In 2022, losses due to natural catastrophes worldwide totaled $120 billion. While there are a range of natural disasters included in this category, hurricanes are responsible for more damage every year than any other weather event.

There's only so much you can do to keep your property safe from hurricane damage, but there are a number of steps you can take to limit the damage at an office or place of business. To help you prepare for the hurricane season, let's take a look at five tips you can use to keep your business/office safe.

1) Create a hurricane preparedness plan

Business owners and office managers need to make sure that their employees know the actions they should take before, during and after a hurricane, and a hurricane preparedness plan can help with this. Your plan should include clear instructions on how your employees can keep themselves safe as well as guidelines for maintaining business continuity. The plan should also assign specific roles and responsibilities to employees to ensure that everyone works together as a cohesive unit.

2) Secure essential documents and data

Any documents that are important to your business should be properly secured or moved off-site in preparation for an incoming hurricane. Likewise, any critical data that is stored on on-site servers should be secured. Consider using cloud storage to back up on-site data and ensure that it remains accessible even if your office building is not.

3) Reinforce physical infrastructure

Hurricanes can create winds ranging from 74 mph to more than 157 mph, and these high winds can cause a lot of damage to any infrastructure that is not properly reinforced. In preparation for a hurricane, work with your building management or contractors to reinforce your office's physical infrastructure to withstand strong winds and potential flooding. This includes securing windows, doors and roofing and installing flood barriers if necessary.

4) Secure equipment and inventory

Along with protecting the building itself, it's also important to secure any valuable equipment or inventory that is stored in your place of business. Ideally, these items should be moved off-site. If that's not an option, you can start by elevating any valuable items above potential flood levels. Covering equipment and inventory with a waterproof material such as plastic wrap can help prevent water damage as well.

5) Review your insurance coverage

One of the most important steps that you can take to protect your business from hurricane damage is to make sure that your insurance policy provides plenty of coverage for damages caused by natural disasters. In the face of a raging hurricane, there's often only so much you can do to keep your property safe from harm; with the right insurance policy, however, you can at least ensure that you are compensated for any damage that is caused.