Tornado Warning Advice For Businesses

This is excellent advice for employers. If you have on-site daycare, I recommend diapers for the shelter area. 

However, there are four missing items:

• A way to instantly notify employees. 
• Don't have employees monitoring radar or making sheltering decisions. 
• Have a commercial weather company that specializes in extreme weather warnings. 
• Make sure you can still speak to customers from the shelter area.

If your business is in the path or possible path of a tornado, you need to instantly notify your employees. Do you have one? Will all of your employees recognize it?

Security guards and risk management professionals play a critical role in modern business. But, they do not have the specialized knowledge and experience to second-guess meteorologists. If you are using National Weather Service warnings, go to shelter if your business is in the polygon, as below.

If you have a small business with minimal shut-down costs, the NWS polygon is a good way to decide to shelter (see example of tornado warning polygons, in red, above). Use StormWarn to get a call if a tornado or wind gusts of 80+ mph are on the way. StormWarn is more specific than a weather radio which can only narrow it down to the county. 

However, if your business has significant shut-down costs (e.g., a factory) then you need a specialized service such as AccuWeather for Business. In the example above, you would received a call explaining that you are not in AccuWeather's storm warning because the tornado (circle, moving east) poses no threat, thus saving the millions some factories incur during severe weather shutdowns. 

Finally, regardless of your source of storm warnings, you will still need a way to speak to incoming callers during a tornado warning. Make sure you have some way to speak to callers from the storm shelter.