Extreme weather and rain events can be devastating for a community and have a multitude of short and long-term effects. One of the most crucial, yet less spoken about, is business downtime and recovery, with clean-up efforts taking weeks and sometimes months.
Business downtime is considered to be any interruption in business operations or services and can happen for a variety of reasons, including damage to premises due to a weather event.
During and after flood events, businesses may suffer downtime with significant consequences, including loss of revenue, loss of customers, loss of assets or even more catastrophic results.
Prevent flood damage
The latest designs in Australian-made flood barriers offer flood protection 24/7, allowing businesses to recover quickly after a flood event and minimise downtime.
Following flood events, some businesses must wait for extended periods before operations or infrastructure can be reinstated. Whilst investing in permanent flood barriers can be significant, it is far less than the costs incurred by flood damage, downtime and delayed recovery.
Case study: clinic investing for future protection
A Melbourne health clinic chose to invest in flood barriers, after being flooded twice in 2021, in close succession.
“Our underground car park and basement entrance is below street level. It doesn’t take much rain to fall before it fills with water. I witnessed two significant flood events in my street that cost me thousands of dollars. I wasn’t waiting for a third,” property owner, Nicci Daniels, said.
Ms Daniels partnered with AWMA’s FloodFree team to have a flood barrier tailored to her building specifications and installed across the car park entrance. The tilting flood barrier was designed to be ‘passive’ so it would automatically stop water ingress when needed, without any human operation.
Designed on the engineering principles of buoyancy, a passive flood barrier will always deploy when needed, resulting in a self-actuating flood barrier that provides instant flood protection 24/7 without power or human intervention. Once water can no longer drain into the storm water systems, and starts to back up, the flood barrier rises.
“It is amazing how the barrier rises when needed, with the alarm system activated, always floating that bit higher than the water level in order to protect the property from rain water, storm water and street wash,” Ms Daniels said.
“Then, once the water recedes and the storm water systems clear, the barrier drops just as fast, reinstating building access.”
The result is permanent flood protection for Ms Daniels’ staff, business and assets with zero downtime once the water recedes.
“Having that peace of mind that the flood barrier will deploy and protect the property as and when needed has been invaluable, and the benefits of ‘business as usual’ immediately following a flood event far exceed the costs of investment,” Ms Daniels said.
With a FloodFree Passive Tilting Flood Barrier installed, this Melbourne health clinic is now permanently protected from water ingress during heavy rain events.
This is a sponsored editorial brought to you by AWMA, to understand how flood barriers can protect your business from rain, stormwater and flood events, visit: https://www.floodfree.com.au
