Storm-Season Prep for Long Island Businesses: What to Do Before, During, and After
When a tropical storm knocked out power to Steve’s restaurant for two days last September, the food loss was the expected cost. What he hadn’t planned for was the confusion afterward, customers calling to ask if he was even open, a Google listing that still said “open” while the doors were locked, and a full week of lost trust from people who showed up to a dark building with no explanation anywhere online.
The storm itself is unpredictable. How a business communicates through it doesn’t have to be.
Long Island’s storm season runs longer than most owners plan for
Hurricane season technically runs through late fall, and Long Island’s exposure to coastal storms, high wind events, and power outages extends well past the height of summer. Businesses that only think about storm prep in the days right before a named storm approaches are almost always behind on the parts that actually matter.
Before a storm hits
Know how to update the Google Business Profile fast. A business that can change its hours or post a “temporarily closed” update within minutes of a decision avoids the exact confusion Steve ran into. Knowing the login and process ahead of time, rather than figuring it out mid-crisis, is the difference between a five-minute update and a lost afternoon.
Have a pre-written communication template ready. A short, ready-to-go message for social media and email, “we’re closing early today due to the storm, here’s when we expect to reopen”, saves precious time when a decision has to be made quickly and communicated even faster.
Confirm what insurance actually covers. Business interruption coverage, flood coverage, and general property coverage all have different triggers and exclusions. A five-minute call to confirm coverage before storm season, rather than after a loss, avoids an unpleasant surprise during an already stressful moment.
During and immediately after
Update hours and status the moment a decision is made, not the moment there’s time to get around to it. Customers checking a business’s status during a storm are making real-time decisions based on what they see, and stale information sends them elsewhere or, worse, into a closed building.
Communicate proactively, don’t just wait for people to ask. A short social post or email update reaches far more people than waiting for individual phone calls and questions to trickle in.
After the storm passes
A brief “we’re back open” message, ideally with a specific detail (a photo, a specific reopening time, an acknowledgment of the disruption) rebuilds momentum faster than silently reopening and hoping customers notice on their own.
This kind of disruption is really just a sharper version of the seasonal planning Long Island businesses already have to think about, the businesses that handle it well aren’t the ones that avoid disruption entirely, they’re the ones that planned their response before they needed it.
Soundview Marketing Group helps Long Island businesses build the kind of clear, fast communication systems that keep customers informed and confident, storm season and every other season.
Want it ready before the next storm? Download the free Soundview Storm & Crisis Communication Plan, with a before/during/after checklist, pre-drafted message templates, and an emergency contact sheet.