Letter from the table: Waiting for the next storm

To the Resilience Council

On 3 December 2025, rain came into the ground-floor room where I work. By morning, the water had left a line along the wall and dampened equipment, stored materials and paperwork. Nothing about the damage was dramatic enough for a photograph to explain it on its own. It was the kind of loss that accumulates: a room that cannot be used, work postponed, costs that start before anyone has decided what the insurance policy will cover.

I am writing from Patras, where storm season is not an abstract risk. I do not want to describe my business in a way that identifies it. It is small, and the room matters to its day-to-day operation. I had insurance, but I did not have a spare pot of money large enough to repair the damage, keep operating and wait without difficulty.

On 4 December I photographed the damage, made a list of what had been affected and notified my insurer. I kept copies of receipts and wrote down the dates of calls and visits. I also checked municipal notices and Civil Protection information. Greece’s 112 emergency number is used for emergency communications and alerts; it is useful to know where to look for official information, but it is not a claims service or a source of business recovery funding. I learned to keep those needs separate: safety information first, evidence and insurance paperwork next, and cash for the days in between.

By 8 December, I had spent about €180 on immediate drying and cleaning. I paid another €420 for temporary equipment and materials. I postponed work that depended on the room and moved what I could elsewhere. That workaround cost time as well as money. I did not know how long the insurer’s assessment would take, and I could not treat the claim as cash already in the bank.

I want to be precise about the rules. I am not aware of a general Greek rule that guarantees every small business an insurance decision within 30 days. The policy terms and the circumstances of a claim matter. Nor should a proposed standard be mistaken

for an existing public entitlement. When a disaster is formally declared, any public support depends on the applicable decisions and scheme; a declaration alone does not mean that money has arrived in a business account. That gap between damage and a decision is exactly where a small operator can run out of room to manoeuvre.

While I waited, I changed how I run things. I moved essential records into a second location and made digital copies of documents I had previously kept only in the workroom. I raised stored items off the floor, listed the equipment I would need to keep working, and wrote down whom I would contact if the room became unusable. I separated an emergency amount from ordinary operating money, even though it is modest. I also started a simple contact sheet for suppliers and people who could help me find temporary space.

These measures are useful, but they are not a substitute for a decision and timely cash. A reserve cannot be created overnight, and the smallest businesses often have the least spare capacity to build one. A continuity plan written for a large organisation is not automatically usable by a person who is handling customers, records, repairs and a claim at the same time. Support has to be practical: short checklists, clear contacts and advice that can be used before the next warning, not only after a loss.

For those reasons, I support RS-001, the Reopen Standard. A decision on an insurance claim within 30 days would not promise that every claim is accepted; it would mean that the owner is not left indefinitely without a clear decision. Bridge funding within 10 days of a declared disaster could help cover the immediate period when repair bills and ordinary costs arrive before recovery funds. Continuity-planning support for micro businesses would help owners prepare without requiring them to become risk specialists.

The timing and conditions will matter. A standard should say what counts as a complete claim, explain what happens when an assessment needs more information, and provide a named route for an owner to ask about delays. Bridge support should be simple to access and transparent about whether it is a grant, advance or loan. It should also be coordinated with local authorities and existing public schemes, rather than leaving owners to guess which office or form applies. These are details the Council can test with members during consultation.

Notes and sources

1. The UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction reports that small and medium-sized enterprises bear about 75% of business disaster losses.

Sources

1. UNDRR: Supporting disaster risk reduction and resilience practices for small and medium-sized enterprises