A Hurricane Closed Our Office. What Do We Do With Google Business Profile?

Last updated: November 12, 2026 · By Kayce Sadler, Founder & CEO, Abode Marketing

If you’ll be closed less than a week, set Special hours; if it’s seven days or more, or you don’t know, mark the profile Temporarily closed, which Google says can rank after open businesses for broad searches. Either way, post an update telling people how to reach you, match your hours on Apple, Bing and your website, and switch back to “Open with main hours” the day you reopen.

Should I use Special hours or “Temporarily closed”?

It depends on how long the doors will be shut. Google’s own guidance draws the line at about a week. Its Special hours article says to use Special hours if you’ll be closed for up to six days in a row, and to mark the business Temporarily closed for seven or more days or when you don’t know how long the closure will last.

That distinction matters. Google’s temporary-closure help page says the profile will show “Temporarily closed” on Search and Maps, and that for broad queries, temporarily closed businesses can rank after open ones. So if you’re back in three days once power returns, Special hours protect your visibility. If the roof is gone and you’re out for a month, Temporarily closed is the honest choice, and honesty is what keeps a profile healthy long term.

One practical catch: Special hours only show up if your regular hours are set to “Open with main hours.” If someone set the profile to show no hours, the closure dates won’t appear.

What if the building is closed but we’re still working?

This is the most common situation after a Louisiana storm, and it’s the one owners get wrong. After Ida made landfall near Port Fourchon in August 2021 and Francine came ashore in Terrebonne Parish in September 2024, plenty of agencies, law firms and clinics lost their office for weeks while their people kept answering phones from kitchen tables.

Here’s my take: if clients can’t walk in, don’t show walk-in hours. But you don’t have to go dark either. Set Special hours for the short term, then use a Business Profile update to say exactly how to reach you. If the closure stretches past a week, mark it Temporarily closed and keep posting updates so searchers see you’re still working. A law office that’s taking calls and meeting clients at a borrowed conference room is not the same as a business that’s stopped operating, and your posts should make that clear.

If you’ll be at a different physical address for months, talk to whoever manages your listings before changing the address on the profile. That’s a bigger decision than hours, and it affects every directory that copies your information.

What should a storm update post say, and can it include a phone number?

Keep it short and practical: whether the office is open, how to reach you, and what to do right now. For an insurance agency, that means how to report a claim. For a law firm, how to reach the attorney handling an open matter. For a clinic, how to reschedule and where to go for urgent needs.

Watch the phone numbers. Google’s posts help page warns that posts with a phone number in the description might get rejected if the number can’t be verified as connected to your business. That means pasting a list of carrier claims hotlines into a post is risky. A cleaner approach is a storm page on your own website with the claims numbers, and a post with a “Learn more” button pointing to it. Google also archives posts older than six months unless you set a date range, so date your storm updates.

Should we keep asking clients for reviews right after a storm?

Pause the automated asks for a couple of weeks. Someone mopping out their living room doesn’t want a text asking them to rate their visit. Once things settle, the reviews that come in often mention how you showed up during the storm, and those are the reviews that persuade the next person.

Do keep replying to reviews that come in. Google’s local ranking guidance says replying shows you value feedback, and a calm reply to a frustrated post-storm review is read by far more people than the reviewer.

What about Apple Maps, Bing, ChatGPT and other listings?

Update them the same day you update Google. People find you through Apple Maps on iPhones, through Bing, and increasingly by asking ChatGPT, which pulls business information from several sources. Apple’s listing tool is now called Apple Business (it absorbed Apple Business Connect), so if you can’t find the old dashboard, that’s why. If your hours say open on one platform and closed on another, someone will drive to a boarded-up office and tell people about it.

Before, during and after the storm: a checklist

1. Before landfall: confirm you can log in to Google Business Profile, Apple Business and Bing Places from your phone, and that more than one person has owner or manager access.
2. Before landfall: build a storm page on your website with how to reach you, claims or intake instructions, and a date stamp, and leave it unpublished until needed.
3. Before landfall: set up call forwarding on your main line so the number listed everywhere keeps ringing somewhere, rather than swapping numbers on each listing.
4. During the closure: set Special hours for closures under a week; switch to Temporarily closed for seven days or more, or if the reopening date is unknown.
5. During the closure: publish a Business Profile update linking to the storm page, and match hours on Apple, Bing and your website.
6. During the closure: pause automated review requests, but keep answering reviews and Q&A.
7. After reopening: in the profile, go to Edit profile, then Hours, and choose “Open with main hours.” Remove any leftover Special hours.
8. After reopening: post a reopening update, add fresh photos of the repaired office, and restart review requests.

What we’d check first

1. Profile access. We’d confirm who actually owns your Google Business Profile, whether a former employee or old vendor is the only owner, and whether verification is current, because you can’t edit hours you can’t log in to.
2. Hours status and leftovers. We’d check that the profile isn’t still showing Temporarily closed or old Special hours from the last storm, which happens more often than you’d think.
3. Listing consistency. We’d compare your name, address, phone and hours across Google, Apple, Bing and the major directories to make sure they all tell the same story.
4. Your website’s storm path. Does the homepage tell a visitor how to reach you during a closure, and does it work on a phone with one bar of signal?
5. Review recency. A month of paused requests can leave you looking stale next to the three businesses in your map pack, so we’d check how quickly you rebuilt after the last storm.

Related reading: how the Google map pack works for Louisiana businesses, what to know about your ChatGPT business profile, and for agencies, storm season marketing.

If you’d like someone to look over your profile before the next storm rather than during it, our free visibility audit checks your Google Business Profile access and hours, listing consistency, reviews and website so you’re not scrambling when the power goes out.

More owner questions we’ve answered: How Long Does Local SEO Take to Work? An Honest Timeline · Should I Hire an In-House Marketer or Use a Marketing Agency? · Can My Business Rank in a City Where We Don’t Have an Office?

Frequently asked questions

Will marking my business temporarily closed hurt my rankings permanently?

There’s no sign it’s permanent. Google says temporarily closed profiles can rank after open ones for broad searches while the status is on, and an informal Whitespark test in 2024 saw rankings dip during a short closure and recover within days of reopening. Use it when it’s true and switch it off promptly.

Should I mark the profile permanently closed if we’re relocating after storm damage?

No. Permanently closed tells Google and searchers the business no longer exists. If you’re moving, the address change is handled differently, and Google’s reopening guidance specifically warns against reopening a profile that was closed as part of a location change.

Can someone else on my team update our hours if I’m evacuated?

Yes, if you’ve added them as an owner or manager on the profile ahead of time. Do this before hurricane season, because adding a manager requires access you may not have once you’ve evacuated.

How do I tell Google we’re open again?

In your Business Profile, choose Edit profile, then Hours, and select Open with main hours, then set the days and times you’re open. Also delete any Special hours you added for the storm so they don’t show conflicting information.

Should a law firm or clinic say anything different from an insurance agency in a storm post?

The format is the same, but the most urgent information differs. An agency should lead with how to report a claim, a law firm with how current clients reach their attorney, and a clinic with how to reschedule and where to go for urgent care. Keep each post free of anything confidential about specific clients or patients.

Sources

• Google Business Profile Help: Mark your business as temporarily closed — When to use Temporarily closed; can rank after open businesses for broad queries
• Google Business Profile Help: How to set Special hours — Special hours for up to six consecutive closed days; requires Open with main hours
• Google Business Profile Help: Mark your business as reopened — Reopening steps; don’t reopen a profile closed for a location change
• Google Business Profile Help: Create & manage posts on your Business Profile — Phone numbers in posts may be rejected; posts archived after six months
• Whitespark: Does Setting Your GBP as Temporarily Closed Impact Local SEO Rankings? — Informal single-business test showing a ranking dip and quick recovery (Oct 2024)
• National Hurricane Center: Hurricane Francine Discussion 14 — Francine landfall in Terrebonne Parish, Sept 11, 2024
• National Hurricane Center: Hurricane Ida Tropical Cyclone Update — Ida landfall near Port Fourchon, Aug 29, 2021