An interactive companion to the ISSA handbook — protect your people, your assets, and your business continuity.
Protect people. Protect assets. Build resilience. THINK Sustainably.
Explore Premium organization toolsISSA Sustainability Committee · Green2Sustainable
Each chapter offers a Brief summary or the full Chapter contents.
Highlight what's most relevant to you
Mission and how to use
Reading paths by audience
Why weather matters now
Risk audits and priorities
Envelope, water, systems, assets
Storage, contamination, debris
Power, comms, data
Safety, training, leadership
Becoming a trusted partner
People first, restoration
Incentives and insurance
Lead with resilience
Enter your location for the live National Weather Service forecast and official alerts (U.S.), a 10-day outlook, and the hazards to prepare for.
We'll watch the forecast for your area and email you when severe weather is heading your way — so you can prepare, not react.
Set your location in the Weather section above so we know where to send your alerts.
Preparedness is usually sold with fear. The research says fear doesn't work — and it isn't necessary. The arithmetic of a thin-margin, labour-heavy business is persuasive on its own.
Nothing is saved or sent. Start from a preset, then adjust.
ABM, the largest US contractor, ran 3.6% in FY2025.
A closed customer site, an unreachable crew, a flooded route.
Fixed-price contracts often keep billing; hourly work usually doesn't.
Of $20,548 disrupted, about $4,110 still bills or is made up. The rest doesn't come back.
At a 4% margin, one day of revenue equals about 25 days of average operating profit. An equivalence, not a forecast.
Meanwhile payroll continues and receivables stretch.
What this is, and what it isn't. This is your exposure — not a saving. Nobody has yet measured how much of it a continuity plan removes; the insurance industry has quantified structural hardening in detail and operational preparedness barely at all. The Handbook's checklist is how you find out which parts of this number you can actually reduce.
In a March 2026 survey of 2,005 small business owners, respondents estimated that getting prepared would cost about 30% of annual revenue. The figure the researchers put on it was closer to 5%.
A benchmark from one survey, not a quote for your business. Your own number comes out of the checklist in Appendix B.
75% of organisations ask key suppliers whether they have business continuity arrangements. Only 58% say their suppliers actually do. Right now, for most contractors, the honest answer costs bids.
Alabama's insurance regulator compared roofs built to the same code. Independently inspected: 73% fewer claims. Same code, not inspected: 34%. Being able to show it is worth more than doing it quietly.
The median US small business held about 18 days of cash in 2025 — 17.6, across 2.1 million firms. Disasters hit revenue harder than they hit property — the crisis is liquidity, not rubble.
A "1-in-100-year" event sounds like someone else's problem. Measured across the length of a contract, the same risk reads very differently — and people act on the second framing far more than the first.
The evidence on this is unusually specific: people who commit to a date and a time follow through measurably more often than people who commit to a date alone — and a short checklist gets completed where a long plan doesn't. So don't start a plan. Start the one-hour path: read the case for action, run the risk audit, and complete the checklist.
Margins. ABM Industries FY2025 Form 10-K — 3.6% operating margin, 68% of revenue in direct labour. Source ↗
Cash buffers. JPMorgan Chase Institute, small-business cash-buffer data (May 2026) — 2.1 million firms, 2025 accounts; median 17.6 days. Supersedes the widely quoted 27-day figure from the same institute's 2016 study. Source ↗
Losses are revenue, not property. Federal Reserve Small Business Credit Survey — more than 1 in 10 small employer firms reports natural-disaster losses in a given year; only 4% of affected firms had no revenue loss. 2022 report ↗ 2018 report ↗
Cost perception. U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation with Verizon, March 2026, n = 2,005. Source ↗
Supplier questions. Business Continuity Institute, Supply Chain Resilience Report. Source ↗
Verified vs unverified. Alabama Department of Insurance with the Center for Risk and Insurance Research, University of Alabama — Performance of IBHS FORTIFIED Home Construction in Hurricane Sally, May 2025 (nearest-neighbour analysis, tree-fall claims excluded). Source ↗
Framing and follow-through. Chaudhry, Hand & Kunreuther, Journal of Risk and Uncertainty (2020) DOI ↗; Milkman et al., PNAS (2011) DOI ↗; Drexler, Fischer & Schoar, AEJ: Applied (2014) DOI ↗.
We deliberately don't use the widely circulated claim that 40% of small businesses never reopen after a disaster. It has no traceable source, and the best field data — over 85% of surveyed businesses back within a year after Hurricane Harvey — points the other way.
General information only. Not insurance, financial, legal or tax advice.
Documented, well-run preparedness lowers your risk — and lower risk can mean better terms at renewal. Just as important, it's what helps a business keep operating. Federal Reserve survey data shows more than 1 in 10 small employer businesses suffers natural-disaster losses in a given year — and that the largest loss is usually lost revenue, not damaged property.
Insurers care about how likely and how large a loss is. When you can show that you've identified your risks, protected people and property, and documented a plan, you reduce the losses a carrier expects — which can support premium credits and better terms at renewal. The strongest position is a preparedness record you can hand to your broker: a completed checklist, a risk-audit summary, and a one-page continuity plan.
The core contract with your carrier. It defines what's covered, your limits, deductibles, and exclusions.
How to spot it: look for the Declarations page ("Dec page") and the main policy form — usually the first pages of your document.
Also called a rider or amendment. It changes your base policy — adding, removing, or modifying coverage (e.g., flood, wind/hail deductible, business interruption).
How to spot it: separately titled and numbered attachments that reference your policy number and change one specific thing.
Tell us your carrier and mark whether each weather-relevant coverage is part of your base policy or an endorsement. This helps you see the gaps and ask your broker the right questions.
Flood damage
Almost always a separate endorsement or a standalone policy — rarely in a base policy.
Wind / hail deductible
Often a named-storm or wind/hail deductible added by endorsement in exposed regions.
Business interruption
Lost income while you can't operate. Sometimes included, often an endorsement.
Equipment breakdown
Covers key equipment after a power surge or mechanical failure. Usually an endorsement.
Have these ready to demonstrate you're proactively managing risk — it supports smoother underwriting and better terms.
A completed self-assessment
Appendix B: 2026 Global Safety & Preparedness Checklist
A short risk-audit summary of your top single points of failure
Chapter 3: Understanding Your Risks
A one-page preparedness & continuity plan
Appendix C: Building Your Preparedness & Continuity Plan
Contacts for your broker/adjuster, plus dated photos, inventory logs, and a timeline of actions
Keep these ready before an event