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Frost Fight: Brace your community for winter

While the fall foliage has yet to appear in parts of the U.S., western states had their first taste of winter just a week after summer’s official end, with a storm that dumped up to 3 feet of snow in some areas and brought record-low temperatures, strong winds, and blizzard conditions.

Although weather forecasts are never 100% accurate, this may be the beginning of a freezing winter for two-thirds of the country, according to the 2020 Farmers’ Almanac’s winter forecast, which calls for a “polar coaster” of cold conditions from the eastern part of the Rockies all the way to the Appalachians.

“The biggest drop—with the most freefalling, frigid temperatures—is forecasted to take hold from the northern Plains into the Great Lakes. The Northeast, including the densely populated corridor running from Washington to Boston, will experience colder-than-normal temperatures for much of the upcoming winter,” reads the forecast, which predicts that the coldest outbreak of the season will come during the final week of January and last until the beginning of February.

Snow lovers might be shivering with anticipation, but it’s important that community associations encourage residents to winterize their homes before the brunt of the season hits. Here are some items to consider.

Indoor winterizing

  • Examine doors and replace weather-stripping as needed
  • Inspect window caulking and reseal where needed
  • Check vents and repair where needed
  • Clean chimneys and flues
  • Remove items near heat vents
  • Place nonskid runners or door mats outside to help keep water, sand, and salt out

Outdoor winterizing

  • Cut tree branches and shrubs that hide signs or block light
  • Examine outdoor handrails and tighten if needed
  • Turn off electrical breakers for outdoor equipment
  • Close hose bibs
  • Clean out gutters and downspouts
  • Clear yard drains
  • Spray outdoor locks and hinges with lubricant
  • Stake driveway and walkway edges that may be difficult to find under deep snow

Don’t forget to stock up on supplies such as ice melt, sand, generator fuel, and snow shovels. Ready.gov also has tips on how to stay safe during a winter storm.

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Be ready: How to prepare your community for a natural disaster

Hurricane Dorian devastated the northwestern Bahamas and has unleashed heavy rain, strong winds, storm surge, and tornadoes as it has tracked along the East Coast. While the Atlantic hurricane season officially runs from June to November, the peak of the season is now—from mid-August to late October.

With September being National Preparedness Month, Americans can take action to promote emergency planning and disaster relief in the event of hurricanes, wildfires, and floods, which have caused an estimated $414.4 billion in damage across the U.S. from 2013 to 2018, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. As natural disasters become more frequent and destructive, it’s important that community associations adopt a comprehensive plan to prepare, respond, and recover from these extreme weather events.

Community association residents and leaders also should be aware that the Federal Emergency Management Agency does NOT reimburse community associations that remove debris from private roads. CAI strongly encourages board members and managers to review the guidelines for removing debris.

In addition, here are some guidelines to prepare your community against a natural disaster.

Hurricanes

  • Gather supplies in an emergency kit to last at least three days, including food, water, flashlights, batteries, cash, first aid supplies, and medications. Also gather supplies for pets, if any, and store important documents.
  • Bring inside loose, lightweight objects that could become projectiles in high winds (e.g., patio furniture, garbage cans) and anchor objects that would be unsafe to bring inside (e.g., propane tanks).
  • Take refuge in a designated storm shelter or in a secure room inside your home that is windowless and not at risk of flooding.
  • Cover windows with wooden panels or storm shutters.
  • Document any property damage with photographs. Contact your insurance company for assistance.

Floods

  • Know the types of flood risks in your area by visiting the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Flood Map Service Center.
  • Purchase or renew a flood insurance policy through the National Flood Insurance Program. Homeowner’s insurance policies do not cover flooding.
  • Keep important documents in a waterproof container. Create password-protected digital copies.
  • Protect your property. Move valuables to higher levels. Declutter drains and gutters. Install check valves and consider a sump pump with a battery.
  • If trapped in your home, go to its highest level. Do not climb into a closed attic, as you may become trapped by rising floodwater. Go on the roof only if necessary and signal for help.

Wildfires

  • Fireproof your home by covering outdoor vents, removing dry leaf and tree debris, mowing and watering lawns regularly, and using fire-resistant materials to make repairs or replacements.
  • Keep fuel sources at least 100 feet away from your home.
  • Keep important documents in a fireproof safe and make digital copies.
  • Designate a room that can be closed off from outside air. Close all doors and windows. Set up a portable air cleaner to keep indoor pollution levels low when smoky conditions exist.
  • Review insurance coverage to make sure it is enough to replace your property. Document damage with photographs.

For tips on how to make an emergency plan fit for your community association and prepare for other types of disasters, visit CAI’s Community Disaster Preparedness & Relief page and Ready.gov.

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It’s hurricane season: This is what you need to do before, during, and after a disaster

Fourteen named storms—including seven hurricanes and three major hurricanes—are expected to form during the 2019 Atlantic hurricane season, which began June 1. The Weather Company expects the season to be slightly less active than last year but warns that residents along the coastal U.S. should be prepared no matter the forecast.

For community associations in these states, that means reviewing current emergency preparedness procedures for before, during, and after a hurricane, what supplies to include in emergency kits, and who to contact in the immediate aftermath.

Standard features of a hurricane plan include emergency contact information, responsibilities of the board, management, and residents, and a list of services that might be unavailable during and after a hurricane.

More specifically, this plan should have several checklists, including those that cover:

  • Actions for the community’s incident commander
  • Tasks that residents should complete before they evacuate
  • Pre-storm and post-storm communications
  • Post-storm grounds survey and cleanup
  • Post-storm inspection of residential units

In addition, the plan should have a prepared notice advising residents of an impending hurricane and the risks of staying, a form to be filled out by residents who decide to stay, and what residents should know about the association’s insurance coverage and reserve funds.

Community associations also can make a list of relief organizations at the local and national level that residents can reach out to for help, as well as detail the process to seek aid and debris removal assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Maintaining communication is critical during and after the immediate danger has passed. Determine which residents or board members will be on call in the event of an emergency, and identify if any ham radio operators live in the community or in the immediate area in the event that cell towers are rendered inoperable.

Does your community’s hurricane plan cover everything? Access more resources on CAI’s Community Disaster Preparedness & Relief pages.

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Crisis communicator: A board president’s coordinated strategy during Hurricane Irma

Michael Kulich, the overall winner of CAI’s 2018 Outstanding Homeowner Leader award, went above and beyond to help the Turtle Creek Homeowners Association in Orlando, Fla., deal with Hurricane Irma’s destruction. As president of Turtle Creek when the storm struck, Kulich led efforts to develop and implement the community’s disaster plan, and during Irma, he turned his home into a “war room” to give board members and vendors a space to provide the community with updates and review action plans.

When the skies cleared, Kulich—a management consultant by trade—took time off from his day job to coordinate vendor activities and lead the cleanup until the community was back on its feet.

What should homeowners do before and after a hurricane?

Residents should stock up on critical supplies and identify how to stay connected to the police and the association. It’s equally important for residents to be patient after the storm passes. Turtle Creek residents were eager to begin the cleanup process after Irma. While their intentions were good, it’s better to pause, confirm everyone is safe, and confirm it’s safe to begin clearing debris.

Michael Kulich

What must a community disaster plan include?

Our plan focused on preparing our infrastructure and homeowners for potential damage and partnering with local vendors and government officials to establish communications lines for continuous updates. Between computers and cell phones, Turtle Creek board members were in constant communication with local government officials, local law enforcement, and utility companies. This approach allowed us to gather pictures of the damage and have video conferences with our landscaping vendor to develop a cleanup plan. We were back to normal operations within a couple of weeks as opposed to months.

What makes a community leader effective?

Communication is an essential quality. As a board member, I use MailChimp for email updates, Twitter, and I recently launched a YouTube channel to livestream our board meetings. Residents appreciate our efforts to keep them informed, as it lends itself to another trait of a successful community leader: transparency. Operating an association board shouldn’t be a mystery. Residents should feel welcome to attend all activities, and feedback should be encouraged.

Why do you volunteer?

Volunteering gives me an opportunity to remove myself from the daily grind and focus my time and energy helping someone else. Since high school, I’ve made it a priority to find a cause or an organization where I can volunteer.

What do you enjoy about serving on your board?

As president, I find the ability to address a homeowner’s concern and find a resolution extremely rewarding. But my main source of enjoyment stems from the relationships I’ve built with our homeowners and local vendors.

What else do you enjoy?

Traveling with my wife and daughter and adding to my sports card collection. Lately, my free time is spent writing. I’m creating my first blog, which focuses on community association topics and trends.

April is National Volunteer Month. Read our articles about preparing for a volunteer role and five steps for effective community leadership. And you can read about the inspiring work done by a homeowner leader who put his community toward a path of financial stability.

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How one CAI member helped clients during and after Hurricane Maria

San Juan, Puerto Rico: A work crew clears brush created by Hurricane Maria from a city park more than three months after the storm struck. 

Hurricane Maria made landfall in Puerto Rico as a Category 5 storm on Sept. 20, 2017, bringing devastating winds and flooding and leaving much of the island in the dark. More than 70,000 homes were destroyed and the official damage tally in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands totaled $90 billion.

The effects continue to linger on the island one year later. Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority reported last month that power has been restored, though some residents deny that claim and say they must still rely on generators.

CAI member Robert MacKay, president of community management software company Manage My Nest, has helped his clients in Puerto Rico communicate with one another during and after Maria.

The company, which is headquartered in San Juan, did whatever it could on behalf of clients. This included using the platform to send out communications on clients’ behalves while landlines were down, working with suppliers to send necessary resources, facilitating and executing email blasts, and more. “There was no set menu—just whatever we could do to help,” says MacKay.

One community manager at a high-rise condominium used the platform at 6:00 a.m. during the hurricane to advise residents to stay away from windows and remain in hallways, he recalls. Nearly an hour later, they were able to alert residents that the windows were breaking and to go to stairwells.

MacKay is confident that the island will return to normal despite the widespread devastation. “The people of Puerto Rico represent a resilient culture. You could see people outside working together with FEMA to salvage what they could. People rationed diesel fuel with generators between communities. Residents in the community used a shovel and a wheelbarrow to clean the beach. It was amazing to see. They love their island,” says MacKay.

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Hurricane Florence: Will FEMA help your community?

Photo credit: Mark Hiebert

As community association managers and boards of directors prepare their residents for Hurricane Florence, they are burdened with the knowledge that the Federal Emergency Management Agency likely will not be there to support disaster recovery in their community.

That’s because FEMA classifies community association streets as private and won’t remove debris without prior approval.

What’s not understood by FEMA and many members of Congress is that the local municipality may have mandated the developer privatize streets in the community, resulting in association residents bearing the financial, legal, and operational responsibility for maintaining and insuring the streets. The residents have to pay for the streets when their neighboring community may not. These residents pay the same local property and federal taxes as everyone else, but they are being penalized because their streets are “private.”

So when CAI’s government affairs team hears a monster hurricane is heading toward the coast with a dangerous storm surge, damaging winds, and catastrophic rainfall, we step into high gear contacting members of Congress, governors, and FEMA officials. We plead with them to consider providing explicit guidance to first responders to remove debris from private property following the storm because it will likely be an immediate threat to public health and safety. We followed the same routine preparing for and recovering from hurricanes Harvey and Irma in 2017 and Hurricane Matthew in 2016.

Understandably, FEMA usually waits until after the storm wreaks havoc to give guidance to first responders. Yet it becomes very difficult for managers and board members to appeal to their governor, FEMA, and Congressional representatives to authorize debris removal on private property while trying to navigate the destruction and loss that tends to follow a hurricane. It is preposterous to ask residents who are trying to deal with the devastation of loss following a disaster to call their Congressional representatives to get help.

The Disaster Assistance Equity Act will solve this inequality. If you aren’t facing Hurricane Florence, you can prepare your community for a future disaster by contacting your Congressional representative and urging them to co-sponsor the legislation.

For more perspective from CAI’s government affairs team and tips for requesting assistance from FEMA, visit the CAI Advocacy Blog.

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Community Associations Prepare for Hurricane Florence

Community association homeowners in the path of Hurricane Florence are readying disaster preparedness plans.

Florence is forecasted to make landfall between South Carolina and North Carolina as a Category 3 or 4 storm late Thursday night or Friday morning and could stall over the region, bringing catastrophic flooding similar to what the Houston area experienced last year with Hurricane Harvey. As of Tuesday afternoon, more than 1.5 million people are facing mandatory evacuation in coastal areas due to destructive winds and a dangerous storm surge, though Florence’s impacts will be felt far inland too.

Crane Pointe Homeowners Association residents Dennis and Susan McGaha have done everything possible over the past three days to secure their home in Hampstead, N.C., which is located in between Surf City and Wrightsville Beach, just a few miles from the coast. The McGaha’s preparedness plan included securing all loose items—from pool floats to flowers—and adding window shutters and extra drain pipes.

Additionally, the couple gathered their most valuable possessions: family pictures. Every framed memory now lies in a plastic box, enclosed in one of the most secure rooms: the laundry room on an elevated space. The couple also has a weeks’ worth of sealed medicines and clothes.

When it comes to their neighbors’ preparedness it’s a mixed bag. While some have already headed inland, others have not installed a single shutter, according to the couple.

While homeowners like the McGaha’s prepare for the worst, additional storms behind Florence also are threatening more of the East Coast as the Atlantic hurricane season hits its peak.

Homeowners should include the following items in their disaster preparedness prep:

• Water—one gallon of water per person per day for at least three days for drinking and sanitation
• Food—at least a three-day supply of nonperishable food
• Battery-powered or hand crank radio and a NOAA Weather Radio with tone alert
• Flashlight
• First-aid kit
• Extra batteries
• Manual can opener
• Cell phone with chargers and a backup battery

CAI encourages all communities and their residents to be ready for Hurricane Florence and beyond. Associations, management companies, and business partners should review and compare their disaster plans.

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