Deadly and destructive tornadoes struck the Mayfield Consumer Products candle factory in Mayfield, Kentucky and the Amazon warehouse in Edwardsville, Illinois on Friday. The natural disasters were wake-up calls for all companies and organizations about the steps they should consider taking— including the construction of safe rooms—to protect employees and customers from severe weather events.
Every minute counts in a crisis— especially one that is weather-related.
As reported by Business Insider, “The Amazon employees who were working at an Illinois warehouse when a deadly tornado tore through the facility had just minutes of warning before the roof of the building collapsed, the e-commerce giant said Monday.
“The company said that the Amazon delivery station in the city of Edwardsville received tornado warnings between 8:06 p.m. and 8:16 p.m. on Friday and site leaders directed workers inside to ‘immediately take shelter.’ Minutes later, at 8:27 p.m., the devastating tornado roared through the 1.1 million-square-foot facility, causing the roof to collapse, Amazon said.”
Legal Risks
Clifford Oliver is a recently retired former FEMA senior official and now the principal at Nanticoke Global Strategies. He noted that the candle factory, “had a refuge area that offered little protection. In areas with a high risk of tornadoes, not providing a safe refuge area could leave employers legally vulnerable under the duty of care doctrine, especially in large open span metal buildings that offer little if any safety. “
Oliver explained that, “Duty of care is a company's obligation to protect its employees from undue risks. Employers have a duty of care to their employees, meaning that they should take all steps within reason to promote the health, safety and well-being of their employees.
“According to OSHA, employers are responsible for the safety and health of their workers and for providing a safe and healthful workplace. Employers are required to protect workers from the anticipated hazards associated with severe weather events, like tornadoes,” he said.
Retailer Reality Check
While some businesses have installed underground shelters or safe rooms, others have not—or would rather not talk about it for whatever reason.
Marcie Rivera is a public relations specialist at Wegmans Food Markets, a regional supermarket chain. She said, “Our stores do not have underground storm shelters, instead our business continuity team, along with trained meteorologists, regularly track any storms that might impact our service areas and makes plans to ensure our customers and employees remain safe and our stores can continue operating.
“Our store personnel are also trained to handle different weather situations and they receive ongoing updates from the business continuity team about any impending storms.”
Rivera did not immediately return a request to comment on whether, after Friday’s tornadoes, the company was considering safe rooms or other underground shelters at their locations.
Walmart spokesperson Tyler Thomas would not comment on whether the company has safe rooms at any of their corporate offices or stores. Best Buy and Target did not immediately return requests for similar information.
Whether their companies have safe rooms or not, business leaders should ensure that there are systems and protocols in place so that in the event or a weather emergency — or any other crisis — all employees and customers can be notified immediately about the situation or pending danger.
Safe Rooms
Building Codes
In February 2000, FEMA’s Oliver and his team were awarded the FEMA Director’s Award for their work to promote tornado safe rooms. They worked with the private sector and university researchers to issue the nation’s first safe room design and to promote it use.
Since that time, working with the private sector, university wind engineering researchers, the American Society of Civil Engineers and the International Code Council, the saferoom design criteria has been incorporated into the nation’s model building codes, according to Oliver.
Guidance And Resources From FEMA
FEMA, which will have an important role in helping states recover from the tornadoes that swept across several states on Friday and Saturday also provides guidance, resources — and grants— for building safe rooms.
According to FEMA’s website, “A safe room is a hardened structure specifically designed to meet the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) criteria and provide near-absolute protection in extreme wind events, including tornadoes and hurricanes.
“Near-absolute protection means that, based on our current knowledge of tornadoes and hurricanes, the occupants of a safe room built in accordance with FEMA guidance will have a very high probability of being protected from injury or death.”
FEMA hosts the Safe Room Helpline and responds to inquiries concerning their safe room publications and guidance. Inquiries can be sent to Saferoom@fema.dhs.gov or by calling 866-927-2104.
Advice For Business Leaders
As I wrote in March, “From flooded roadways and buildings to downed power grids and computers, companies and organizations are subject to numerous crisis situations that can be created by Mother Nature.”
Whether caused by heavy rains, wildfires, hurricanes, tornadoes, or snowstorms, weather-related catastrophes cause billions of dollars of damage across the United States every year.
If they have not done so already, companies should account for weather-related emergencies in their crisis management plans.
If they don’t have those plans in place now, they should take steps to prepare and implement as soon as possible. Given recent extreme weather events and the continued impact of climate change, being “weather-ready” is more important for business leaders than ever before.
Jonathan Porter is AccuWeather’s chief meteorologist and senior vice president for weather content and forecast operations. He recommended that businesses take the following steps to prepare for weather-related emergencies.
- A detailed weather hazard risk assessment should be part of every organization’s business continuity and emergency preparedness reviews.
- Emergency weather plans should be tested at least once annually, evaluated for effectiveness, and improved as needed.
- While the activation of a plan during a real weather emergency will provide an organization with invaluable feedback, a discussion-based “tabletop exercise” is a safer and more predictable test of your plan.
- This type of exercise will enable you to identify health and safety gaps prior to the threat of a live event. A meteorologist can help your organization run this exercise, providing an accurate scenario based on their experience and expertise.
