Hurricane Preparedness for Businesses: Protect Your Data

“Every hurricane season, I worry about losing our data or at least wasting a lot of time trying to get our systems back up and running.” For business owners and managers across Greater New Orleans, that worry comes back every June. We all know the routine of watching the tropics, stocking up, and making evacuation plans. But for many businesses, the plan for their technology is far less clear than the plan for their families.

The good news is that hurricane preparedness for businesses does not have to be complicated. With the right steps in place before, during, and after a storm, you can protect your data, keep your team connected, and get back to work faster. In this post, we will walk through why IT belongs at the center of your storm plan and share a practical checklist you can use every season.

Why Hurricane Preparedness for Businesses Starts With IT

When a hurricane threatens the Gulf Coast, the obvious risks are wind and water. But for most businesses, the bigger long-term impact comes from what happens to their technology. Extended power outages, internet and phone service disruptions, flooded offices, and damaged equipment can all keep a business offline long after the storm has passed.

Even when the building comes through safely, teams may be evacuated or scattered for days or weeks. If your files live on a server in the office and your phones ring only at your front desk, your business effectively stops until everyone can return. That is why hurricane preparedness for businesses has to cover how and where your team can work, not just how to protect the property.

In its May 2026 outlook, as reported by ABC News, NOAA predicted 8 to 14 named storms, 3 to 6 hurricanes, and 1 to 3 major hurricanes for the season, with a 55% chance of below-average activity. A quieter forecast is welcome news, but as anyone who has lived through a storm season here knows, a single hurricane is enough to disrupt a business.

It is also worth remembering that storms are not the only threat to your systems. Hardware failures, accidental deletions, ransomware, and power outages can cause the same kind of data loss on a sunny day. A good storm plan protects you from all of them.

Before the Season: Your Hurricane IT Checklist

The best time to prepare is before a storm is in the forecast. These are the steps we recommend for hurricane preparedness for businesses of any size.

1. Back up everything, and store it off site. Make sure your important data is backed up automatically and stored in the cloud or another location outside the region.
2. Test your backups. A backup is only useful if it can be restored. Test recovery so you know how long it takes and what comes back.
3. Move key tools to the cloud. Email, file sharing, and collaboration tools that live in the cloud can be reached from anywhere with an internet connection. Our post on whether your business should move to the cloud walks through that decision.
4. Set up secure remote access. Make sure employees can connect safely from home or wherever they evacuate, using multi-factor authentication.
5. Plan for your phones. A cloud-based business phone system lets calls ring on laptops and mobile apps, and your auto-attendant can share updated hours or instructions.
6. Document your systems and contacts. Keep an up-to-date list of vendors, accounts, and key contacts somewhere your team can reach it outside the office.
7. Protect your equipment. Use surge protectors and battery backups, and keep an inventory of devices for insurance purposes.
8. Assign responsibilities. Decide who handles backups, communication, shutdown, and recovery, and make sure everyone knows the plan.

When a Storm Is Approaching

Once a storm is headed our way, a few final steps can make recovery much easier.

• Confirm your most recent backups completed successfully.
• Send employees home with laptops, chargers, and anything they need to work remotely.
• Shut down and unplug equipment that will stay in the office.
• Move computers, servers, and network equipment off the floor and away from windows.
• Update your phone greeting or auto-attendant and set up call forwarding.
• Share a communication plan so everyone knows how the team will check in.

After the Storm: Getting Back Up and Running

Safety always comes first. Once it is safe to return or reconnect, focus on restoring the systems your business depends on most.

Start by checking the condition of your office, power, and internet connection before turning equipment back on. Restore critical systems in priority order, beginning with the tools your team needs to serve clients. If equipment was damaged or data was lost, your backups become the fastest path back to normal.

Be alert for scams, too. Cybercriminals often take advantage of disasters with phishing emails, fake relief requests, and fraudulent vendor invoices. Our post on how disasters fuel cyberattacks explains what to watch for, and our guide to small business cybersecurity covers how to build lasting protection.

Hurricane Preparedness for Businesses in Greater New Orleans

Every part of our region experiences storms a little differently. A business in Metairie, on the Westbank, or on the Northshore may face different flooding risks, power restoration timelines, and access issues than one downtown. Employees may evacuate in different directions and return at different times. Good hurricane preparedness for businesses in our area accounts for that uncertainty by making sure your data, tools, and phones do not depend on any single building or neighborhood.

It also helps to revisit your plan every year. Staff change, systems change, and the lessons from the last storm are easy to forget by the next June. A short review at the start of each season keeps your plan current and your team confident about what to do.

Why Backups Alone Are Not Enough

Backups are essential, but they are only one part of hurricane preparedness for businesses. Knowing how long recovery will take, which systems come back first, and how your team will keep working in the meantime matters just as much. For a deeper look, see our posts on why backup alone is not enough and how to build a business continuity plan without overcomplicating it.

How Courant Helps

Courant was founded in 1997 and is one of Louisiana’s first managed service providers. We have been through hurricanes, technology shifts, and everything in between, and we know that business continuity is not a nice-to-have on the Gulf Coast. It is part of doing business here.

Through our managed IT services, we provide automatic and frequent backups of your business data, fast data recovery, disaster recovery plans built around your specific business needs, and cloud-based backup options for added security and flexibility. We also set up secure remote access, cloud collaboration tools, and phone systems that follow your team wherever they work. And because our team monitors your systems around the clock, we can often spot and address problems before, during, and after a storm.

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