One of the most crucial keys to weathering a storm or other natural disaster is advance preparation. Even if you think a storm will not affect you, please be prepared. Recent history has shown that severe weather can do significant damage to medical practices, and the disruption it causes can last far longer than the storm itself. A few hours of preparation before a storm can save you days or even weeks of recovery time afterward.
We have worked with medical practices across Georgia and the Southeast for years, and we have seen firsthand what separates practices that bounce back quickly from those that struggle. It almost always comes down to whether they prepared in advance or scrambled at the last minute. The good news is that most of what needs to be done is straightforward. It just needs to happen before the storm arrives, not after.
Have a Disaster Recovery Plan in place
If your practice does not have a formal Disaster Recovery Plan, that is the single most important thing to address before storm season. A Disaster Recovery Plan is not just a document. It is a clear set of instructions that tells every member of your team what to do before a weather event, during the immediate aftermath, and as you work toward resuming normal operations. It defines which systems are mission-critical, who is responsible for which tasks, what your backup and recovery process looks like, and how you communicate with patients and staff when normal channels are disrupted.
Without a plan, every decision gets made under pressure, with incomplete information, by people who are already stressed. That is when mistakes happen and recovery drags on. With a plan, your team moves with purpose from the moment the storm passes. If you want help building or reviewing your Disaster Recovery Plan, call us. That is exactly the kind of conversation we have with practices every day.
Print your daily appointment schedules for at least one week
This is one of the simplest steps on this list and one of the most overlooked. When your EHR system goes down because power is out or your network is unavailable, your front desk has no visibility into who is scheduled, what procedures are planned, or which patients need urgent follow-up. That creates immediate chaos for your team and your patients.
Printing daily appointment schedules for at least one week before an anticipated storm gives your staff a paper backup to work from. It allows you to proactively contact patients to reschedule appointments, manage urgent care needs, and resume operations more smoothly once systems come back online. It takes minutes to do and costs almost nothing. Do it early, before the storm is close enough to make printing and logistics difficult.
Take critical media offsite and make sure it is protected
If your practice is still using backup tapes, those tapes need to leave the building before a storm arrives. A common assumption is that storing tapes in a safe inside the office is sufficient protection. It is not. If a roof sustains damage during a storm, water will travel down through every floor of the building, including floors that appear completely unaffected from the outside. A waterproof safe on the tenth floor can still be compromised if the building takes on enough water from above.
The right approach is to take tapes to a secure offsite location entirely. If that is not possible, at minimum store them in waterproof containers and elevate them off the floor. And if you are still relying on tape backups, this is a good moment to have a broader conversation about your backup strategy. Tape is slow, unreliable, and requires physical handling at exactly the moments when that is hardest to manage. Modern cloud-based backup solutions are more reliable, easier to manage, and accessible from anywhere once connectivity is restored. Give us a call and we can walk you through what a better solution looks like for your practice.
Power off and unplug everything you can
Before a storm hits, power down and unplug every piece of equipment in your office that you reasonably can. This includes computers, monitors, printers, modems, routers, UPS units, calculators, copiers, and any other general office equipment. Unplugging is important, not just powering off. When electricity is restored after an outage, power surges are extremely common and they destroy equipment that survived the storm itself. A device that made it through a hurricane can be killed by the surge that comes when the grid comes back on.
For specialty equipment like X-ray machines, diagnostic imaging systems, and other clinical devices, do not assume the standard shutdown process applies. Contact your vendors directly before the storm to ask whether those devices require specific preparation or shutdown procedures. Some equipment has protocols that differ significantly from simply turning it off, and skipping those steps can result in damage that would not have occurred otherwise.
Lift equipment off the floor
If you have computers, servers, battery backup units, or any other equipment sitting directly on the floor, raise them up at least three to four inches before a storm. This is not just a concern for ground-floor offices. If a roof is damaged during a storm, water moves down through the building in ways that are often unpredictable. A practice on the fifth floor can experience water intrusion from above just as easily as a practice at street level. A few inches of elevation can be the difference between equipment that survives and equipment that does not.
This is also a good time to check your server room or network closet. Equipment in those spaces is often on the floor or low on shelving, and those rooms tend to be interior spaces where water damage from a roof leak can go unnoticed until after the fact.
Move equipment away from windows
Any equipment positioned near a window needs to be moved before a storm. Wind-driven debris travels fast and hits hard, and it will break glass including double-paned windows and impact-resistant glass. When a window fails, the equipment closest to it takes the first hit, from both the debris and the sudden water intrusion that follows. Moving equipment even a few feet away from exterior windows significantly reduces that risk.
This also applies to paper records, external drives, and anything else that would be damaged by sudden exposure to wind and rain.
Cover everything with plastic
Once equipment is powered off, elevated, and away from windows, cover it. Plastic garbage bags work well for most workstations and desktop equipment. Secure them with rubber bands to keep the plastic in place. For larger equipment like copiers and printers, use plastic sheeting and secure it with packing tape. This step will not protect equipment from a direct hit, but it provides meaningful protection against water intrusion from roof leaks, broken windows, or the general dampness that comes with a major storm event.
It takes very little time and costs almost nothing. There is no good reason to skip it.
Take laptops and portable devices offsite
Every laptop, tablet, and portable device in your office should be undocked and removed from the building before a major storm. These devices are lightweight, easy to transport, and among the most immediately useful things you will need when you are trying to resume operations from an alternate location or working remotely while your office is being assessed after the storm.
They are also valuable and difficult to replace quickly. Losing a server is a serious problem. Losing five laptops on top of that while trying to recover makes everything harder. Take them with you, secure them properly, and make sure they are charged and accessible.
Check official disaster preparation resources
We strongly encourage every practice to check local, state, and federal disaster preparation websites for current guidance specific to your area. Resources from FEMA, the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency, and your local county emergency management office will have the most current information on storm tracks, shelter resources, and preparation recommendations. What applies in one storm may not apply in the next, so checking current guidance every time is the right approach.
Severe weather is not something any of us can control, but how prepared your practice is when it arrives is entirely within your control. The steps above are not complicated, and most of them can be completed in a few hours once you have a plan and know what needs to happen.
If you want to talk through your practice’s disaster readiness, whether that means building a formal Disaster Recovery Plan, upgrading your backup infrastructure, or just thinking through what your specific office needs to do before the next storm, we are here for that conversation.
Please be safe. Call the Tier3MD Response Team at 855-698-4373 or schedule a meeting with our team and we will make sure your practice is as prepared as it can be.
Want a quick overview of these tips? Watch Michael Brown from Tier3MD walk through the essentials in this short video: Severe Weather Preparation Tips for Your Medical Practice
