NEW ORLEANS – If there’s one place where a disaster preparedness conference session hits differently, it's New Orleans.

Hurricane Katrina blasted the city more than 20 years ago, but longtime residents still vividly remember the storm, where they escaped to and how long it took them to return. 

The apartment industry, too, has memories of the storm.

“We were not ready,” said Tammy Esponge, association executive at Apartment Association of Greater New Orleans, at the National Apartment Association’s Apartmentalize in New Orleans on June 19. “We thought we were prepared, but we weren't.”

Lessons from the disaster have helped operators prepare for the next big storm. To survive, they need to communicate with residents, build redundancy in their supplier relationships and pitch in from the top of the organization.

Communication trumps all

When Katrina hit in 2005, apartment operators in the Gulf Coast discovered they had a big problem. 

“What we learned after Hurricane Katrina was [that] we couldn't get in touch with our residents,” Esponge said. “Contact information hadn't been updated in a year. Properties were destroyed. We had apartment communities with 10 feet of water.”

Now, with social media and other instantaneous forms of communication, getting the word out when a storm or another emergency hits is much easier. However, apartment operators still need updated resident information for mass texts, for instance.

“I know some management companies have texts that they're able to text their residents and their staff because we have to prepare the team as much as we need to prepare our residents,” Esponge said. “Email-wise, that's another great way to reach out to residents.”

QR codes, the resident portal, emergency hotline numbers and apps are other ways Esponge suggested to get in touch with residents.

“Teach people to get updates on what's going on,” Esponge said. “Can they come home? Is the parish or the city open back up? Is the power still out? Those are the things residents are going to want to know, as well as your staff.”

Diversify supplier sources

After a hurricane or major emergency hits, operators need to marshal resources outside of the disaster area. 

“When this disaster happens, it's a large-scale event,” Bert Wray, senior director of strategic development at Chadwell Supply, said at Apartmentalize. “The folks who are responsible for solving the problems of your residents live in the same community that is affected by this disaster.”

Help may have to come from miles and miles away or even another state.

“The really important thing is making sure you can reach far enough to get outside of the disaster zone,” Wray said.

Larger companies have the resources to bring in maintenance and management teams from outside the disaster area. Vendors are also an important resource, though there can be competition for electricians and other trades after a major storm hits.

To account for this, Wray says that operators need to work with more than one electrician, for instance. “You need something that you can scale,” he said. “So you need to have redundancy in your supplier network.”

Take care of your team

When disaster strikes, residents aren’t the only ones affected. Team members are also impacted, often with their own families to care for.

“People are stressed out,” Eddie LeBoeuf, regional maintenance supervisor at Domain Companies, said at Apartmentalize. “And one of the first things you have to worry about is getting to work.”

At 1st Lake Properties, where LeBoeuf worked before Domain, there was a “no questions asked” policy if staffers couldn’t make it to the site after a storm.

“They didn't say, ‘You have to come to work, or you're going to lose your job,’” LeBoeuf said. “That helped create a stress-free environment mentally to worry about getting gasoline, getting that generator running, changing the oil and finding those MREs.”

Cleaning out a refrigerator days after a storm rolls through and the power is out isn’t a task for the faint of heart. LeBoeuf said offering employees perks three times their pay can help boost morale. So can company leadership jumping to the front line to assist after a disaster.

“I saw third-generation owners making sandwiches, running around making deliveries and, to me, that was a morale booster to see that they were there with us,” LeBoeuf said. “They could have gone on vacation. They didn't have to be there.”

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