Don’t wait for the flood: Testing your plan with simulated exercises

By Karen Owens
Publisher

Disasters and severe storms can disrupt a business in minutes, but the right preparation ensures your doors stay open. Following insights shared by local and state leaders at the Georgetown County Hurricane Season Business & Industry Prep Day in June, this four-part series provides small businesses and nonprofits with actionable tools to spot operational risks, draft continuity plans, and build long-term resilience.

Having a business continuity plan on paper is an important first step, but a plan only works if your team knows how to use it. During a hurricane, flood, power outage, or other disruption, people may be working under pressure, without full information, and with limited time to make decisions. Practicing before an emergency helps your organization move from theory to action.

Simulated exercises give your employees, volunteers, and leadership team a safe way to walk through a realistic scenario before a real storm puts your operations at risk. These exercises do not have to be complicated. Even a short tabletop discussion can reveal whether staff understand their roles, whether contact lists are current, and whether your backup systems are ready. 

Step 1: Stress-Test Your System

Start with a scenario that reflects the risks most likely to affect your organization. For a Lowcountry business or nonprofit, that might mean a hurricane that causes road closures, inland flooding, internet outages, staff shortages, or damage to your facility. Then ask your team to talk through what they would do first, who would make decisions, how information would be shared, and which services would continue.

Ready.gov’s business continuity planning resources include tools such as a situation manual, test exercise planner instructions, and facilitator and evaluator guidance that can help organizations structure realistic practice exercises. These tools are designed to help teams identify capability gaps, evaluate decision-making, and strengthen recovery procedures before an actual disruption occurs.

For South Carolina organizations, a useful exercise scenario can also include checking the SC Emergency Resources Dashboard, a real-time portal that compiles disaster information such as power outages, road and bridge closures, shelter locations, executive orders, and other emergency updates. Adding this step to a tabletop exercise helps staff practice where to find official information and how to use it in operational decisions. 

• Use a situation manual: Build a realistic scenario that includes the type of hazard, expected impacts, and discussion questions for your team.
• Assign an exercise planner: Choose one person to organize the logistics, invite the right participants, and keep the discussion focused on your objectives.
• Include a facilitator or evaluator: Have someone guide the conversation, capture observations, and note where the plan needs to be updated.

Step 2: Turn Lessons into Improvements

The goal of a simulated exercise is not to embarrass anyone or prove that the plan is perfect. The goal is to find the weak spots while there is still time to fix them. After each exercise, document what worked, what caused confusion, and what resources were missing. Did employees know who to call? Could leadership reach staff quickly? Were vendor contacts current? Did the backup data process work as expected? 

If your team identifies gaps that require outside guidance, SC Commerce notes that its Emergency Management team can help connect businesses with business continuity resources and experts. You can also use post-exercise findings to decide whether your organization should bookmark the state dashboard, join relevant emergency communications lists, or pursue state business reentry registration before the next storm season.

Use those findings to update your business continuity plan, train staff on any changes, and schedule another exercise. The more often your team practices, the more confident they will be when a real emergency occurs. In the next article in this four-part series, we will look at what happens after the storm—where to find support, how to communicate during recovery, and how to begin reopening safely.