstorms, tornadoes, and flash flooding. 

Lightning kills more people each year than tornadoes. It can strike as far as 10 miles away from any rainfall. If you can hear thunder, you are in danger from lightning. Below are tips for staying safe from lightening. When you see lightening:

Today we’re sharing insight from guest blogger, Chad Orlikowski, Vice President of Operations for ENS Group. We hope you enjoy Chad’s wisdom and perspective.

I often see companies implement technology first without truly understanding how their disaster recovery procedures will be executed. As a result, the recovery tends to be chaotic and less effective than it should be. How can this best be avoided? I recommend looking at the following key areas when developing your business continuity plan and technology strategy:

Thank you to everyone who has been following Gibson's #DisasterReady story. Our journey officially began in September 2014. Don't get me wrong, we had things in the works. In fact, I was part of Gibson's "original" disaster recovery team. We built a 3-inch three ring binder of vital information that we finished in April 2008. We proudly placed those binders on the shelves of about 10 of our people who were identified as key in the event of a disaster. And then they sat. They sat there through a gas leak that evacuated our main location (as well as multiple city blocks), through winter storms that shut down the roads, and through a power outage that took several blocks in South Bend down for one of the busiest weekends of the year.

With power outages, don’t think if, think when.

We are all susceptible to power outages. In fact, Agility Recovery tells us that 70% of businesses will lose power sometime in the next 12 months. But are we prepared to respond and recover quickly from a disruption? Unfortunately most businesses are not.