The United States gets more tornadoes than any other place on earth, by far. The National Centers for Environmental Information says the U.S. sees about 1,250 tornadoes per year; Canada is a close second with about 100 per year.

Shortly after graduating from college, I spent the better part of four years living on a horse farm in rural Southwestern Pennsylvania. In addition to working as a national account manager for the 84 Lumber Company, I spent my spare time mucking stalls, feeding horses, mending fences, and making hay on the farm in exchange for rent.

Catastrophes, while terrible for people in the affected area, produce a lot of restoration and remediation work in a concentrated area, making them an incredible business opportunity for restoration contractors.

As storms, hurricanes and floods become more frequent, the need to restore properties to a pre-loss condition faster and more efficiently will become more and more critical. As average temperatures across the globe have increased, more rain has fallen during the heaviest downpours.

When Hurricane Matthew was plotting its course toward the U.S. in the fall of 2016, I reached out to several restorers to see what their response plans were, and debated heading to a heavily affected area to document and witness the cleanup and restoration efforts myself.

Workplace anxiety is a serious condition that affects two out of every five workers. Chances are one or more of your co-workers is dealing with it right now. If an owner or leader in the business happens to be one of them, its impact could directly influence decisions that may lead to stalled growth and side effects to the company culture and performance.

A big component of scaling your business up to respond to a disaster situation includes having the equipment to do the work. 

As I prepare to write this article about handling contents during a CAT loss flood situation, I am watching the State of California experience some of the worst flooding in its history. Entire neighborhoods have been evacuated and homes have been swallowed by over flowing rivers and spillways.