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How to Create a Senior Living Community Severe Weather Preparedness Plan

Jul 15, 2024

Senior living communities that are prepared in the event of severe weather can better endure environmental uncertainty. Here’s how to develop a severe weather preparedness plan for your senior living community.

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When it comes to severe weather, senior living communities can never be too prepared. Severe weather preparedness is an aspect of risk management which focuses on creating and maintaining safe working and living environments for senior living community employees and residents. Conducting operations in a safe manner is key to resident satisfaction and employee retention, and will ensure your community remains successful now and in the future.

Here’s how to identify and assess your community’s risk and develop a comprehensive severe weather preparedness plan that minimizes disruptions and maximizes safety.

Assessing Current & Evolving Risks

Even established senior living communities have seen the literal ground shift beneath their feet due to changing climate patterns. Whether your community has been in place for decades or only a few years, taking stock of your current and anticipated severe weather threats and addressing them now will pay dividends later.

You will want your severe weather preparedness plan to include common emergency scenarios for emergencies that are most likely to happen in and around your community. That’s why the first place to start is by assessing both current and evolving risks to your community. Some of these risks may include:

Flooding risks. Perhaps your area was not historically in a flood zone but has experienced more flooding in recent decades. Evaluate your current and projected risk of flooding.
Increased tornado frequency. Tornadoes have become more prevalent in the U.S. in the areas south and east of the Mississippi River. Does your community have an emergency shelter identified and a plan in place for ensuring residents get there?
Hurricane risks. As with tornadoes, hurricane frequency is also on the rise on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. If you are in a hurricane prone area, or one that has recently seen more activity, you’ll want to create a plan specific to this type of disaster. See this case study to learn how two communities kept residents safe during Hurricane Matthew.
Heat waves. Older adults are especially sensitive to extreme heat. Is your community prepared for scenarios in which power is lost during extreme heat events?
Cold Weather. Older adults also have a higher chance of being affected by cold weather due to natural aging and certain chronic medical conditions. Is your community prepared for scenarios in which cold weather events could impact resident safety?

Proactively Minimizing Risk

In addition to the above risks, your community infrastructure and surrounding environment should also be reviewed and monitored. Being proactive about addressing these risk factors can reduce the risk of injury and damage caused by severe weather.

Regularly assess the condition of your roofing, windows and foundations and have them evaluated for potential hazards or stressors. Make updates and complete routine maintenance as necessary. This could also mean building or maintaining retaining walls in flood prone areas.

Old or diseased trees, disused outbuildings or construction debris piles can also pose risks. Clearing out these items, which could also include unused or outdated sheds, decayed pergolas, gazebos or boat houses, can reduce the damage that debris from these structures can wreck during high wind or flooding events.

Backup power sources should always be in place, and maintained and tested regularly. Evacuation should also be planned for in the event that backup power is also lost during extreme temperatures.

Consult with other business leaders in the area and city planning boards to discuss their severe weather preparedness plans. They may have identified further risk mitigation strategies in your area. Additionally, organizations like LCS who offer risk management can help senior living providers assess and proactively minimize risks in their areas.

Developing a Severe Weather Preparedness Plan

After evaluating possible vulnerabilities within your community and anticipated environmental threats, consider these five components as you develop your severe weather preparedness plan.

1. Preparation and Training

In preparation for a disaster, it’s important to ensure your community has backup sources for power, first aid supplies, water, medications and other critical needs of your residents and employees. Preparedness guides like this one from FEMA can be helpful for starting your list. Each community will have different needs.

Establish an emergency action checklist for each severe weather scenario; there may be overlap in some cases. In general, your list should include:

How severe weather events will be monitored. The Emergency Alert System (EAS) can provide short notice weather alerts via radio and television. Both FEMA and the Red Cross also provide applications that send emergency alerts to your phone. NOAA weather radio/alerts are another good source for continuous weather information.
How severe weather events will be communicated to employees and residents. Consider your list of anticipated severe weather threats and determine how you will get information out to your employees and residents before, during and after.
How employees and residents should respond to an emergency. Identify the responsibilities of each employee during a scenario and how they should work together as a team to ensure both resident safety and their own. Residents should also know where to go and/or how to react when alerted of a severe weather event.
Establish vendor contracts before severe weather happens. Building relationships with a network of trusted vendors ahead of a severe weather event means you will have direct access to the support your community needs when it needs it most.

Team members should receive regular training and review these procedures. Residents and their families should be briefed often and reminded again of procedures ahead of a predicted event, if possible.

Encourage strong connections between team members and residents throughout the planning process. These social bonds can provide a foundation for resilience and also build trust, which can be vital when a disaster occurs.

2. Communication

During a severe weather event, regular means of communication may not be available. Phone and internet service outages are common. Don’t rely on purely digital communications to educate residents and employees about safety plans or share updates.

Consider having physical preparedness plans and reminders such as flyers or brochures distributed to each residence and each employee. Billboards or whiteboards in common areas are good places for information to be updated and shared. These communication methods should exist in addition to other communication channels like a community app, campus TV monitors, your website and community social media groups.

3. Shelter Areas

If residents and team members are expected to shelter in place, identify these locations clearly using directional signage. If employees are expected to escort or assist residents to shelter areas, identify in advance who is responsible for which resident.

There should be clear guidance for employees on when to shelter in place and when to evacuate in the event of severe weather. Different events will require different strategies depending on the timeline involved and your community’s resources and preferred policies.

4. Evacuation Planning

You will want to include an evacuation plan for severe weather events in which you are unable to shelter in place or must evacuate because your shelter is no longer safe. Work with local authorities to coordinate the support you will need in the event of an emergency or evacuation.

Additionally, partnering with risk management services providers like LCS can give you access to a national network of resources to assist your organization in times of crisis, and its aftermath.

Returning to Normal After a Severe Weather Event

The impact of severe weather events varies. Some can result in minor damage and inconvenience; others can be devastating. When the threat has passed, continue monitoring the situation via your emergency channels, if possible. There may be additional events headed your way. Assess injuries and damage and contact local authorities as necessary. You will also want to contact residents’ family members in accordance with your internal notification policies.

Establish partnerships with disaster recovery and restoration companies to ensure a strong response in the wake of an event. These organizations can help you assess the extent of damage and give you timelines for ensuring a safe return.

Once again, rely on your communication networks with employees and residents to provide regular updates on your progress.

More About Senior Living Risk Management with LCS

If your organization is seeking a community operations partner to help prepare you for a severe weather event, Life Care Services, An LCS Company, and its risk management department can help. We have over a half century of experience in connecting communities with the resources they need to prepare for whatever the future may hold. Contact us at 515-642-1744, or complete the contact form below.