Do you have tips for community associations looking to create and adopt a disaster plan?

By making a plan in advance of a disaster, community associations can quickly provide assistance in order to prevent damage and provide guidance and assistance to residents before, during, and after a flood event.

Well-designed disaster plans identify:

• basic community functions,
• infrastructure vulnerabilities,
• mitigation actions that can be taken to address the identified vulnerabilities, and
• who is responsible for ensuring these key procedures and priority tasks are completed in the event of a flood or other natural hazard.

The association should be sure to review its governing documents to make sure all mandatory responsibilities and functions are addressed.

Plans should include actions for before, during and after a flood event, such as creating a pictorial record of the community to help justify any future claims, securing outdoor furniture, ensuring flood barriers are in place, and procedures for post-disaster communications. They should also clearly identify responsibilities, including which tasks are the responsibility of the homeowner and which are the responsibility of the community association, as well as which pertinent federal and state resources they can utilize to finance the identified tasks.

Disaster plans should be formally adopted by the association’s board of directors and, ideally, incorporated into the community’s annual budget and operations plan.

The Community Association Institute and Foundation for Community Association Research have several publications around risk management, disasters and insurance, including a detailed guide for developing disaster plans for community associations titled Best Practices: Natural Disasters: Preparation & Recovery, which can be referenced for more information.

Additional Resources