hurricane-prep

People first, then the building, then records, then patients. A Gulf Coast checklist mindset — not a substitute for your insurer, OSHA plan, or the Florida Dental Association’s Storm Proof guide.

Atlantic hurricane season runs June 1 through November 30. The Florida Division of Emergency Management asks households and businesses to plan for at least seven days of supplies after recent seasons — including Helene and Milton in 2024, which made landfall about two weeks apart.

Locally, the City of Sarasota says the same thing in plainer words: do not scramble as landfall nears. Sign the office up for Alert Sarasota County (phone, text, or email) and look up your Sarasota County evacuation level before a watch is issued.

A dental office is not a house. You have patients on the book, compressed gases, computers with charts, and a team that also has to get their own families ready. This piece is a walk-through of the order that keeps coming up in ADA, FDA, and WCDDA materials: people, plant, records, then the waiting room.

NOAA satellite photograph of Hurricane Ian approaching Florida at sunset, September 2022 — Hurricane Ian approaching Florida, 27 September 2022. Public domain — NOAA / GOES-16.

1. People — write the tree before the cone

Five dental colleagues review a highlighted staff schedule at a reception desk — Who is on the tree, who can shut water and gas, who accounts for the last person out. AI-generated.

OSHA expects employers with 11 or more employees to keep a written Emergency Action Plan: how you raise the alarm, escape routes, how you account for everyone, and who does rescue or medical duties. Update it yearly. Walk new hires through it. The ADA’s disaster page points practices back to that OSHA frame.

For a six-chair Gulf office the same idea still helps: a one-page call tree, a named person who can shut water and gas, and a rule that nobody stays “just to finish trays.” Staff need time to board their own houses. Put that on the calendar when a watch goes up — not when the county map turns red.

The City’s business list is short on purpose: a written recovery plan, a way to reach every employee, insurance reviewed before June, important papers stored off-site in something waterproof, and equipment unplugged when you close.

2. Building and equipment — lift, cover, chain

Walk the operatories the way an adjuster will. Photograph chairs, sensors, mills, and compressors before the storm. Then: unplug and raise computers; cover chairs; get chemicals off the floor; know what your generator will actually run (it will not run the whole office). Secure compressed-gas cylinders upright and chained — do not leave tanks where storm surge can roll them.

Dental chairs in plastic, computers raised in crates, gas cylinders chained to a wall rack — Cover, elevate, chain. A still of the room after a prep walk — not a wrecked office. AI-generated.

Plywood and shutters are a building decision, not a brochure line. If you lease, get the landlord’s storm clause in writing before June. If you own, know who cuts the main breaker and where the roof drains. Sarasota County’s home-and-business prep is the same boring walk: trim, clear gutters, and know how you shut gas, water, and electric. Do that in May.

3. Records — a backup you have actually restored

Backup drive, equipment log binder, camera, floor plan, and flashlight on a clinic counter — Drive, photos, floor plan. No patient names on the desk. AI-generated.

Cloud copies only help if someone on the tree can get in after the power is gone. Test a restore once a quarter. Keep a paper copy of insurer, landlord, and lab numbers. HHS maintains HIPAA notes on accessing patient information in an emergency — useful when you are not in the building and a covering office needs a chart.

After the storm, those same photos and serial numbers speed a claim. FDA Services’ Storm Proof: Plan for Every Possible Path (2022 edition, still the guide WCDDA points to) walks practices through prep lists, loss, and how to file.

4. Patients — one number, one sentence

Put the plan on the outgoing voicemail and the website before you lose power: we are closed, here is the emergency number, we will post when we reopen. Do not promise a date you cannot keep. If you evacuate, update the mailing address and place of practice on your license in your MQA online account. The Board also accepts its change-of-address form by mail. That filing goes to the Department of Health, not to SCDA.

Flood water and food rules are not dental-specific, but they show up in every after-action: if it touched flood water, throw it out. CDC flood-water guidance is on the ADA disaster page.

Empty dental waiting room with rain on the windows, palms outside, and a faint rainbow — Reopen when the building is safe — not when the voicemail is optimistic. AI-generated.

5. After — use the district, don’t invent a hotline

West Coast District Dental Association keeps a hurricane relief page with FDA Foundation and WCDDA fund applications, plus FEMA, SBA disaster loans, and — when the state activates it — a short-term emergency bridge loan. SCDA does not process those grants or loans. SCDA’s useful role after a season is the same as after a meeting: peers who practiced through the same cone, sharing what actually failed.

Educational reading for Sarasota County dentists. Not legal, insurance, OSHA, or clinical advice. Confirm plans with your insurer, landlord, and licensed advisors. This is not an official SCDA storm policy.

Hurricane prep for Florida dental offices