Weathering the Financial Storm: What State/Local Governments Should Do Now to Prepare for Hurricane Season

As the dawn of hurricane season approaches, state and local governments must be financially prepared for a storm.  CohnReznick works directly with these governing bodies to help them prepare for, and recover from, disasters. 

The best practices below are lessons learned from our experience.  

1. Review Insurance Policies 
   Safeguarding assets protects you during times of disaster. This important step saves time and effort when dealing with any federal assistance programs.  
2. Establish an Emergency and Disaster Timekeeping Policy
   Labor costs for emergency and disaster planning may be eligible for reimbursement - but not if you don’t have a valid emergency/disaster timekeeping policy.  Be prepared and have an established timekeeping policy capable of producing appropriately detailed and organized timekeeping records for potential reimbursement. 
3. Review Disaster Service Contracts
   Ensure your contracts are valid, especially your debris and recovery service contracts.  This will save significant effort, time, and money during the critical stages of recovery. 
4. Establish Cooperative Agreements 
   Reduce administrative costs through cooperative activities and shared services among all stakeholders to maximize public benefit of disaster response and recovery funds. 
5. Stay Informed 
   Recent storms and wildfires brought many changes to policies for disaster recovery practices that could financially impact how you should respond and recover from an event.  Sign up for notices at https://public.govdelivery.com

Preparing your community ahead of time will aid in a prompt response and recovery.  These five best practices have little-to-no-cost to your community, but could save millions of dollars in the long run.