On Thursday afternoon of September 26, 2024, I said goodbye to my staff and walked out the door just like every other afternoon. I texted my office manager on the way home and told her that the radio was reporting some heavy rains from Hurricane Helene coming up from Florida, but it was supposed to hit Atlanta the next day, which was about two hours west of us here in Augusta, Georgia. We decided we may need to have a plan in case some of the staff or patients were a running a bit late the next morning. Little did we know that we were all about to have our personal and professional lives turned upside down.
At 4 a.m. Friday, I was awoken by what sounded like a series of gunshots. Turns out our back porch doors were blown open by a direct hit from tornado winds coming from the hurricane that was supposed to mostly miss us. Our power was out, and the intense howling winds and rains continued until the sun came up. Once the sun came up, I got dressed to go to work but quickly realized that my neighborhood and our entire metro area had been completely devastated by the hurricane. Power lines and telephone poles were down everywhere. Giant loblolly pines and oak trees you see on TV during the Masters Golf Tournament were uprooted and tossed about like toothpicks. Homes, businesses, and cars were completely destroyed by the impact of the storm. It was three days until the roads were finally clear enough that I was able to drive to my office and discover the damage caused by two large trees falling on the roof.
Over the following days and weeks, our community began to pick up the pieces and get back to some level of normalcy. Augusta was fortunate not to have some of the catastrophic flooding that ravaged Asheville and surrounding areas, but we were still hit devastatingly hard and will be working to rebuild for years to come. Our dental practice had to close for almost two weeks, as did most other businesses, restaurants, and medical facilities. During this unexpected and undesired time off, I had time to think about all the things that I learned as a practice owner who is forced to deal with an unexpected catastrophe. I was one of those naïve souls who thought “it will never happen to me” until it did. As such, I made a list of some things I learned from this disaster and recommend to others.
Have a master list of important contact numbers
Have someone you can call directly. Your dental supply representative. Your practice management software technician. Your dental lab. Your insurance agent (more on that later). Whenever you sign up for a new service like internet, phones, patient communication software, ask who you can call directly when the worst happens. Keep the list written down somewhere where everyone can see it. Keep a copy on your phone. Once a year, call everyone on that list and make sure they are still the contact point. When a disaster occurs, you don’t want to be fumbling around in the dark trying to find who to contact.
Know your neighbors
Know the names and phone numbers of all the other small businesses near you. Check in with them from time to time. Know the name and number of the grocery store manager, the nail salon owner, the veterinarian, the landlord of the shopping center. It’s good to have some extra eyes on your office if they see anything suspicious or dangerous. When I couldn’t get to my office to check on the damage, I was fortunate to get updates from others in the area around me.
Review your insurance policy
Expect the unexpected. I have had the same liability and business insurance policy since I started my practice 20 years ago. The problem was that the original agent I had a relationship with had retired, and I was passed on to another agent whom I did not know. Once a year I would just sign the renewal and pay my premiums. When I was looking through file cabinets in the dark with a flashlight to try to find a name and number of my agent and my policy information, I realized I had not been properly prepared. I had to leave a message on the emergency line and didn’t hear back until three days later. The adjuster who finally called me back informed me that I had a “wind exclusion” clause in my policy and that I would have no business interruption or equipment damage coverage. Hindsight is 20/20, but I probably didn’t know my policy well enough. Whenever I signed up for it, I was probably led to believe that we were well out of the hurricane risk area. Know your policy and your agent well. Fortunately, my landlord had the proper coverage for the physical damage, but we could have been in dire straits if there was more damage to the equipment and electronics than there was.
Have a way to reach your patients
We had no way to get in touch with our scheduled patients the first few days after the storm, as with no power or internet we could not access our practice management software at all. It’s good protocol to have an active social media presence to be able to update your patient base when there are no phones or computers available, which can happen even without a storm. It’s also a good idea to have a voicemail or answering service that you can contact to change your outgoing message to let people know what’s going on.
Have “a guy” who can help fix things
Maybe this is your brother-in-law, your husband, your wife, your neighbor, your dad, or a handyman you can call in a pinch … someone who is always equipped for an emergency and can help you with any problem. For us this was Bobby Greene, our equipment maintenance tech. Bobby was at the office helping tarp the roof and turn off all the utilities before I even called him.
Keep a rainy-day fund
We all know to keep about three months of operating expense coverage in an account just in case, but when you need it, you need it. My team was all personally affected by the storm as well and didn’t deserve to have their pay interrupted. If you have good business interruption coverage, this can be compensated, but I still needed to help my staff even though we were closed for longer than expected. You are also going to have to pay cash for some services that can’t wait on insurance adjusters. In our case, I had to get two trees off my roof immediately or risk worse damage.
Check on your staff
Along with paying them (if that’s what you feel is proper), make sure everyone is safe. One of the requirements of being a leader is that you have to offer to help those who help you run your business. It will mean more to them than you know.
Have a plan of action if you’re gone
This is not something we want to think about or believe will ever happen to us, but this storm and the resulting loss of life made it clear that as business owners, employers, spouses, and parents, we need to outline a plan if one day the worst happens. We need not just a will, but a set of step-by-step instructions that would go to your next of kin about how to handle the transition of your practice. Keep a list of all your passwords and accounts that can get into the right hands if you are gone.
Have a network of other dentists
It’s crucial to have other dentists you can bounce ideas off of within your area. We dentists sometimes feel a sense of tacit competition with one another and don’t want to ask for help, but I am lucky to have a group of about a dozen colleagues on a text chain. We were all in the same boat, and it was comforting to have an ongoing dialogue about each of our situations and offers to help one another. Dealing with a catastrophe can be very stressful and make us feel like we are all alone, but having a support network helped me tremendously.
Editor's note: This article appeared in the March 2025 print edition of Dental Economics magazine. Dentists in North America are eligible for a complimentary print subscription. Sign up here.
