Managing Multifamily Properties in Crisis

[Paul Rhodes] Have you ever heard that journalistic mindset of if it bleeds, it leads? If that's true, then today's episode should be very, very popular because today we're talking about catastrophe. You know, disaster, misfortune, tragedy, trouble, adversity, mishap, blows, tribulations, affliction, misadventure, trials, accidents, hardships, cataclysms, and any and every other crisis we can think of.

But actually, we're not talking about those things. We're talking about what we can do on site to prepare for them happening. Today on The Maintenance Mindset.

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Visit appworkco.com and transform your productivity today. It's been suggested before we get into today's topic in earnest that I provide a little bit of a warning. The story that I relate today and the topic we're discussing is actually a serious one.

At times, I will be attempting to make it lighthearted, but the reality is we're going to be talking today about situations that can result in property damage, destruction, and even death.

[Paul Rhodes] It's a serious topic.

[Paul Rhodes] As property management professionals, we do have a huge responsibility, particularly for our residents. I mean, think just for a moment before we even begin talking about items. Think about residents who entrust every single possession they have to our building.

There is a sense that we tend to treat it from time to time like only an asset. For our residents, it's more than that. This is more than what some of us call a unit, or a square footage, or whatever other name we put to it.

This, at the end of the day, is someone's home. And while, yes, they're renting it from us, the responsibility that we have to ensure as much as possible safety, that can't be taken lightly. The story that I'm going to relate is true to the best of my recollection, and it surrounds February of 2021 in Texas.

I was the Director of Maintenance for a management company, and this happened February 11th through the 20th. Very specifically, I got involved with one of our properties in Fort Worth, Texas. And for those of you who remember Winter Storm Uri, or Uri, I'm not even sure how to pronounce it anymore, it was serious.

This happened February 11th through the 20th, so it was nine days total. And during that time, there were seven days at this property that was below 32 degrees.

[Paul Rhodes] Four of those days were below zero. Now, this is Texas.

[Paul Rhodes] I've told jokes before of how hot it gets in Texas, and the buildings are made for that heat. They're not made for below zero temperatures at all, let alone four days long. Somewhere in the middle of that time frame, the entire city lost power.

Major parts of the grid were without electricity for multiple days. This property had a privacy fence that was around the outside of it. Residents were pulling wood from the privacy fence and burning it in their fireplaces, or those who didn't have a fireplace, they were burning it in the volleyball pit of the property to provide some heat and to boil some water for coffee and tea and to try and stay warm.

This was a very, very serious, there's not enough varies to put in front of the word serious, situation that occurred. From a property standpoint, we lost sprinkler service in all eight buildings, meaning the water just froze in the pipes. It expanded and popped the pipes.

Let's talk for a minute about just the severity of that one instance. We're talking about a wet fire system to where you've got water that goes throughout the buildings, and all of these spaces are not only below 32 degrees, they're below zero. Water, when it freezes, expands.

It broke the pipes. The maintenance supervisor on hand, a guy I'll call Daniel, turned off the water to the buildings instantly, all of them. And even though the water was off, the pipes were shattering and breaking.

The property was roughly 200 units, and we had water damage in over a hundred of them. Not only that, once the temperature rose back up, how do you find a leak in a sprinkler system that you can't pressurize because there are multiple breaks in that system? I mean, we're talking here about a statewide event.

It wasn't just one property. It wasn't even like here in the South, we get tornadoes, and you'll have a path that goes through the property. No, this was the entire state.

All total for this management company, we spent over easily $2 million to $3 million fixing up our properties. I mean, it was huge. And none of this is top secret.

For those of you who operate properties in Texas, if you had a property by then, you remember. This is a major event. I mean, this particular property, we had a maintenance supervisor and a temporary worker, a gentleman who wasn't even on our property, and he proved himself.

We hired him after the event as soon as computers were back up, and we could actually process the hiring. We hired him, and he worked and eventually moved his way up to be a maintenance supervisor. I mean, he did an outstanding job.

Daniel, the maintenance supervisor to this day, I'm still in touch with him on LinkedIn. He did a fantastic job, and it can't be overstated the amount of turmoil that they were in. And I could only view it from the outside.

You see, I live in Georgia, and during this crisis, of course, there was no airlines, no way for me to get in town. And even if I was able to get in town, there's only so much that can be done because the roads are iced over. This definitely falls into the description of all of those synonyms for catastrophe that I gave at the opening of the show.

[Paul Rhodes] But you see, it wasn't just a short-term event.

[Paul Rhodes] At this property, we were on fire watch from February until the end of September. Fire watch, for if you're not familiar with the terminology, that means that there has to be somebody paying attention to the properties, to the buildings at the property, 24 hours a day with a cell phone able to call the fire department in the event of a fire because we can't pressurize the buildings. And one day of fire watch for a maintenance team, okay, that can be done.

Months of fire watch, yeah, we had to hire a company to come out and do the fire watch. That's a part of that expense that was caused by that. And that's the level of what was happening.

Oh, and by the way, it wasn't that we weren't trying to get the fire systems fixed at the property. There was nobody available to fix that. In order to work on fire systems, you have to be licensed.

And remember, statewide event. So if our buildings didn't have fire systems, everywhere didn't have fire systems. In hindsight, there's a lot of lessons that we learned.

You see, in July of 2021, I attended a webinar from the state where they were talking about what had happened and from the state level changes that were going to be made. And one of the people that was on that particular webinar was the chief fire marshal, the person in charge of fire and emergency response systems for buildings in the city and in the state where this was based out of. And somebody asked a question during the webinar, what can we do to prevent this from happening again?

And I'll never forget, this official looked into the camera and he says, nothing.

[Paul Rhodes] That is a horrifying answer. But I am so thankful that it was the honest answer.

[Paul Rhodes] Because in that case, you know, Mother Nature, she was done. Four days below zero in a part of the country that never gets below zero. Well, okay, we now need to redefine the word never to include every once in a while.

So that means that never, never happens in regard to this topic. But he looked at the camera and he said, there's nothing you can do. The buildings that we build in Texas are not built for North Dakota winters.

[Paul Rhodes] Because the reality is, that's what happened. But it got me thinking.

[Paul Rhodes] In unthinkable catastrophe, what can we do as property owners and managers? These serious occurrences and things that happen. I mean, even at the time, we were still in during the time of the pandemic.

So there was already one unthinkable catastrophe happening. And then this gets put on top of it for the state of Texas.

[Paul Rhodes] But it did get me thinking. What can we do to prevent it?

[Paul Rhodes] The true answer, nothing. Something like that, a cataclysmic, catastrophic event, there's nothing you can do to stop it. I mean, if the temperature is going below zero, you cannot do much.

If it's going to happen, it's going to happen. But that doesn't mean that we don't have a responsibility to be as prepared as we can. And that's our topic for today.

What I'd like to do is explore some ideas of what we on-site teams and management companies can do during three action points for cataclysmic events.

[Paul Rhodes] Before, during, and after.

[Paul Rhodes] Because again, we're talking about things that we can't prevent. This is even going beyond kitchen fires on our properties. Those, we can actually do some things to prevent.

Sprinkler systems, for one. Even better are the little containers that you can attach above the stove. The number one cause of fires in apartments is kitchen fires.

And using that particular product does a great job of preventing fires. Yes, it makes a mess, but the mess is way cheaper to clean up than the fire itself. Using things and installed things on our properties, mechanical devices, smart burners, smart stoves, having working smoke detectors and fire detectors, wherever they're appropriate.

All of these things can be done to prevent. But actually today, we're not talking about those. We're talking about bigger hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, major winter storms, all of those things.

We can actually do some things before that can minimize damage and danger. We can do things during the cataclysmic events that can help our residents and help us for after, during the cleanup, because we're talking about things that happen that there will require cleanup for. So if we begin by talking about the before period, let's think through, first of all, how much notice will we have based on the event?

And the reason why is depending on that notice, we may be able to make different types of considerations. For instance, in your area, if your property happens to be close enough to a coast, hurricanes now, we can have up to a week notice of a hurricane occurring. It's well worthwhile to pay a subscription or be aware of alerts or notifications for hurricanes, particularly during that time of year.

I still to this day have on my phone an app that alerts me whenever there's a tropical depression or a weather event that could develop into a tropical storm and a hurricane. And just by doing that, I can be alerted up to a week, days before. Winter storm, quite frequently you've got at least a day or in some cases two to be alerted to a major low temperature event.

Tornado, you got minutes before a tornado happens. The alerts, the alarms. My house where I'm recording right now, we have a tornado siren that is three blocks away and we hear it being tested the first Wednesday of every month.

And my dogs are very aware of it because they like to sing in harmony with the testing of the tornado siren. But that tornado siren, whenever it goes off in a non-testing environment, that means we have minutes before touchdown or a funnel cloud. And then an earthquake.

I mean, these are items that are catastrophic in nature and where an earthquake is concerned, you get zero warning. It just happens. Even though there's those different layers of notifications, there are things that we can do at the property level to be ready for.

And one of them is to go ahead and set, make and keep a regular review of what expectations are. I mean, keep in mind, we're talking about major events. It is very, very possible that it's not just something that our employees are going to be dealing with on a worker site.

In other words, my maintenance supervisor is not only worried about the property. We're talking about events big enough that my maintenance supervisor is worried about his family, his own home, her extended family.

[Paul Rhodes] These are serious things.

[Paul Rhodes] Begin with a regular meeting to discuss through what expectations are. Yeah, it may mean that we have to have scary conversations that are rather ominous. I mean, you could play some key in a minor behind all of these discussions that we have, but we should be having these discussions.

And it begins with, as I mentioned, set a cadence. Once a quarter, every three months, have a conversation. Go through who will be expected to be responsible for what items.

The what items are going to vary by property. But by couching it in those terms, who is going to be responsible for what, we can begin to formulate a cascade. Meaning, if the property manager is expected to be responsible to communicate with everybody else, and yet a cataclysmic event happens and the maintenance supervisor does not communicate with everybody else, then it becomes a responsibility of the maintenance supervisor.

And if the maintenance supervisor or property manager doesn't, then it's the assistant property manager or the leasing manager or whatever the breakdown is at your property, communicate with that explicitness. I mean, think about it. In the United States of America, if the president of our country can't do his or her job, then the vice president has a job.

And that cascade goes all the way down to, I don't know how many layers thick. I'm not saying that we're going to be running a country, but we are running our property. Have that set up.

And once a quarter, remind everybody of that. During that discussion, talk through the expectations of employees and family. The reality is, is that maintenance technicians during moments of crisis and challenge, maintenance technicians, the expectation is we respond.

It's the same sort, although a little bit different degree. It's the same sort of expectation that ambulance drivers, firemen, police officers have. In moments of those crisis, they are expected to respond.

Lay out what that expectation is for your team. Talk through it. Be realistic about it.

It might change based on geographic location of your employees. In other words, if you have a grounds technician who lives on site and a maintenance supervisor who lives a half hour, 45 minutes away, maybe it becomes the grounds technicians responsibility to communicate with other people first, instead of the maintenance supervisor who lives farther away. However, it works out.

The important thing is set the expectation. My suggested, just because it's the way that I would want somebody to do for me, allow me to verify my family and do whatever is necessary to get my family to safety. And then I will respond as quickly as I'm able to.

Say those words. Put it in writing if you need to, to be sure and reinforce the culture that our employees' families are important to. Once a quarter at this same duration, this same cadence, be sure and review the supplies that are needed.

For instance, if your property lives in a part of the country where you deal with ice and freezing weather, what kind of ice melt are you going to use? And if it's the quarter during the winter weather, where is it stored? How much access do you have and what supplies do you need in order to deploy it?

If we're talking about ice melt, are you using a fertilizer spreader or are you using hand-tossed methods? If you're using hand-tossed methods, do you have the appropriate PPE ready to go? And is it ready to go?

Verify it. That's a part of setting that cadence. That way it's not something that you have to run around after the temperatures are already bad to determine.

There's other supplies that you may need to have. For instance, extra batteries for hurricane season, for communications, chargers, cell phone recharger batteries. All of these are items that are going to be needed in times of major catastrophe.

I mean, a question to ask everyone in these meetings is what would we need to do in the event we lost power for longer than 24 hours? One day, even just a normal business day, eight to six of the office without power. Yeah, it'd be challenging, but we could do it.

What about day number two? Day number three?

[Paul Rhodes] This property that I was at, they lost power for seven and a half days.

[Paul Rhodes] They were buying gas for residents' cars so that they could get the residents' car going just so they could recharge their cell phones, so they could have emergency communications with their families in the middle of the crisis. What's a plan? The plan.

And one of the reasons why these cadence meetings are so good to have is it allows for conversations to occur that maybe some off-the-wall ideas come into play that get investigated and make it better, something that wasn't thought about before. Be sure in these meetings and cover what vendors are we going to use? Do we have backups for those vendors?

What's the process for getting a vendor to do work if we don't have access to our computer system to get a PO number? Who's going to guarantee that the vendor will get paid and how do we get in touch with that person? What sort of empowerment does the property manager, maintenance supervisor, does whatever person at the property have to ensure that it happens?

Might be a good time to discuss dealing with the press or talking with public notifications. We now have tools, social media that even today, three years later, are used differently than they were being used back in 2021. So talk through what that's going to be and wherever possible, set up what you can.

One of the most critical items to discuss through is communication. What is the normal response time for EMS, police, fire, ambulance? What is a possible response time in the event of a catastrophic emergency?

And what do we do if it takes longer? All of this is theoretical discussions, but it's worthwhile because it gets people thinking through crisis situations before they occur. I mean, why do you think every time we board an airplane, the flight attendants go through the emergency escape procedures, even though you've heard them 150,000 times?

Well, I have from travel, but it's the same sort of thing. Repetition helps prevent moments of hesitation during crisis activities. On the communications front, in addition to emergency personnel, be sure that on once a quarter, somebody sits down with the communication phone tree and make sure that phone numbers, email addresses have not changed, or if they have, they're updated.

And do yourself a favor and keep physical addresses on that list as well. During winter storms, if trees get lost or power is lost, sometimes it gets reported by the news in counties or areas wherever they're located. But it's another good thing for during these meetings, everybody to be aware of what school systems everybody else on the team has.

If school is closed in one county, but it's open in another county, that may affect your coworkers and what time they're able to, or even if they are able to report for work due to child care or the need for that as a consideration. Also have somebody on the corporate team, particularly outside of the local area. If your management company is big enough, I know for a fact that during our winter catastrophe in 2021, it was helpful for people to be able to call me so that I could make phone calls on their behalf.

They could text. One of our properties, they lost cellular service, like voice service, but they still had the ability to text. And we figured out real quick, they could text me information and I could call vendors in the local area and relay messages that way.

The critical moment was they had to have my phone number. The property workers had to have my phone number. Be sure that that information is shared.

Not only that, how are you going to communicate with residents during this time? Think through that process and discuss as a team how you're going to get that resident communication out. Yes, I know our properties right now, we use a lot of electronic communication to where there are systems that set up to where somebody in the office can type in a message and it goes out on email and or text message blast to all of the residents.

But if cell service is down, if power is down, how well is that going to function? One management company I know of, they pre-print most common signs with blanks to where they can take a permanent marker and write in details. One of the big ones that caught my attention was office hours due to unforeseen circumstances are now from blank to blank.

Here's the phone number for emergencies or go find a whatever maintenance technician golf cart or whatever is applicable for your situation.

[Paul Rhodes] But keep in mind we're talking about huge events here. After a short break, we're going to talk about what to do during catastrophic events. Be right back.

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Service team members love the gamification of maintenance workflows and leaderboards, making everyday tasks a competition for number one. From project management to team communication, AppWork has you covered. Visit appworkco.com today. You know, one of the frequent statements that several of us have heard is often quoted by Mike Tyson that says, everybody has a plan until you get punched in the mouth. That's kind of where we begin talking about what we can do during a crisis. Here a little bit ago, we just talked about all of the ways that we can prepare for a crisis.

And the reality is, is once that crisis occurs, all of those plans become suggestions. The benefit of them, the benefit of them, there is a benefit. The benefit of all of those plans is at least we have an expectation of what we think others are going to react.

Stuff's going to get missed. Things are not going to occur the way that we expect them to. However, at least we have a starting point for those expectations.

My first job out of high school was a lifeguard. I spent three summers rescuing people at a water, local water park here in Atlanta. And when we weren't on the stand and when we weren't doing the job, we were practicing the job.

We'd have after hours or before hours, there would be a designated victim that would go in the middle of the wave pool while the waves were running and you had to go in and save them. And I gotta admit, it got brutal to where it was kind of fun to be the victim because your job was in a panicked state to not get saved. Because when you as a lifeguard jump in after somebody, that's exactly what they're doing.

They're panicking. And the panic of a person who is unable to swim, their panic, they want air. That means they're going to push off and up on anything around that can keep the person's head above water.

If you are the lifeguard going to save our victim, that victim, not intentionally, but they want to kill you. It just is. And you see, the reason for this story is we spent time as lifeguards practicing.

But the reality is, having had to go in for several people, I still remember, you go in after that person and they are doing everything within their power to keep their own head above water. I have actually seen parents attempt to drown their children when the parents got in deeper than what they thought they were going to. Because even though this is not a condemnation on those parents, they're panicking.

All coherent thought goes out of the way in the middle of a crisis. That's the kind of situation we're talking about. And what we can do during a crisis, we're in the middle of that situation.

And often, the first, the knee jerk, the gut reaction thing is not the right thing.

[Paul Rhodes] Don't panic. Be aware.

[Paul Rhodes] We're talking about events that don't just affect you, it's everyone else around you. It's okay to freak out. It's acceptable.

In some cases, there have been crisis situations that you really worry about the people who are not freaked out at that moment.

[Paul Rhodes] Lessons during a crisis, keep in mind, everyone's in it together. Pay attention to yourself.

[Paul Rhodes] Pay attention to those around you. The reason why to pay attention to yourself goes back to being a lifeguard. One of the lessons to get lifeguards certified that they tell you is if there is somebody who is attempting to drown, and they are thrashing around, and they are substantially larger than you are, do yourself and them a favor and wait.

[Paul Rhodes] Let them get tired.

[Paul Rhodes] In other words, don't put yourself in greater danger by responding suddenly. In the crisis situation like we're talking about for the context of these events, if you're looking out a window during a tornado, hurricane, and you see the roof coming off of a building, don't go outside. There's nothing you can do.

The roof is coming off the building. A hurricane, you've got floodwaters that are coming up, earthquake, tidal wave, if you're on the coast, there is absolutely nothing that you or I as a human being are going to do to stop that event. Keep yourself safe.

My heart is going out to anybody in that situation, the building that's flooding, the catastrophic event, the lives that are in danger. If you're not in danger, don't put yourself there. Be ready for when you can help in the same way that a person attempting to drown tires themselves out.

Then we can go get them. During the event, pay attention to your own signs. If it's an event like winter storm Yuri, when that winter storm happened, we're talking about days.

I was texting with people on site that were unable to leave the property to get back home to see their families. In some cases, when the cell service was down, they couldn't even talk to their husbands, wives, partners, kids, grandparents. One regional manager, her biggest gift that she gave to her teams out there in Texas was she went and bought a huge chili pot, took it to one of her properties with her turkey fryer, the turkey fryer, the big burner, put the chili pot, filled it up with cowboy coffee, and served it to her teams and then to her residents at that particular property.

That one little act. She was complaining the whole time that it had been three days since she had had a shower. She wasn't happy with her appearance or the way she looked, but listening to her later tell the stories of her residents and the appreciation her employees had, that's huge.

The only way she was able to do that was she did not put herself into danger. Pay attention to yourself, especially if a crisis is happening for a long period of time. Rest when you can, because once the crisis is over and the cleanup begins, you're going to need every bit of energy that you have, every bit of positive thought, because your residents are going to be looking to you.

When I graduated high school, I was on the Red Cross Disaster Action Team and we went through several trainings. One of the big things that they stressed quite a bit was that you are a rescuer. You don't need to be rescued yourself or prevented as much as possible.

It is okay to take a break. It is okay to take a nap.

[Paul Rhodes] It's okay to talk to your family.

[Paul Rhodes] Matter of fact, it is recommended that you talk with people who are around you in the same situation. No judgment. I'll even go so far as to say crass language is helpful in those circumstances because it allows you to vent emotions.

I'm reading a book right now by a psychologist and he says in that book, the best way for positive emotions to manifest or positive emotions to come is to have a plan and start working the plan. In other words, in the middle of the crisis, it's perfectly fine to adjust your plans, communicate it to your team whenever possible, and then begin working that plan safely, doing what you can in the middle of that crisis. And that's just it.

Do what you can. Follow your plans until you can't. And when you can't, make up new plans.

Start a recovery plan. Have a plan. Don't just do something because you think it needs to be done.

Do something that leads to something else. Do whatever the next thing is. Think back to City Slickers, the movie.

One thing.

[Paul Rhodes] But I won't tell you what that one thing is. Do it.

[Paul Rhodes] In the middle of a crisis situation, do yourself, your employer, and your co-workers a favor. Start a log. Everybody start a log whenever they can.

If it's on your cell phone, if it's on a pad of paper, however you can begin a log keeping track. Put as much detail in it as you can in the time. There will come a time once everything's over with that you put the log down and you go get work done.

But start the habit of journaling and taking notes. After the event, when you begin having to document things and work through things, every bit of those notes are going to come into play.

[Paul Rhodes] It's at that time that we begin to look to after the event. Because there is an after. The crisis will change.

[Paul Rhodes] Seasons change. The one most recent to us has, by and large, ended as a catastrophe. Yes, there are lingering things that go on, but the pandemic, it's over.

We're still recovering. And to be honest, I'm not sure we even know what damage was done during and because of the pandemic and the response to and all the plans and everything that happened. We can't know.

[Paul Rhodes] We couldn't know. But it did end.

[Paul Rhodes] Whatever crisis you were in the middle of, it ended. I mean, even Mike Tyson, one punch is a short period of time. So when it ends, some things to look at.

Fix it fatigue is what we came up with as a term. It's real. And what that means is about after the winter storm there in Texas happened, middle of February, about the end of May, we got tired of continually fixing things.

And as a team, nobody intended, nobody wanted to. But all of a sudden, the documentation, the phone calls, the follow up with vendors, the scheduling, the communication with residents on what was going to happen and when, it just fell off.

[Paul Rhodes] Leaders, be solution oriented.

[Paul Rhodes] Even at the beginning, when you're still in the thick of recovery, that's not the time to criticize what we could have, should have, would have done. We're still doing as a result. Later, when it's over, like right now today, and I'm recording this in September 2024, I can safely look back and now for the pandemic, say what I think we should have, could have, would have done.

That's the appropriate time to do it. Not 2021, 2022, when recovery from the pandemic is occurring. Just from an analogy standpoint, this is the type of thing we're talking about.

Leaders, a couple of months after a winter storm, after a major event, that's not time to criticize what actually occurred. And don't let whatever plans you started during the event slack off. If they need to adjust, if they need to get better, if tools need to happen, if new vendors need to come in, if different methodologies need to be done, fine, but continue to recover.

Once the event is officially done, matter of fact, one of those quarterly meetings, when you can reset those up as regular conversations to plan for the next event, maybe that's about time that we start looking back at what we could have, should have, would have done and use that as the information for those regular coordinated events going forward.

[Paul Rhodes] Afterwards, somehow keep in mind the need to honor the boots on the ground.

[Paul Rhodes] In other words, the people who went through it and did the lion's share of work on the ground, who got dirty and muddy and stayed up all night and got nasty and disgusting and just went through and lived it, come up with some way to honor that. Don't disregard it. Even if bad choices or decisions were made, remember, they were there.

I've seen it happen too many times and have talked with too many maintenance technicians that after a catastrophic thing that they went through, all the maintenance technician heard was criticisms of, we spent way too much money doing this whatever thing. Okay, the time to criticize that is before. You set up plans, you come up with ways and you set expectations and then you get punched in the mouth.

The plans changed. We need to be sure that we change things without dishonoring the people who went through the catastrophic crisis or whatever the event it was. Go ahead right after it and begin planning your autopsy.

Whenever I speak, I give a speech or a presentation from a stage. Right at the end of that, when I say thank you and have a great day, hopefully pause for applause, although that doesn't happen all the time, but right in that instant, I'm already planning my autopsy. I call an autopsy at a personal level.

I look at how the event died in the same way that all the TV shows, they have an autopsy to determine the cause of death. Well, for me, for that event, that speaking event, I want to figure out how it died. Was it a good death, a good ending, or a bad ending?

And what could I have done to prevent the bad ending? It's a little bit morbid, but it's the way my particular brain processes that particular event. Likewise, your community has just gone through a catastrophe.

Begin as soon as the catastrophe ends, at least in the back of your mind, to figure out what the autopsy is going to look like once the recovery from the event gets to a stable position. And then honor the boots on the ground and look at what happened and what can be done for preparation in the future, especially for areas along the coast to where you've had a hurricane. If the hurricane didn't move your community away from the coast, therefore, it's very possible you're going to get another hurricane.

So what lessons can we take from this one, once we're cleaned up and we're stabilized from it, that may prevent excess damage from the next one? Because we're at the coast, chances are there will be a next one.

[Paul Rhodes] Be aware of bottleneck knowledge.

[Paul Rhodes] We had a challenge at the property that I was helping with that we had one member of the staff that was extremely competent. They were very, very good at their job and it just by osmosis everything ended up funneling through and across their desk. That was great when that person was there.

However, as we already talked about, that person needed a break, needed rest. And whenever that person took a day off, it's like everything stopped because all the information went through that one desk. Be very, very aware of bottlenecking of information.

It's a good idea in today's day and age to use shared information, shared folders, shared things on your computer, shared files. The old school whiteboard does still have a place on our properties and maybe it's a messaging board.

[Paul Rhodes] But think through those things after the catastrophic event.

[Paul Rhodes] We're discussing really hazards of multiple types. One of the things to do in all phases is think through what we're with. Really, we can look at it as wind, rain, flood, fire, earthquakes.

The one big one that I'll share that came to me after the freeze, that particular property had one parking lot that was sunken in and that everything in the parking lot went to this main building and it was looking great. Well, the problem is, is while it was freezing, we had sprinklers that went in a building and Daniel, the maintenance supervisor, couldn't get to that building quickly to turn off the water. In other words, we had several thousand gallons of water coming from this building.

It ended up, the picture was spectacular, but it ended up looking like a frozen waterfall coming off of the center of the breezeway from the third floor down. Thousands of gallons of water that flooded into this parking lot and the problem was the drain grate for the parking lot got frozen over, meaning the parking lot filled up with water from this building. Now, how in the world could we have thought through that beforehand?

We didn't, and yet we had cars that had flood damage in the middle of a winter storm because the broken fire sprinkler pipe, it was a three-inch pipe that broke up in the attic there, full pressure water. Dumping thousands of gallons turned that parking lot into a lake. One of the things that we did at that property was during cold or adverse winter storms, we made sure that that drain grate was completely clear so that there was no debris sitting on top of it that would stop water from going through and speed up the freezing process.

That was one lesson we learned, an example of something that we covered in the autopsy once the property was stabilized. So, think through at your community what you're going to do with catastrophic things that might be outside the norm, something like trees falling. Does your property or does one of your employees at your property have access to a chainsaw?

If not, what vendor are you going to use? What about easement flooding the drain grate like what we're talking about, but if your property has a creek or an easement next door to it, what do you do in the event of that? What about massive loss of siding or windows being blown out?

What about the outdoor furniture around your swimming pool if you've got that? These are all items to figure out through your regular cadence of meetings that we end up having and going through.

[Paul Rhodes] One of the last couple of items I wanted to talk about today is that the use of a tracker is huge.

[Paul Rhodes] We used a product called Smartsheets and I know that there are other products similar to it, but we used it as a disaster tracker that we were able to, which basically it's like a huge mobile formatted Excel spreadsheet, and we were able to go into residence apartments, take pictures of progress, of repairs, of damage, keep it all in one centralized location. Everybody had access to it and you could look it up on your cell phone and it worked very, very well for us. There are other products out there, but I strongly recommend before a crisis, train your team on the use of whatever documentation methodology you're going to use.

If you have an inspection platform through your property management system, maybe that can work for this particular use, but think through that as a piece. Lastly, there's a couple of catastrophic items that are outside the norm that, if I'm honest, they keep me up at night from a planning ahead standpoint, and that is with the increased use of car batteries.

[Paul Rhodes] What do we do on our property if a car, an electric car, catches fire?

[Paul Rhodes] All these car manufacturers, they have these car batteries and looking online on the various interwebs video platforms, if one of these car fire catches batteries, you don't put it out with water. I honestly don't know what to do and what does that look like if our property has a parking garage? What do we do?

The other thing is, depending on where, what area of the country you're at, this is a continual growing or lessening concern, but it's a problem and that of a meth lab or people cooking or creating or manufacturing or making substances that not only is the substance dangerous, but what it gives off is dangerous. How do we deal with that? These are just things that keep me up at night.

Thank you for joining me today on this wonderfully enlightening and uplifting episode. I hope to be a little bit more lighthearted next episode, but thanks again for joining me and I'll see you somewhere. Thank you again to AppWork for sponsoring today's episode.

Imagine carrying a digital make ready board in your pocket with work order tracking and maintenance technician leaderboards designed to gamify the process and bring out your team's competitive best. AppWork offers solutions to headaches that have plagued the multifamily industry for decades. Visit www.appworkco.com today.