disaster recovery

Peter Tsanacas Facility Maintenance quote

It’s another thing for restaurant operators to worry about: all the costs of doing business, including food, rent, labor and energy are increasing, according to the National Restaurant Association’s 2024 State of the Restaurant Industry survey, released in February. It’s bad news for any business operating on razor-thin margins. Restaurant operators complain that they have little control over food and rent costs, while the need to remain competitive often blocks operators from making cuts in staffing and food. The situation forces restaurant owners, and other businesses such as retail, to …

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— By Bill Pegnato — Minimizing roof losses during severe weather events — and keeping your facility open. Retail and restaurant chain locations are expensive to build and have enough operational challenges without being shut down for weeks or months because a hurricane or tropical storm damaged a facility’s roof. But let’s face it: severe storms are happening more frequently these days. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 9 of the top 10 years for extreme 1-day precipitation events have occurred since 1996. Hurricane season started June 1, but …

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— By Brice Bledsoe — “Do I really need this inspection?” The answer is almost always “yes!” In all my years working in fire and life safety (FLS), the most common question I receive from building owners/managers is, “Do I really need to get this inspection performed?” And regardless of facility or system type, almost every time the answer is a resounding “Yes!” Fire inspection codes are in place for a reason and have been developed over the last 120+ years as a result of reviewing accidents, close calls and …

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— By Shawn Morrow — Proactive practices to protect your retail/restaurant roof when severe weather strikes.   Severe weather events can be considered the Number 1 enemy to a commercial roof. Depending on where a building is located in the country, a roof can fall prey to snow and ice storms in the winter, high wind, hail and rainstorms in the spring and summer, and hurricanes in the fall. Unfortunately, severe weather events are on the rise due to global weather pattern changes. In fact, the EPA recently reported that …

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Schaumburg, Ill. — Watterson has appointed Lisa M. Fry to chief growth officer. As a global business leader with more than 25 years of experience in the commercial real estate industry, Fry specializes in business strategy, facilities management and enterprise client solutions. Fry brings with her the expertise from international real estate giants CBRE and Cushman & Wakefield, where she held global executive and senior management roles. “My goal will be to build upon Watterson’s great foundation and assist in shaping the strategy of the company for the future,” says …

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— By Erin Zaske — Understanding proper stormwater management.   Stormwater compliance is not optional. Many property owners are unaware that stormwater is regulated by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) through the Clean Water Act (CWA), and that they are required to inspect and maintain these systems. The importance of these regulations is significant as polluted stormwater runoff is one of the greatest threats to clean water in the U.S. Nearly 600,000 miles of rivers and streams and more than 13 million acres of lakes, reservoirs and ponds …

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— By Garrett Fishaw — Storefront crashes: the incoming cost you can’t afford.   60 times a day. More than 4,000 injured annually. As many as 500 killed each year. According to the Storefront Safety Council, those are the statistics for storefront crashes in the United States. There’s no argument anymore. Storefront crashes are an epidemic in this country and something that every business owner needs to be aware of when designing their storefront layouts. The Storefront Safety Council estimated that the cost of a car-into-building crash that does not …

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— By Tiffany Largey — 5 steps to prepare your property for a flooding emergency.   Flooding is the most common natural disaster and leading cause of weather-related deaths. It is becoming a larger threat each year with 25-30% of all flood losses being in low to moderate flood zones. With global warming, different weather patterns, climate change and inaccuracy of flood maps and zones, we must have a set plan in place to prepare for Mother Nature’s most common catastrophe. There are 5 steps that will help you to …

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— By Amanda Anderson — Do you have a team in place to react and respond?   It is nine in the evening and the doors to your business are locked, drawers counted, shelves faced for a successful tomorrow. The day has just ended for you, but disasters don’t keep time. There has been a leak detected and it’s coming from behind a wall. The drywall is soft, and water is seeping onto the floor, drenching the carpet. It might be the end of day for you, but it’s the …

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— By Ian Nicolson —   How to answer the tough business continuity questions.   Severe weather poses many challenges for retail and restaurant operators, but the most significant is parsing through and analyzing the fire hose of incoming weather forecast data to determine the real business impacts to their operational processes and locations. Business response plans need to be objective, consistent, repeatable and defensible to the CFO. It can be overwhelming to answer critical logistics questions like these using just the wind and rain data provided by the local …

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